‘Britain takes first

step to

Bq JOHN GRITTEN
LONDON

A pale violet light flashing
every ten seconds at Harwell
is the sign of the first .step
in a four-stage scientific revo-
lution that could ultimately
solve humanity’s fuel prob-
lems forever — by getting
power from the oceans.

It first flashed on August
30 last year. But British scien-
tists want 100 percent proof
before committing themselves
to claiming success and this
is not yet abolutely certain.

Fifty British and Common-
wealth scientists and engineers

at the British Atomic Energy °

Authority at Harwell are ex-
ploring the possibility of the
harnessing, of power from the
fusion (or joining) of atomic
nuclei. This is the’ source of
heat -of stars such as our
own sun and the power of the
H-bomb.

And Zeta, Harwell’s biggest
and newest baby, has already
produced temperatures higher
than the measured surface
temperature of any star.

In the words of Britain's
atomic energy director, Sir
John Cockcroft they have
“achieved their first objec-
tives of about five million

degrees centigrade for times

of a few thousands of a sec-
ond and these have been re-
peated at intervals of ten
seconds, many thousands of
times.

“t consider that to have
achieved temperatures which
are a third of those at the
centre of the sun (15 million
degrees) and to hold them for
So Jong: “15a remarkable
scientific achievement, and I
have no doubt that within a
year Zeta, with some modifi-
cations, will far surpass the
sun’s central temperature.”

The operation of present
British atomic power stations
like Calder Hall is based on
the fission’ (or splitting) of
atoms. The aim of the Harwell
experiments is the construc-
tion of a power station oper-
ating on the fusion of atoms
— more precisely, on the
fusion of deuterium, other-
wise known as heavy .hydro-
gen.

If this is eventually achiev-
ed the oceans of the world
will provide a virtually inex-
haustible source of fuel. The
world will no longer be
haunted by the exhaustion of
supplies of coal or oil.

How long will it take?
Again Sir John is cautious—
“99 years plus,” is his. esti-
mate. When he was asked at
Harwell the other day: “Will
it be within your lifetime?”
the 61-year-old scientist re-
plied: ‘It depends on how long
I live!”

The’ release of: information

H-power

about the Zeta experiments is
simultaneous with that on
similar experiments in the
U.S. given out by Lewis
Strauss, chairman of the U.S.
Atomic Energy Commission.

Both in his statement. and
answering questions of cor-
respondents, Strauss showed
that he had been riled by
newspaper allusions to Am-
erican suppresson of the news
in October, when the British
are said to have wanted to
release it, in-order to give
American: scientists time to
“catch up.”

A reporter asked Strauss
whether, if the U.S. had been
ahead in research, there would
have been the same compulsion
for a simultaneous announce-
ment of progress by both
countries.

“There has| been no compul-
sion,” snapped Strauss. “I take
exception to that question.”

Dr. Willard F. Libby, an-
other member of the U.S.
Commission said that the
British and U.S. experiments
were so “neck and neck that
there is no difference.”

Both had produced high
temperatures and a large
amount of neutrons. “But on
neither side of the Atlantic
is there certainly that these
are thermonuclear neutrons. If
we knew that, then it would
be a major break-through. We
don’t know that.”

But Strauss agreed he had

g‘no hesitancy in saying” that
the British experiments had

produced more results for the .

money spent that the Ameri-
can experiments.

Sir John Cockcroft has stated
that Zeta and its allied appa-
ratus has cost, very approxi-
mately $900,000.

The work on Zeta has been,
done in the General Physics
Division, Harwell, which is
under the direction of D. W.
Fry.

The actual group responsible
for the work ig being led by
a 40-year-old Australian, Dr.
Peter Thonemann. He was
awarded a doctorate of phi-
losophy at Oxford for his
work on gas discharge -phe-
nomena and their applications
to nuclear science.

Since 1949, Dr. Thonemann
has directed the work of a
group investigating the prop-
erties of highly ionized gases,
a subject about which little is
known and to which he has
made valuable contributions.

There is also a Canadian
in the team, Dr. W. B.

Thomson, who studied at Tor-

onto University under the
Polish physicist Professor Leo-
pold Infeld who is now Pro-
fessor of Physics at Warsaw
University.

% Full restoration of democratic rights and freeing of poli

tical prisoners were promis?

made by the seven-man junta which took power in Venezuela this week following over

throw of General Perez Jiminez, known as “The Man of, Standard Oil,” after 10 years
dictatorship. Among political prisoners is JeSus Faria
lan Communist party, jailed for the past eight years

de

, general secretaryy of the venewe
for his leadership of an oil worké

strike for higher wages.’ Picture shows civilians battling Jiminez’ hated political police

Catholic paper + Soviets seek peace

asks return of
Polish treasures

WARSAW

“Ig it really the opinion of
the Quebec government that a
two percent minority of
Polish Canadians is so repre-
sentative that their stubborn-
ess prevails over the obvious
justice of the return of the
treasures?”

This is the question posed
by the! Polish Catholic weekly,
Tygednik Powszechny, here in
commenting on a poll con-
ducted by the Polish Canadian
Congress which showed that
only two percent of its mem-
bers are opposed to return-
ing to Poland the art treas-
ures now held in Canada.

(The treasures were sent to
Canada for safekeeping dur-

ing the Second World War
and the Canadian govern-
ment has refused to return
them.)

“Today,”
Powszechny,
diplomatic interventions, the
appeals and letters of Polish
social and scholastic organiza-
tions, after the solving of the
legal and other possible
aspects, the problem enters
the sphere of inexplicable
issues.”

writes Tygednik

“softer all the -

zone in Middle Eas!

By SAM RUSSELL

|

ose?

Last week, on the eve of the Bagdad Pact meetiné
Soviet government made an important new proposal fot"
suring peace in the Middle East. The U.S. government prom |
rejected the proposal as “propaganda” as it has done with”
similar Soviet proposals for relaxing the cold war in rey

months.

It said: “The Middle East
can and should become a zone
of peace where there would
not and should not be nuclear
or rocket weapons, a zone of
good neighborly relations and
friendly cooperation between
states. :

The Soviet government
charged that the Bagdad Pact
powers were trying to pre-
vent the Middle East from be-
coming a zone of peace, and
were using the Ankara session
for this purpose.

(Britain, Turkey, Iran, Iraq
and Pakistan are the pact
members, while the U.S. be-
longs to three of its commit-
tees but is not formally a full
member. )

The Soviet statement de-

clared that U.S. Secretary of.

State John Foster Dulles was
attending the Ankara session
not only in his official capa-
city “but also as the confi-
dential agent of the U.S. oil
monopolies and particularly as
the agent of the oil interests
of the Rockefeller empire.”

It is said that the wt
reason for Dulles’ atten! a
is that the U.S. oil king? |
alarmed by the gro
movement in the Middle f

for a revision of thé

slaving agreements imPt
on their countries by the
oil monopolists.

-«pyidently Dulles nas %
given the task of defe?..
to the last cent the fabil
profits which are bel
squeezed out of the 4
East countries by the oil é
opolists,’ said the su
statement.
It pointed out, howe)
that the position in the,
dle East had radically ch@™
in recent times with thé
ergence of a number Of 4
independent countries, i"
would not allow thems
to be held up by any col?
ist doctrines or blocs.
These countries were Ff
determined that the
East must and will peco™
zone free from nuclea!
rocket weapons. ‘

January 31, 1958 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE—PAY