§ 2.48 p.m.
§ EARL HOWEMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the first Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government if they are able to say whether the radio-active content of the atmosphere in Western Europe and other countries is likely to be affected by the threatened French nuclear explosions in the Sahara Desert and, if so, within what radius and to what extent.]
THE LORD PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL AND SECRETARY OF STATE FOR COMMONWEALTH RELATIONS (THE EARL OF HOME)My Lords, in the absence of my noble friend Lord Hailsham I will answer this Question. I am advised that it has been stated on behalf of the French Government to the Political Committee of the United Nations General Assembly that the French nuclear test in the Sahara Desert will have an explosive power less than that of 100,000 tons of conventional high explosive. For a nuclear bomb, this is very small, amounting to less than three-thousandths of the power released by all nuclear bomb explosions during 1958 alone, and to less than one-thousandth of the explosive power of all 692 nuclear tests so far held. I am advised that the effect of such an explosion on the radio-active content of the atmosphere, whether of Western Europe or of other countries, will be very small indeed.
LORD WINDLESHAMMy Lords, would not the noble Earl agree that the use of the word "threatened" in the Question of the noble Earl is unfortunate and that the words "proposed nuclear explosion" might, in the circumstances, have been happier words to use?
THE EARL OF HOMEMy Lords, I have no responsibility for words used by noble Lords when they put down a Question.