Evening star., 1949-10-02
The Atomic Outlook

Last july, WQeu GIlc OAiGeo A>oo1oAAs
Atomic Energy Commission suspended us
three years Of deliberations because OF
having run into stone wall of Soviet nay
saving, the problem of international con-
troll was referred back to the Big Five
members of the Security Council, plus
Canada-the commissions original spon-
SorS.
This was done in the hope that the six
governments, through direct negotiations
among themselves, might be able to arrive
at a basis of agreement breaking the dead
lock and warranting resumption OF the
commissions labors. To that end, with
Russia's reported "atomic explosion"
making the problem seem more urgent
than ever, representatives OF the SIX are
now holding a series of secret discussions
at the U. MS Lake Success headquarters
Short of basic change in Soviet policy,
however, these discussions are likely
merely to harden the impaSse already
existing. On the one hand, backed by
the overwhelming majority of the United
Nations five of the six governments
China, France, Britain, Canada and the
United States-are committed to system
backed by nobody but itself and its hand
full of satellites, Russia Is committed to
a system that would make mockery OF
real control In the circumstances, assum-
ing that the Kremlin is not prepared to
reverse itself, continuing deadlock seems
about as certain as the coming of to-
morrow.
AS matters Standard as they have
stood for more than three years past
the non-Soviet world wants to establish
a powerful and unprecedented inter-
national authority to own or otherwise
operate and control all dangerous nuclear-
flssion plants and activities in every part
of the globe. This plan-which embraces
the essentials of the American plan-calls,
in addition, for a day-by-day inspection
system and punitive machinery unham-
pered by any country's veto. Under it-by
separate stages, as it went into effect
the prerogatives of national sovereignty
would be reduced, the production and use
of A-weapons would be outlawed, end the
United States would give up its present
advantages and place itself on an atomic
par with other nations.
BY way of contrast the Soviet plan
which cannot accurately be called plan
would provide for little more than an
outlawing treaty under which the United
Of A-weapons and destroy all those now
being stockpiled Beyond that, each
nation would have full control of its own
atomic activities, and there would be only
desultory off -and-on international inspec-
tion which the veto could block at any
time. y
Now that the Kremlin apparently is in
q position to make A-bombs of It's own,
some American commentators are begin
ming to suggest that maybe we ought to
compromise with this Russian plan. That
implies that the policing setup already
approved overwhelmingly by the United
Nations should be watered down quite
drastically. But how can that be done
without reducing it to something akin to
the ill-starred Kellogg-Briand antiwar
pact or the Geneva convention against
poison gas? How can it be done, in short,
without vitiating the whole idea OF effec-
tive world control?
The answer is that 1t cannot be done.
As an annihilating weapon, as the most
fearsome thing OF its kind in world history,
the atom is not something that can be
harnessed for peace by mere statement
of pious intent no matter how solemn If
1t is to be controlled, If there are to be
onfldence-inspiring guarantees against
its military use, then 1t must be policed as
thoroughly as the U. N. majority plan
envisions. The Soviet proposal, or some
hybrid version of it, simply cannot do the
job. It calls for halfway measures that
could be worse than no measures at all.
Accordingly, unless the Russians are
ready to co-operate-a development that
seems highly unlikely at the moment-the
current secret discussions at Lake Success
will fall apart. What we are confronted
with, in sum, is the probability that the
atom will remain uncontrolled for years
to come. That outlook cannot be wished
away. Barring sensational Soviet re-
versal, what 1t means is that we and our
friends abroad have got to pull together
as never before in history-politically eco
nomically and militarily. Nothing less
than orr common survival is invo1ved