MAN’S OPPORTUNITY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 10, Issue 95, 17 February 1947, Page 6

MAN’S OPPORTUNITY

ATOMIC ENERGY Already the atomic bomb has begun a change in the ways of men, a change which not only presented great problems, but great opportunities, a chance to make the war against tyranny and aggression, in which the bomb was made, the last war of all. It presented also a chance to use the power of the nucleus to change not only the material forces with which we dealt, but the relations among nations and men themselves.

This contention was advanced by Dr. E. Marsden, Secretary of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, addressing the Wellington Rotary Club on “Atomic Energy and its Implications.” “Now we have the practical release of atomic energy, accomplished during the war and which represents a control over a vast new range of natural phenomenon,” Dr. Marsden said. “It is man’s first successful attempt to use for his own purposes the basic power of the whole universe, the power which supplies the energy of the sun itself —the conversion of matter into energy.

“Evidence was put forward in Washington discussions that biological and chemical warfare could, in future, be just as terrible as atomic bomb warfare. A body of opinion has grown that the major problem is to evolve a method of outlawing all warfare, with atomic bombs as a special case or side issue. This leads us to cdunt the cost of failure to agree over the question of atomic bomb and energy control. We have the example of Hiroshima, where the first bomb was used, and of Nagasaki. Responsible scientists have stated that bombs 100 times more powerful than these can be constructed. The cost of production of a bomb in future is estimated to be about £300,000. They could be fired in rocket projectiles from 2000 miles; they could be transferred in small pieces and assembled and set off in any city in peacetime. Little Defence “There is practically no defence against the bomb, except possibly a few minutes’ warning by radar. The only way is to have towns of not more' than, say, 10,000 inhabitants, at least five miles apart, so that the enemy’s efforts against them would be hardly worth while; to construct buildings as though for earthquake resistance; to have plenty of shelters of the Anderson type. Such measures might reduce the killing and destructive effect of the bombs probably to one-tenth. “In each country we will need to work together, statesman and scientist, farmer, industrialist and factory owner. I see some reason to hope in the future that we may have power at a fraction of a penny a unit. That means that we can move mountains, irrigate the land, operate on minerals of small concentration, and increase supplies of key industrial minerals, ' manufacture more and better plastics and produce better homes more cheaply. “But it is the implications in the scientific field which hold most promise to mankind,” Dr. Marsden added. “I hope New Zealand, because of her small size, will not be backward in these developments. In New Zealand at present our greatest problem is to create conditions which will stop the present distillation overseas, of our best talent, and even reverse the flow. The relatively large losses of our best youth, particularly the proportion of those more technically minded and lost in air warfare, make such action imperative. We can only be strong in international affairs as we are strong in knowledge and goodwill.”