FUTURE OF ATOMIC ENERGY

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 278, 23 August 1945, Page 7

FUTURE OF ATOMIC ENERGY

British Committee Set Up

LONDON, August 21

The Prime Minister, Air Attlee, announced in the House of Commons that the Government was establishing an advisory committee under Sir John Anderson to deal with the far-i'eaching questions involved in the discovery of atomic energy and for the purpose of its development, whether for industrial or military purposes. The other members of the committee will be Sir Alexander Cadogan, Permanent Under-Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Field-Marshal Sir Alan Brooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, and also Sir James Chadwick, and other scientists.

Mr. Attlee said that tbe policy, <>t course, bad to be decided by tbe Government, but the comuiitle would advise. on the scientific progress, lhe possibilities, and the general background of the whole subject. Ten back-benchers of the House of Commons, mostly young men, , tabled a motion tonight, urging the setting up of an international centre to control atomic research. They argued that the atomic bomb had made the security proposals of I lie United Nations Charter inadequate.

WHAT HAPPENED AT HIROSHIMA

LONDON. August 22. A survey by air technicians gives some details to'f the damage to Hiroshima, target of the first atomic bomb. The bomb was dropped from the plane al 25,000 ft,. and two minutes later at 1-SOOft. it exploded. 'l’he explosive effect was circular, so that it was no use people taking shelter behind objects. Japanese reports say that ripples of heat wave wore visible for two seconds after the explosion. Three pieces of apparatus attached to the parachute of the bomb fell to the ground after the explosion. The Japanese newspaper "Mauiiehi” featured on its front page throe pictures of the atomic bomb destruction in Nagasaki. One showed that the centre of a otiec thriving city had b-'en converted into a vast devastation with nothing except rubble as far as lhe eye could see. Another photograph showed a scene 10 miles away from the (.•'■litre of the attack’ where farm houses were either crushed down or root’s rent asunder. The photographer said that Nagasaki was now a dead city. All the areas were razed ami only a few buildings left standing. Nagasaki was the targ< . of lhe second atomic bomb, which was said to be more powerful than lhe first.