HAKNESSING THE ATOM

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 98, 16 August 1945, Page 5

HAKNESSING THE ATOM

WILL WAR BECOME IMPOSSIBLE POTENT POWER FOR PEACE As the world stood in stupified wonder and awe a hundred years ago at ''', the harnessing of steam and so today humanity pauses in the. '■ milling maelstrom of international complexities to consider the new--est conquest of science ? the. harnessing of the power of the atom !an& the wresting of its secrets from the great unknown. This; latest cod- / quest into the realms of the national immense is possibly destined to realise the most potent and versatile force yet to come within the ken» , ■ of mankind's conception. So little is the average mind capable of absorbing the formula force > that it is unwise to venture past the state- ; ment that the process is closely allied to the exploitation of the hid- ' den forces of matter and relates broadly to the whole of creation., Atomic study is still reserved for'the favourable intellects of, a few.' ! To mankind at large it remains a closed book. Its discovery "can howv ■ ever serve to humble man's innate for the. undiscovered might of which the atom is capable towers above any other discovery previ-* :.' ously made by man. It is to our unending shame that its discovery was only made possible by the spur of war, rather than the requisites of abiding peace but it is for us now to redeem ourselves by making*. >. possible the same intensive research for the manipulation of this newt, and apparently insatiable, genei, in the interests of world harmony Through its media war can be made impossible; by its abuse man* kind could destroy himself. As the agent and servant of man atomict ' force can play its own vital part in hastening the coming of Utopia - if its new masters permit it.