By SVYATOSLAV KOZLOV

UNITED NATIONS (APN) —
Several days have passed since
the start of the general debate at
~ the Special Session of the UN
General Assembly on Disarma-
ment. It is now possible to com-
pare the views and attitudes of
certain countries at this interna-
tional forum.

As was to be expected, the ab-
solute majority of speakers are
sincerely anxious to promote the
cause of disarmament. Naturally
enough, there is great interest in
what contribution the great pow-
ers will make to this matter —
after all, it is on them that the
success of the session itself and
the implementation of its recom-
mendations mostly depend.

Many participants in the ses-
sion and its observers think that
the speech of U.S. vice-president
Mondale struck a strange note in
this context. There was the im-
pression that, apart from several
purely rhetorical passages and
doubtful cold: war-style asser-
tions, Mondale had nothing to say
on the substance of the problem
under discussion. This evasive
stand of the USA most reveal-
ingly. showed its inconsistency
with the aims of the session, when
contrasted with the speech of
Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs
Gromyko.

USSR Wants Success
The USSR came to the session
with the intention of assisting its
success, said the Soviet Minister.
This means that it is necessary to

Gromyko called for a complete’
halt to the further growth of arma-
ments and armed forces.

go over from good wishes and-

vague recommendations to
specific steps in the key area of
world politics which disarmament
is.

In keeping with this conviction
the USSR outlined a comprehen-
sive, realistic program of action
based on the peace initiatives put

Among specific and urgent
measures in accomplishing this
task priority must be given to nuc-
lear disarmament, and a start
made by terminating the man-
ufacture of all types of nuclear
weapons and by gradually reduc-
ing and then destroying stock-
piles. There can be no doubt that
all the nuclear powers must par-
ticipate in the negotiations on this
question. The enlistment of some
non-nuclear states would also be
useful.

World Treaty

The positive result of such
negotiations depends on the
strengthening of internaticnal
legal guarantees of security. This
condition could be best met by a
world treaty on the non-use of
force in international relations,
the draft of which was earlier
proposed by the Soviet Union and
approved by a decision of the UN
General Assembly.

To stop the nuclear arms race,
the USSR considers it necessary
to enhance the measures prevent-
ing the proliferation of nuclear
weapons.

There was an important pledge
in Gromyko’s statement that the
Soviet Union will never use nuc-
lear weapons against the states
which repudiate the production or
acquisition of such weapons and
do not have them on their territ-
ory. In other words, the USSR
gives a definite guarantee in ex-
change for the renunciation of
nuclear weapons.

It is absolutely clear that this
position is logically connected
with the Soviet Union’s support
for the idea of establishing
nuclear-free zones in various reg-
ions of the world, and the new
Soviet proposal on the non-
deployment of nuclear weapons
on the territories of states where
they are not stationed at present.

USSR-USA SALT Talks

One can easily see in the prop-
osals of the USSR a definite sys-
tem, a consistent effort to create
evermore secure barriers to the
proliferation of the nuclear
menace.

The talks going on between the
USSR, the USA and Britain on a
complete and universal ban on all
nuclear weapon tests
everywhere, naturally, lie in the
category of nuclear disarmament
tasks. The special session can
give these and other tasks now
underway a new impetus facilitat-
ing their early completion. These
are the Soviet-American SALT
talks, the regional 19-nation talks
in Vienna on the reduction of
armed forces and armaments in
Central Europe, the talks on the
lessening of the military presence

Alongside the urgent tasks of
nuclear disarmament, the USSR
believes, measures like an end to
the production of and a ban on all
the other types and systems of
weapons of mass destruction are
no less important and also brook
no delay. The threat of appear-
ance of such new weapons is quite
real in our age of the scientific and
technological revolution. The
task is to block all possible new
channels in the arms race in time.

But we should remember that
the process of the perfection of
conventional arms also leads to
the appearance of weapons of
such a destructive power that is
commensurable to some extent
with the effects of an application
of nuclear weapons. The USSR is
of the opinion that the creation of
such new types of weapons
should be ended.

