DECISIVE

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24902, 15 June 1946, Page 6

DECISIVE

[By WHIM WHAM.] Atomic power could be a blessing in one respect. It would be a very strong deterrent to war. And if war did come, it would have the further advantage of decisive results being obtained in a very short time. It would be noisy, disruptive, and destructive but it would be. over quickly, and that would be a good thing, sociologically and economically.—Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park, interviewed in Christchurch. It’s very much more convenient. When you come to think of It, To be'blown up on an atomic Scale Than blown up Bit by Bit: Just think how Wars can be shortened By the Application of Brains, Ana the Use of Uranium Two-Three-Five With suitable Aeroplanes The Wiping out of a City In the pre-Atomic Way Is a long and a painful Process, And it can’t be said to pay; It leaves so many Survivors In unnecessary Distress, With embarrassing claims on the Victors For cleaning up the Mess, It leaves so Many to suffer Who might have been happily dead, With no constitutional Problems And no Demands to be fed. But here is the great Clean Sweeper That leaves no Scraps behind. Demolishing and abolishing Whole Segments of Mankind; It would All be over so quickly; ‘What a Good Thing that would be— Assuming, that is, that it isn’t All over and up with me; Oh I’m all for Atomic Fission, But I wonder—suppose it applied, That War will be swift and decisive, But What will it decide?