HYDROGEN BOMB TESTS (Hansard, 6 March 1957)

§ 1. Mr. Swingler
asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what information is in the possession of his Department concerning the number of hydrogen bomb tests carried out in the world in the last two years and the dangers arising there-from; and what official information from foreign Governments he has concerning hydrogen bomb tests to be carried out during this year, in addition to the proposed British tests.

§ The Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (Mr. Selwyn Lloyd)
Official statements by the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics have acknowledged one such test series for each country. The number of weapons tested in each series has not been disclosed.
As regards the second part of the Question, I would refer the hon. Member to the replies given by the Prime Minister to the hon. Members for Stoke-on-Trent, Central (Dr. Stross) on 28th February, and Ashfield (Mr. Warbey) and Salford, East (Mr. Allaun) on 5th March.
The Answer to the third part of the Question is, None, Sir.

§ Mr. Swingler
Is it not known that an accumulation of these explosions will constitute a grave danger to mankind? Is it not also clear from the Foreign Secretary's Answer that we do not know how 322 much poison has been distributed in the atmosphere as a result of what has taken place in the last two years? Is it not crazy, therefore, that Her Majesty's Government should add to the potential danger? Ought we not to devote the whole of our energies to trying to stop such tests?

§ Mr. Lloyd
I certainly think that we should devote a great part of our energies to seeking nuclear disarmament in the proper context. As I have previously said, the tests proposed to be undertaken on behalf of Her Majesty's Government will add a negligible proportion to the danger. In any event, our information is that the existing danger as a result of the tests which have taken place to date and the danger resulting from a continuance of those tests at the same scale as previously are in themselves negligible also.

Mr. G. Wilson
Has the attention of my right hon. and learned Friend been drawn to a demonstration given to Members of both Houses of Parliament at Harwell last year, which seemed, through the medium of evaporated rain water, to indicate that the amount of radio-activity in the atmosphere is at present less than that of a luminous wrist watch?

§ 2. Mr. Swingler
asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what scientific advice he took before giving an assurance to the Japanese Government that British hydrogen bomb tests in the area of Christmas Island would in no way contaminate fish.

§ Mr. Selwyn Lloyd
Responsibility for these tests rests with my right hon. Friend the Minister of Supply, who was consulted on the terms of the Note addressed to the Japanese Ambassador and who is advised on these matters by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority.

§ Mr. Swingler
Can the right hon. and learned Gentleman say whether the experts who gave the advice had examined the Japanese evidence on the subject? Does he not know that there is considerable Japanese evidence that previous tests have caused widespread contamination to fish, with danger to the population in Japan? Can he say to what extent the information which is available in Japan has been studied by his scientific advisers?

§ Mr. Lloyd
Questions on the technical aspect of the matter should be addressed to my right hon. Friend the Minister of Supply. The hon. Gentleman should study the circumstances under which the tests are to take place. They should be a good deal safer than previous tests.

§ Mr. Younger
Can the right hon. and learned Gentleman tell us whether the scientific information which he has gives an assurance that fish which may be in the area which has been proclaimed dangerous and may subsequently be caught, either in the area after the ban has been lifted or elsewhere after the fish have moved, will be free from contamination? Is he able to give an assurance on that point?

§ Mr. Lloyd
I am told that in the circumstances envisaged for the tests there should be no contamination at all of fish.

§ 29. Mr. Harold Davies
asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs if he will make available in the Library English translations of documents circulated by Her Majesty's Government to the Japanese about our tests of the hydrogen bomb in the Pacific, and also any information that has been sent officially to British possessions in the Pacific on this problem.

§ Mr. Selwyn Lloyd
The Note of 7th January addressed to all foreign diplomatic missions in London was circulated in the OFFICIAL REPORT of 11th February. I am arranging for copies of my Note to the Japanese Ambassador of 12th February to be placed in the Library. I am informed that apart from copies of Sir Anthony Eden's statement in the House of 7th June, 1956, and of the notices to mariners and airmen about the boundaries of the danger area, the information sent to Governments of the British Pacific Territories has concerned details of the operation which for reasons of security cannot be disclosed. The information given in the notices to mariners and airmen is covered in the Note of 7th January already available.

§ Mr. Davies
Does the right hon. and learned Gentleman realise that, because of reasons of security, subjects of Britain in Pacific Islands are not aware of the exact spot where these tests are to take place—Sir William Penney is the only person who knows the exact spot—and 324 that that in itself is a danger to the support of those Pacific peoples for the British Government?

§ Mr. Lloyd
The most meticulous precautions will be taken to see that the safety of no British subject, or any other person, is in danger.

§ 30. Mr. Harold Davies
asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs what instructions he has given to our Embassy in Japan to explain why we are using the Pacific Ocean for hydrogen bomb tests; and what compensation will be paid to Pacific fishermen for loss of fishing grounds.

§ Mr. Selwyn Lloyd
As regards the first part of the Question, no special instructions have been given. The Japanese Government and people are aware of the care we have taken to choose a test site well away from inhabited areas.
As regards the second part of the Question, I have nothing to add to what I told the House on 11th February.

§ Mr. Davies
Does not the right hon. and learned Gentleman realise that it is rather cynical for the so-called free and Christian world to be using an island called Christmas Island to explode these bombs, and that people living in the Pacific Ocean have already protested to the United Nations and to our Foreign Office about contamination caused in the past? Is the Minister still maintaining, against all evidence, that there will be no contamination? If so, why not explode the bomb in the Atlantic Ocean?

§ Mr. Lloyd
There are no permanent inhabitants on Christmas Island, and the site chosen for the test is some 4,000 miles from Japan.

§ 31. Mr. Harold Davies
asked the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, in view of the fact that 40 per cent. of the people of Japan, or 70 per cent. of the electorate, have protested against the British hydrogen bomb tests, why the official bulletin "British Opinion", published by the British Embassy at Tokio on 6th February, contained a statement that the protests made by the Japanese against these tests were helping the Communist cause.

§ Mr. Selwyn Lloyd
I assume that the figures to which the hon. Member refers 325 are based on the number of signatures which the Japan Council for the Prohibition of Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs claims to have collected in 1955 to a resolution calling for a ban on atomic and hydrogen bombs in general and not to any protest specifically directed against British tests. The hon. Member has greatly oversimplified a passage in the bulletin which I consider to be fair comment. It does not suggest that the official Japanese protests are Communist inspired.

§ Mr. Davies
Does the right hon. and learned Gentleman realise that some hon. Members are getting letters from well-informed and friendly Japanese who are trying to bring British opinion to realise that in the struggle between Communism and the free world the continuation of these tests by the free world is losing the friendship of Asia? Will the right hon. and learned Gentleman assure the House that there is no risk at all, because I am of the opinion that he cannot do that?

§ Mr. Lloyd
I only wish there had been comparable agitation against the Soviet tests——

§ Mr. Davies
There has been.

§ Mr. Lloyd
—which, according to my information, there has not been. I wish that that agitation had been given the same publicity in this House.