"Are We Ready?"

The biggest news from Lake Success last week was that Russia seemed to accept the principles of international "control" and "inspection" in troop inventories and disarmament, including abolition of the atomic bomb and other possible weapons of mass destruction. But when the Russian proposals were closely examined, Britain's handsome, able Sir Hartley Shawcross, who had been the British prosecutor at Nuernberg, branded them as snares & delusions.

Reality & Shadow. Russia's proposal for troop inventories everywhere outside of national frontiers had embarrassed Britain considerably. Britain was afraid, not of disclosing strength, but of disclosing weakness in troubled areas. As a Whitehall spokesman sadly put it, "People will realize that we've been holding a lot of these places with little more than a smile and a bar of chocolate for the children. Local populations may be emboldened to twist the lion's tail." Therefore Britain suggested that the inventories include troops at home as well as abroad, and that they be verified by "on-the-spot" inspectors. The U.S. backed her up on home troops, but not on the inspectors. Reason: the U.S. wants no hastily devised inspection system to serve as a bad model for really important inspection problems later on.

If you are going to inventory home troops, said Russia's Vyacheslav Molotov, why not inventory their weapons as well--including atomic and jet-propelled weapons? Breathing heavily through his nose, Britain's P. J. Noel-Baker retorted: "He asks if we are ready to turn over information on our atomic and jet-propelled weapons. Are we ready? Of course we are not, no more than Mr. Molotov is ready. We will give that information as part of a combined agreement of collective security and general disarmament. We will do it then, when we know the whole thing is a reality, not a shadow."

Chicken & Egg. Vishinsky and U.S. Delegate Connally got into an argument over which came first: the chicken of disarmament or the egg of collective security. Vishinsky favored the chicken, Connally the egg. With a swift change to another tried & true figure of speech, Vishinsky asserted that the atomic bomb was a sword of Damocles hanging by a thin thread, and demanded that it be abolished as a first contribution to disarmament;

Sir Hartley Shawcross wanted to know if the day-to-day activities of the disarmament enforcement agencies proposed by Russia would still be subject to the veto. Of course they would, said Vishinsky in effect. Then, said Sir Hartley, "let us not foist this humbug on the world."

With his tongue almost visibly in his cheek, Vishinsky said: "Adopt our formula, and there can be no disagreement. ... I hope the other delegations can agree that there can be no improvement to our proposal."

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