The Great Dilemma

New Zealand Listener, Volume 34, Issue 870, 6 April 1956, Page 7

The Great Dilemma

S' this issue of The Listener went to press representatives of five nations were meeting in London to discuss the "regulation, limitation and balanced reduction of all armed forces and all armaments," and the "conclusion of an international convention on the reduction of armaments, and the prohibition of atomic, hydrogen and other weapons of mass destruction." The subject is not, of course, a new one. The problem of disarmament has been on international agendas for several decades. Statesmen, political thinkers, delegates have put forward hundreds of plans, proposals and resolutions. Thousands of speeches have been made and many millions of words have been spoken. Today more than ever before the matter has become one of life and death-for with the hydrogen bomb, as Sir Winston Churchill said in one of his last speeches as Prime Minister, the entire foundation of human affairs has been revolutionised and mankind placed in a situation "both measureless and laden with doom." What were the factors that the members of the United Nations sub-commit-

tee on Disarmament faced as they met recently? Listeners will hear them discussed in The Great Dilemma, a documentary programme on the problem of disarmament to be..heard from. YA

stations and 4YZ at 9.30 a.m. on Sunday, April 15. The programme.calls to the witness stand spokesmen for four basic points of view and ends with the suggestion of one of them that the

answer lies somewhere within four interacting equations: "Fear leads to "arma‘ments’ and "Armaments add to fear’; "Disarmament needs trust" and "Disarmament enriches trust." aide