NUCLEAR WEAPON TESTS (MEMORANDUM) (Hansard, 11 March 1957)

§ The Prime Minister

I sent the Chairman the following memorandumHer Majesty's Government announced in 1955 that in addition to their programme of manufacture of atomic bombs they had decided also to manufacture the hydrogen bomb. Sir Anthony Eden explained in a television broadcast in January. 1956, that Britain was making these thermo-nuclear weapons because they were "the most powerful deterrent to war that exists in the world at the present time. Sir Anthony Eden said then, and he repeated in his statement to the House on 7th June, that the holding of tests is an essential part of the process of providing ourselves with such weapons. The United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics have already held tests, and the Government have decided to carry out a limited number of them in 1957. In this same statement the then Prime Minister emphasised that the Government had given full weight to the anxiety that existed about the indefinite continuance of tests without control or limitation. While Her Majesty's Government would prefer to continue to discuss in the Disarmament Commission, within the context of a comprehensive disarmament agreement, methods of regulating and limiting nuclear test explosions, if progress cannot be made there they are prepared to discuss the matter separately with other powers concerned. This policy was explained by Sir Anthony Eden on July 12 and subsequently reaffirmed both by him and by the Foreign Secretary in the House of Commons. On 24th October the Foreign Secretary stated in the House of Commons that Her Majesty's Government were working on possible ways m which a limitation of nuclear tests might be achieved. This study of complex, technical questions is continuing. The banning of nuclear test explosions is quite a different problem from their limitation. A ban on tests does not mean that stockpiles of nuclear weapons necessarily cease to exist or to increase. As Sir Anthony Eden explained in the House of Commons on 19th July, it offers no safeguard against one country acquiring or maintaining an advantage over another. It is for this reason that, as the then Prime Minister emphasised on 23rd October in the House of Commons, the question of banning nuclear test explosions should, in Her Majesty's Government's view, be treated as an integral part of a comprehensive disarmament plan. On 24th October the Foreign Secretary, also in the House of Commons, said that he did not see how a total ban on these tests could be accepted unless there were adequate means of enforcing it. As regards the radiation dose to human beings arising from the testing of megaton weapons at the present rate, Sir Anthony Eden informed the House of Commons on 13th February that Her Majesty's Government and the United States Government shared the conviction that this dose was insignificant compared with that received from natural causes. Since then the report of the Committee set up by the Medical Research Council on "The Hazards to Man of Nuclear and Allied Radiations" has been published. On the 141W effects of test explosions of nuclear weapons this report states that "the genetic effects to be expected from present or future radioactive fall-out from bombs fired at the present rate and un the present proportion of the different kinds are insignificant". With regard to the effect on the individual, the maximum permissible concentration of radio-active strontium in bone at present tolerated for those who may have to deal with the substance is 1,000 units. The Committee considered that for the general population the amount should not exceed 100 units and that immediate consideration would be required if the level showed signs of rising greatly beyond 10 units. The report makes it clear that measurements so far made show that the highest level noted up to now in this country is about 1 unit. The Prime Minister's view is therefore that nuclear weapons are, as they have for some time been, the main deterrent to war and that tests are indispensable to the development of these weapons. Nevertheless the Prime Minister is prepared, inside or outside the United Nations Disarmament Commission, to discuss methods of regulating and limiting test explosions; Her Majesty's Government are working on possible ways in which such a limitation might be achieved. The Prime Minister's objective is the ultimate prohibition of the manufacture and use of nuclear weapons, as part of a comprehensive disarmament plan. Mr. Macmillan will continue his efforts to achieve this aim and will strive towards a situation in which nuclear 142W energy is developed solely for peaceful purposes.