Evening star., 1952-02-19
Britain in the Atomic Race

There is nothing particularly surprising
about the announcement that some time this
year, at site in Australia, the United Kingdom
will test its first atomic weapon. AS far as
know-how goes, there has never been any doubt
that Britain is at least as well equipped as our
own country and Russia to manufacture nuclear
armaments, and there have been strong indica-.
tions for several months past that it has been
engaged in doing so.
Thus, early last year, spokesmen for the
Labor government-then still in power-plainlya
limited that the United Kingdom was working
on the production of an atomic bomb The hint,
which has since been followed by others, was
made in answer to some partisan politicking by
Winston Churchill who at that time, while out
OF Office attacked Prime Minister Attlee for
having failed to supply the nation with single
A-weapon in spite of the sovereign responsibility
OF every country not to neglect the development
OF its arms.
Actually, Of course, it was under Mr.. Church.
Ills wartime leadership that the British, even
though ahead of us in the field of nuclear
science, decided against undertaking to manu-
facture atomic weapons on their own soil. What
they chose to do, instead, was to pool their
brains and other resources with ours and Cam
adas in the great and unprecedented CO.
operative enterprise whose actual producing
OPcIdClOuS-WIllCH leu 10 lue 11TSC A-pOMD III
history-were located here in America
. This arrangement was agreed upon for such
reasons as QD that raw materials, manpower,
etc., were too scarce to be scattered among
manufacturing plants in the three Allied coun-
tries; t2) that it was imperative to. avoid
wasteful duplication of effort; (3) that the
United States, In terms of things like machinery
and construction capacity, was best equipped
to do the producing job; and "a that Britain,
with its relatively small area and It's proximity
to the enemy in Europe was too vulnerable q
site for huge atomic facilities.
These iderations-particularly because
the program of mutual Western defense has
imposed very heavy demands on Britains man
power and economic resources-seem quite as
pertinent today as in the Second World War.
Nevertheless, the United Kingdom has entered
the atomic race on its own, indicating that it
has felt impelled to do so because our Congress
in the law enacted in 1946-has placed such
rigid restrictions on Anglo American nuclear CO.
operation that British safety demands the
manufacture of British A-weapons
The restrictions-w repeatedly have led
Britain to decline an American invitation to
stage its first atomic test in Nevada instead of
Australia-are in fact severe. But they are
severe for reason. In the past, as demonstrated
by the notorious Fuchs case, secrets of the
greatest Importance have leaked out to Russia
through the British security system, and as
long as doubt exists about the effectiveness of
that system, there will be reluctance to ease
the bans in our present law.
Yet, as the biggest Allies in the Atlantic
Pact we and the British certainly should strive
for greater cooperation. To that end in return
for freer exchange of information and ironclad
American guarantees that it will never want
for A-weapons in case of need, Britain, besides
Tightening up its safeguards against espionage,
might be willing to refrain from the costly bus-
ness Of producing A-weapons on large scale.
The idea Of such an agreement has been
broached before Although many Americans
may oppose it on the ground that the strictest
kind of secrecy is still needed, and although the
British may regard 1t as being irreconcilable
with their sovereign responsibility to look to
their arms, 1t has enough common sense in it
to merit careful study in our two countries.