Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1954-06-26
Making Peace Impossible

The breakup of the private" f1ve-power
disarmament talks in London has come as no
surprise They have ended in keeping with the
predictions made when they began on May 10.
That is to say, they have foundered futilely on
the familiar old rocks of Soviet nay-saying.
As directed by the United Nations General
Assembly, the talks have been held by a U. N.
Disarmament Commission subcommittee made
up of representatives of France, Canada Brit
ain, the United States and Russia Their pur-
pose has been to determine whether or not
discussions behind closed doors might help to
break the yearS-long deadlock over the issue
of reducing and regulating armed forces and
arms of every kind, with particular emphasis on
controlling and outlawing atomic weapons and
the hydrogen bomb. What they have demon
strated, as expected is that the Kren1lin is as
adamantly opposed as ever to the idea of nego-
tiating sincerely-either in the open or in
secret-for an honest and workable agreement.
The Western powers, backed by the over
whelming majority of the U. NJ, have sub
mitted good and promising proposals for such
an agreement. AS set forth in the London talks,
their plan-besides providing for an immediate
ban on nuclear weapons except in defense
against aggression-would begin with solemn,
treaty establishing an international Disarma-
ment and Atomic Development Authority. Given
the treaty and the new agency, there would
then follow a series of actionS-to be carried
out on a stage-by-stage basis, with special in
spection and verification procedures to guard
against violations and evasionS-that would
accomplish the following: OD Equitable reduc-
ton and regulation of conventional arms and
armed forces; (2) measures to effectuate some
thing like President Eisenhower's atoms-for
peace program and g. creation of an effective,
strictly policed world control system under
which-as soon as that system became an OPP
Grating reality-atomic- hydrogen ornaments
and other mass-destruction instruments would
be completely outlawed in terms Of bothUlSe and
productions
In response to all this, however, the Soviet
delegation in London has offered nothing but
what the Kremln has been insisting upon for
the past eight years-namely an immediate
and unconditional ban on A and H weapons and
a general disarmament formula that would
leave the free world ENORMOUSLY teutweighed in
the balance of armed power viS1aAvis the Com
munists' vast Eurasian empire. Like the Stain
regime, in short, the Malenkov regime continues
to demand that our country and its allies diveSt
themselves forthwith Of their present atomic
hydrogen protection against Red aggression
divest themselves of it before there is even the
slightest measure Of agreement on control
system effective enough to prevent Russia from
secretly producing nuclear ornaments or using
them against us in sudden, surprise attack.
The best comment on this brazen and to-
tally Unacceptable Soviet position has come
from Morehead Patterson our American dele
gate to the London talks. AS he has put it, it is
position that can be summed up in six words,
Ban the bomb, trust the Russians" Quite
obviously, the West could disarm on such a
basis only at the risk of committing suicide
and as long as the Kremlin keeps on demand
ing that sort of agreement a decent world
peace will remain impossible.