NEW MOVE TO BAN H-BOMB TESTS

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28258, 22 April 1957, Page 11

NEW MOVE TO BAN H-BOMB TESTS

Joint Soviet-Japanese Appeal To West

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 11 p.m.) MOSCOW, April 20. The Soviet Communist Party First Secretary, Mr Khrushchev, today proposed that Japan join Russia in appealing to Britain and the United States to suspend hydrogen and atomic bomb tests, according to an American Associated Press report from Moscow.

Mr Khrushchev made the proposal directly to the Japanese Ambassador to Moscow, Mr Sueniitsu Kadowaki, in response to a suggestion by Mr Kadowaki that Russia should suspend nuclear tests unilaterally.

Mr Khrushchev said that if Russia was behind the Western Powers in nuclear preparedness it would be interpreted as a sign of weakness.

Mr Kadowaki was quoted by an Embassy source as saying: “The whole world knows the Soviet Union s strength. If the Soviet Union halts nuclear tests, it will be taken as a sign of strength, not weakness. “Once started, the entire world would support the Soviet position,” he was quoted as saying. The exchange took place during a two-hour interview which Mr Kadowaki had with Mr Khrushchev. A Japanese Embassy source quoted Mr Khrushchev as saying: “The Soviet Union is ready to suspend her tests of nuclear weapons, but the Western Powers do not agree and the Soviet Union cannot suspend them without a firm agreement with the West.” Mr Kadowaki pointed out that Japan had already appealed to Britain and the United States to halt their tests. Mr Khrushchev was reported to have replied: “That’s fine. Now Japan should join the Soviet Union in appealing to the United States and Britain to stop these tests.” Radioactive rain continued falling in Japan today after fallout from the Soviet nuclear tests during the last two weeks contaminated the upper air over the Japanese islands. The Meteorological Observatory in Sendai, northern Japan, recorded 17,500 counts a minute per litre of rain water. Kanazawa, western Japan, recorded 11,704 counts, while Tokyo recorded 1800. Generally, the intensity of radiation in rain water declined considerably from the very high counts recorded on Thursday and Friday. The Meteorological Board said, however, that today’s observations showed there was still a large amount of radioactive dust hovering over Japan. Plans of British Quaker

The British Quaker who planned to join the “suicide fleet” of protest against Britain’s nuclear tests near Christmas Island was disappointed to learn today that the Japanese Government would grant him a visa only if he did not risk his life. The man, 63-year-old Mr Harold Steele, when told that the Japanese Foreign Ministry was prepared to issue a visa on condition that he did not join the “protest fleet,” said: “I could not in all honesty and honour accept such a condition. A visa in such circumstances would be useless.” Mr Steele has already booked an air passage to Fiji for May 4. He said he would try to enter the nuclear test area from there. He would not take his wife, as planned earlier.

CANBERRAS LEAVE FOR TEST BASE

(Rec. 7 p.m.) ADELAIDE, Apr. 20. A detachment of Canberra jet bombers of 76 Squadron, Royal Air Force, left Edinburgh Field near Adelaide, this week for Christmas Island, Britain’s Pacific H-bomb base. , The squadron’s commanding officer, Wing Commander R. C. Cobb, said last night that he would not specify the time of departure of the aircraft but said they were “in the air.” The Canberras would take part in the British hydrogen bomb tests, he said. x A Brisbane report says that early yesterday two Canberra jet bombers left Amberley Royal Australian Air Force base under a cloak of secrecy, and flew out over the Pacific. An R.A.A.F. spokesman refused to discuss the aircraft beyond saying that they were not Australian Canberras. A shuttle service of R.A.F. Hastings transports has been

working through Amberley to Christmas Island. Even senior Royal Australian Air Force officers say they know little of the purpose of the flights.