Japan Asks U.S. To Halt Atom Tests

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28265, 1 May 1957, Page 13

Japan Asks U.S. To Halt Atom Tests

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 10 p.m.) WASHINGTON, April 29. Mr Takezo Shimoda, the Japanese Charge d’Affaires, today presented a Note asking the United States to suspend a new series of nuclear tests due to be held at Nevada next month, authoritative sources said.

Mr Shimoda presented the Note during a call on Mr Howard Jones, Deputy Assistant-Secretary of State for Far Eastern Affairs, at the State Department.

United States officials declined to state Mr Jones’s response, and said they did not know what action the State Department would take.

An authoritative source said that the Note called for the suspension of nuclear weapon tests in general, as well as for suspending the Nevada tests in particular. It based Japan’s plea on humanitarian grounds, the source said. The Japanese Government recently stated that it was opposed to nuclear tests even within the territory of the testing country, because radioactive fallout might be harmful to other nations.. In Tokyo, Dr. Masatoshi Matsushita said that Japan should file a request through the United Nations General Assembly that the International Court express an opinion on whether nuclear weapon tests held in international waters violated the principle of freedom of the open seas. ’ Dr. Matsushita, who was sent to ; Britain to protest against the ’ Christmas Island tests by the Japanese Prime Minister (Mr Nobusuke Kishi), returned today.