OPEN SKIES FOR PEACE
Sir,-May I be permitted two comments on "Open’* Skies for Peace" (Listener, February 15)? First, the Eisenhower plan for aerial inspection is claimed to eradicate fear of: a nation being suddenly attacked. Many scientists, however, have carefully explained that the space required for enough modern explosives to blow the world to. pieces can be measured in inches. This was again stressed by Sir Winston Churchill in the Commons when he tapped the mail despatch box on his desk and remarked that it could compass enough modern explosive power to destroy the whole -human race. Nuclear weapons of such small size could be stored underground in the desert or in underwater caves with no possibility of
discovery. It is obvious that aerial photography could easily be defeated. Secondly, nuclear weapons with their consequent radio-activity introduce an entirely new factor into the urgent need for disarmament, When the Hiroshima bomb was dropped, many expectant mothers got off without contamination, but through the mysteries of radioactivity, every one of the children they were carrying was still-born. Thus for the first time in history we execute the next generation as guilty before ever they are born. Surely this must be the final atrocity and ultimate blasphemy against God. What is needed today is an act of courage and faith by individuals and a nation to categorically renounce war and war preparations. If disarmament is the morally right step, then it should be taken regardless of the actions of other countries. The whole world awaits this moral lead in courage and faith, which it seems is not apparent in either Russia or America. It is an opportunity which may never come again, but I believe that Great Britain and the Commonwealth can yet rise to prove this true moral greatness in accepting the challenge of unilateral disarmament, thereby taking a major step toward extending the Kingdom of God on earth.
REX
BENNETT
(Manurewa).
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19570308.2.19.3
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 917, 8 March 1957, Page 11
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322OPEN SKIES FOR PEACE New Zealand Listener, Volume 36, Issue 917, 8 March 1957, Page 11
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