a

see

r is of profound importance in

these tense and difficult days
to understand the situation in
which we are placed. We need
knowledge of facts, and all too

frequently knowledge of facts is

denied to us, sometimes deliber-
ately so,

i To be deprived of knowledge
ee walk dangerously in the

._ lm the Pacific Ocean, at Bikini
Mm the Marshall Islands, a hydro-
Sen bomb has been exploded. The

Shock and its aftermath were ter-
Tifie, e

: Calculations of its probable ef-
€ct were gravely at fault. The
Safety ring for shipping proved
© be no safety ring at all.

ep Japanese fishing vessel, with
crew of 23, 91 miles distant
Tom the dropped bomb, reeled
With the blast. White ash fell.

Irritation of the skin began,
ollowed by burn-like sores. Grave
Sickness supervened.

.-Men were removed on landing
in Japan to hospital; five of them
€veloped dangerous symptoms.
he ship, hopelessly radioactive,
With, it was first suspected, scant
Prospect of recovery, was burnt
€nd sunk in deep waters.

he The very fish of the catch were
adioactive. Merely to stand near
‘e dead fish was to court disaster
8nd probable death. Tokyo was
M panic,

An aeroplane, flying 30,000 feet
UP and 50 miles from the seat
Of explosion, flew at top speed to
€scape the developing mushroom
Cloud which mounted 17 miles
Into the sky.

1 On an unspecified island at
€ast 50 or 60 miles away and
Supposed to be in the safety zone,
> native islanders, together
With 17 Westerners, presumably

ae suffered grievous dam-
e,

The dropped bomb was 600
times more powerful than that
which destroyed Hiroshima, nine
years ago.

Equivalent to six million tons
of TNT, it was equal in devasta-
ting power, on a rough estimate,
to all the TNT bombs dropped in
the Second World War.

Cs)

After a silence of two, years,
an official report, recently pub-
lished, records the dropping of
the first hydrogen bomb.

It fell on an ocean island. The
island entirely disappeared, and
a cavern, capable of containing
the corpses of the entire human
rece of today, was carved in the
bed of the sea.

The bomb dropped on March 1
was vastly more devastating.
Scientists say they can produce
one ten times greater still.
Against such bombs defense is
useless.

The reputed costly shelter built
for the Queen at Windsor would
be little more effective than the
brown paper sheets under which
American children are bidden to
creep in an atom bomb raid.

For the air into which the
Queen must eventually emerge
would be heavily charged with
the fatal gamma Trays, even
though the bomb had dropped a
score of miles away.

Ships rendered radioactive five
years ago are radioactive still.

Fight such bombs dropped in a
ehain along England could oblit-
erate all life on this island.

Radio-guided missiles would
hardly be needed. A near miss

of 20 miles, if London was the’

target, would matter little: Lon-
don would be destroyed.
Falling into the sea, such a
bomb could destroy all fish in a
wide neighborhood and render
the English Channel unsafe for

By HEWLITT JOHNSON

shipping. Radioactive spray could
carry death far and wide.

How long the deadly gamma
rays last, no one knows; but even
now, nine vears after Hiroshima,
an American scientific commis-
sion is daily discovering ever new
facts of deadly eonsequence..

This thing has happened.

This bomb, with effects trans-
cending all calculation, has fal-
len.

A hydrogen bomb equivalent to
six million tons of TNT has been
discharged with terrifying effect.

Fishing craft, 91 miles distant,
have been struck with disaster.

The very fish have been ren-
dered deadly poisonous by mere
proximity.

An aeroplane 30,000 feet high
and 50 miles from the disaster
flew away in terror... .

Disaster akin to all this might
at any moment recoil against
England if through some hasty
move General Eisenhower—should
that new “American strategy” as
first put forth pass unchallenged
__were to launch an all-out atomic

attack and precipitate a third
world war.

Lord Hore-Belisha alone in par-
liament was shrewd enough to
see, and bold enough to denounce,
this perilous move, which would
condemn English boys to do the
fighting: while allowing 400,000
American boys to go home.

America could launch a hydro-
gen bomb without consultation.

Russia could retaliate with bombs
as vast or vaster.

For reports, according to Lon-
don’s new Conservative news-
paper, the Recorder, that Russia
is ahead of the U.S. in the hydro-
gen bomb race are disturbing top
government circles in Britain and
America.

Here is our peril.

But here, also, I would add, is
our hope. Here certainly is-a
challenge to all Christian people
and to lovers of peace everywhere.

For Russia seeks to ban the
bomb totally. During nine suc-
cessive years Russia has urged
the banning of all weapons of
mass destruction. °

She urged it before she pos-
sessed the atom bomb.

She urged it after such pos-
session.

She urged it before she pos-
sessed the hydrogen bomb.

She urges it still, and immedi-
ately after she announced her
achievement.

Russia makes no_ threats,
switches her wartime to peace-
time production, and bids us join
in competition, not of armaments,
but of goods for the home.

Setting her own invulnerability
against the vulnerability of the
West, she still urges peace and
abolition of all weapons of mass
destruction.

If ever, then, there was a duty
laid upon a Christian people it is
the duty of insisting that nego-
tiations be renewed’ at once, with
a view to a universal banning,
and that the masses are supplied
with the facts as:they arise.

Not a moment must be lost.
Millions of lives are at stake. It
is a challenge personally to each
and all. Do something—speak
out to your friends and act.

Act now. Act in conjunction
with vour neighbor. Act for your
children’s sake. Act for your
country’s sake. Act for humani-
ty’s sake.

Make your will for peace, for
abolition of all bombs and for
continued negotiations, known.

If the Christian Church fails ins
this great quest; if she fails to
seek peace and ensure it; if she
spurns, by refusing to demand
negotiations, the chance to join
Russia in abolishing all deadly
bombs, if she tolerates the blind-
ing of the people’s eyes by sup-
pressing the news of the situation
as it actually is, and tolerates
handing over our destiny at cru-
cial moments to others; then she
is false to Him she calls Master,
she sides with the warmongers.

Neutrality in this situation is
impossible.

This: note of alarm and this
message of realizable peace
should ring from every pulpit in
the land.

Canterbury, as that great home-
church of all English-speaking
peoples, is singularly fitted for
the start.

Let us in Canterbury think
peace, talk.peace, work for peace.

@ From a sermon given in Can-
terbury Cathedral on March
21 by Right Rev. Hewlett
Johnson, Dean of Canterbury.

PACIFIC TRIBUNE — APRIL 2, 1954 — PAGE 9

EDT