OPPOSITION TO BOMB TESTS

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28270, 7 May 1957, Page 17

OPPOSITION TO BOMB TESTS

-“Supreme Effort” Needed (N.Z. Press Association Copyright) BIRMINGHAM, May 5. The Leader 01 the Opposition (Mr Hugh Gaitskell) said today that Britain should make a supreme effort to get international agreement to stop H-bomb tests. He also proposed that Britain seek the establishment of control points to detect nuclear explosions. “To postpone our tests for a period while negotiations take place is surely not too great a sacrifice,” he said. ‘‘lf the Foreign Secretary thinks that the agitation against H-bomb tests is just the result of Communist propaganda, he is totally out of touch with public opinion. ‘‘There is very real and deep anxiety about the effect of these tests. It is based not on Communist propaganda, but on scientific reports. “Unless we can get agreement to stop the tests or at least to limit them severely, the prospect is grim,” Mr Gaitskell said. Mr Lloyd Accused

In London, the Precentor of St. Paul’s Cathedral (Canon L. J. Collins) today accused the Foreign Secretary (Mr Selwyn Lloyd) of cheating. In a sermon in the cathedral, Canon Collins said that Mr Lloyd had told a 8.8. C. radio audience that a good deal of agitation against the Christmas Island tests really came from Communist sources which wanted to prevent Britain’s becoming a third nuclear Power. Canon Collins said: “Such words are nothing less than a cheat.

“But not only did Mr Selwyn Lloyd, by those words, take refuge in an unworthy and a scandalous means of refuting the critics of the Government’s hydrogen bomb policy. He also exposed the nakedness of one of the main reasons for sifeh a policy—the desire to make Great Britain a third nuclear Power.

“Whatever may be said about use of the sword in defence of human rights, the making and testing of hydrogen bombs would seem to be so clearly a departure from Christian standards of behaviour as to merit the firm and outspoken condemnation of all Church people.”