THE GOLDEN RULE

Four men planning to sail
into Pacific H-test zone

By PHILLIP M. CONNELLY
LOS ANGELES

Shipwrights set the main
mast on a spanking new
ketch at the San Pedro Boat
Works in the Outer Harbor
last week. They were labor-
ing against time in readying
the 30-foot sailing craft. for
a maiden voyage destin to
arrest the conscience of the
world. :

On Sunday, February 9,
after a prayer vigil on the
dock, four men will board the
little vessel, | christened The
Golden Rule. They will turn
up its 24-hp auxiliary motor
and sail out of the harbor into
the vastness of the Pacific.

‘Their destination: a huge
area of open sea, beyond the

Marshall Islands, designated
by the U.S. Defense Depart-
ment and the Atomic Energy

. Commission “dangerous to all

ships, aircraft and personnel
entering it.”

There The Golden Rule and
its resolute crew will attempt
to remain while the U.S. con-
ducts it latest scheduled series
of nuclear test explosions
during April.

Their purpose: “To make an
effort to halt, if possible,
what we believe to be the
monstrous delinquency of our
government in continuing ac-
tions which threaten the well
being of all men.”

First announcement of the
dramatic protest against
further H-bomb tests in the

Pacific came out of Philadel-
phia headquarters of ‘“Non-
Violent Action Against Nu-
clear Weapons.” This is the
committee which sponsored
last summer’s attempted
march into the Nevada Test-
ing Grounds, near Las Vegas.

Concerning those who will
make the cruise into the Pa-
cific, the committee release
said:

“They «recognize these ex-
plosions will be stopped only
if this is the will of the Am-
erican people. They hope, by
their presence and, if neces-
sary, by their suffering to
speak to the reason and con-
science of their fellow Am-
ericans?. 36.2

Two of the four persons
who will sail with The Golden

US. claims H-bomb planes ‘safe
fail to satisfy British scientists

LONDON

The officially leaked news that a plane carrying an A-bomb had crashed in the United
States without exploding — designed to allay British and Canadian fears — is giving scant

relief to British scientists.

First, how far can the authenticity of this report be relied upon. U.S. authorities have
released only the most meagre details — not even the date or place of the crash.

Second, scientists point out
that, even without an explo-
sion, there must have been a
spread of deadly materials
from the bomb, such as pluton-
ium. The American statement
Says nothing about that.

Dr. E. H. S. Burhop, the
atomic physicist, said:

“Both A- and H-bombs con-
tain plutonium. If one of these
bombs vaporized as the result
of fire on crashing, the
plutonium would spread.

“The question is: how far
- would it spread? It would de-
pend on how high the vapor
rises. Any mention of these
questions has been neatly
avoided in the American state-
ment.”

Dr. Burhop added that the
effects of such a spread could
produce “very serious effects”
if ingested into the body and
the. bone. It was “nasty stuff”
to get into contact with.

But it was impossible to tell
whether the area affected by
guch a crash would be a few

“yards or a few miles. “If it
happened in the middle of
London it would certainly be
very serious,” he added.

Earlier this month a state-
ment made by a group of atom
scientists in the New Sei®ntist
complained that all informa-
tion concerning the effects of
an A- or H-bomber crash had

not been given to the public.

The group’s statement obvi-
ously inspired the story of
the crashed atom plane, which
first appeared in the New York
Times, accompanied by the
sneer that this was the “ans-
wer to the British, who have
been .worried that their island
might evaporate if one of the
air forces’ bombers should
crash while carrying an atom
bomb.”

Official confirmation by a
U.S. Defense Department
spokesman followed the New
York Times story. His ex-
planation as to why the story
had not been released before
was that it had been con-
sidered a “routine” crash at
the time.

In Britain, only last month,
two planes from Wethersfield,
Essex, collided and crashed
after taking off.

Either of them could have
been armed with nuclear
weapons. It is known that A-
bombs are stored both .at. the
Bentwaters base in~- Suffolk
and at Wethersfield. Squad-
rons of the latest U.S. Super-
Sabre jet fighter-bombers are
stationed there.

The British scientists wrote
in the New Scientist:

“The assurance that a
crashed bomber carrying a
hydrogen bomb would not re-

sult in thermo-nuclear explo-
sion should not be taken to
mean that such a crash would
be of minor importance.

"I~ could be a great, if
localized, disaster whose ef-

fects would be felt for many
years.” -

Rule have been designated.
They are Albert Smith Big-
elow, 51, painter and archi-
tect, of Cos Cob, Conn., Navy
lieutenant commander in
World War II; and William
R. Huntington, 50, Long Is-
land, N.Y., architect and for-
mer commissioner in Europe
for the American Friends
Service Committee (Quakers).

- Two other crew members
are to be named. One or both
may be from California, Co-
ordinating plans locally for
the historic voyage is Walter
Raitt of Pasadena, official of
the Friends organization.

The Golden Rule will pro-
ceed from Los Angeles har-
bor to Hawaii and then to
the Marshall Islands, planning
to enter the danger area by
April 1. Said the sponsoring
committee.

“Tt will attempt to remain
there in an effort to witness
to all men that it is important
that the race to extinction be

The U.S. hopes to
launch a “seeing” sat-
tellite by the spring
of 1959. To further the
scientific advance?
No, to spy on the So-
viet Union.

The military recon-
naissance: sateilite
would. have a recov-
erable capsule that.
presumably -would be
shot back to earth.

The plan is to equip
the capsule with pho- .
tographic or infra-red
equipment that couid
providep ictures or
data of military value,
indicating industrial
concentrations or mis-
site launching sites in
the: USSR.

Satellite for

Spying

Model of United
States earth satellite

January 24, 1958 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAG

stopped. There will be no de
ception. All action will —

taken openly in the Gandhia!
spirit of a non-violent attemP
to effect needed changes
speaking to the best in all
men.”

Although giving no details
the committee said “a paralle
project to carry the same
moral and politicial mess@ge
to the people and authorities
of Russia is being organize®

The time has come whe?
action of this kind is impet®
tive, the release said. “The!
are some things which ev@?
democratic governments |
which those who stand 1%
the dignity and survival °
man must oppose.”

Leaders of the U.S, are folk
lowing policies that W}
“greatly intensify the ari —
race — they are not helping
to form an American will
lead the world away from th®
senseless folly.”

Noting that “many say thet®

would be no problem were
not for the Russians,” th®
committee said its membe!®
“share in large part this pe
ception of the evils of Sovi®.
totalitarianism but We
deny the assumption that milk
tary power is the esseentia!
realistic means of dealing wit
this problem.” :
’ Further, the committe?
argued, while many in th®
U.S. do not yet fully reject
reliance on military powely
growing numbers “do see wi”
dom in America’s stopping
these tests, as a first step 1?
a major effort to reverse th®
arms race.” ‘ <

“No vital risk is involveé
No inspection is necessary:
said the release. “The Soviet
Union has said it is willing 1
stop tests Many. Am
ericans know these thing®
But as a nation, confused byat
the complexity of the prob”
lem,- we stand benumbed
morally . desensitized by
years of propaganda.and feat
... We hope our act will-s@.
to others:. ‘Speak now!’ ”

i
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