Lower Arms Levels

The Soviet Union proposes one
more new measure for contain-
ing and limiting the threat of war.
It is the renunciation of the ex-
pansion of armies and of enlarge-
ment of conventional arsenals by
the permanent members of the
UN Security Council and coun-
tries associated with them under }
military agreements. There is a |
definite logic in advancing of.
gradual disarmament as a practi-
cal task. That is, lowering the
existing arms levels so that the
initial ‘‘frozen’’ level can become
the starting point for further re-
ductions.

The USSR has submitted a
document ‘‘On Practical Ways
Leading to the Termination of the

We all have a life to live |

Arms Race’’ for consideration by
the special session.

The Soviet Union sees the way
to safeguard its own security and
strengthen international peace
through the curbing of the arms
race and through disarmament
agreements taking equal account
of the interests of all parties.

The USSR believes that favor-
able conditions have arrived forg
the solution of the disarmament |

BR

problem. This opportunity should 3
not be missed, as there is no

reasonable alternative to detente
and disarmament. iS

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| No alternative to detente

ter’s deferment of its production because of the
outcry of world public opinion, is no more than a
gimmick unless deferment is changed to aboli-
tion. He knows this is the radiation horror the
U.S. and NATO generals want to use to plunge
us over the barrier from conventional to nuclear

At the United Nations Special Assembly on
Disarmament, where the majority (but not all)
were seeking a way out of the arms race, and at
the sabre-rattling North Atlantic Treaty Organi-
zation’s summit meeting, where the majority
hungered for more lethal kill-power (and ex-

forward by Soviet leader Leonid
Brezhnev.

In suggesting this program, the
Soviet Union believes that in the
first place it is necessary to raise
the question of putting a complete
halt to the further quantitative and
qualitative growth of the arma-
ments and armed forces of states
possessing a large military poten-
tial.

Powers Have Special Task

This, of course, does not re-
lease other states from the neces-
sity to take an active part in this
common cause of importance to
all. However, the militarily most
powerful states should take the
first tangible steps so as to in-
fluence the process of disarma-
ment substantially and provide an
example for all the rest.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE—June 9, 1978—Page 6

in the Indian Ocean and others.

Mondale gave no assurances to
the assembly that the U.S. would
make serious efforts to halt the
arms race.

cuses for using it), the chance arose for Canada’s
spokesmen to voice this country’s true interests.

Prime Minister Trudeau, it must be said,
chose to be seen as the level-headed challenge to
the hawks, and he should certainly be held to
some of his declarations at the NATO swash-
buckle. Trudeau evidently reads the mood of a
large number of Canadians correctly. And it is
Canadian votes that elect, not those of NATO
chief Luns and his military coterie.

When Trudeau says at NATO, ‘‘In the long
run, there is no real alternative to pursuing de-
tente with the Soviet Union, a process which we
must continue to promote,”’ he has our ear. He
should get every opportunity and encourage-
ment to prove he means it. He should also de-
monstrate it to Pentagon and NATO generals.

On the other hand he said-nothing useful on
the neutron weapon, refusing to oppose its pro-
duction and deployment. He knows that Car-

warfare.

For Trudeau to make a pretense that the West
is waiting for some ‘“‘response”’ from the USSR,
is to ignore the comprehensive Soviet proposals
on disarmament made as recently as the UN
Disarmament Session. And to suggest smother-
ing weapons like the neutron before they are
developed is ignoring today’s reality.

To look at another side, there is no indication
that Canada will oppose, or in any way counter, —
the latest NATO-dictated increase in arms
spending.

Meanwhile, the growing power of public opin-
ion on the question of peace or radiation war is a
warning to parliamentarians not only to reject
increased military spending, but to slash our al-
ready bloated military budget in favor of civilian
social needs, and to begin a planned withdrawal
from the NATO war pact and from its enormous
propaganda cloud.