Arms Control: 1958

Report Outline
New Moves in Disarmament Struggle
Postwar Negotiations on Arms Control
Technical Advances and Arms Control

New Moves in Disarmament Struggle

Step-by-Step Approach to Control of Arms

A new step-by-step approach to international arms control is currently being tried out at Geneva on two levels. The new method was initiated last summer when nuclear experts met in the Swiss city to explore the technical problems involved in enforcing a ban on testing of atomic and hydrogen weapons. Enforcement having been found a practical possibility, the question was advanced to a second stage with the opening, Oct. 31, of a political conference of the nuclear powers to negotiate an actual ban on test explosions. Now the step-by-step approach is being extended to another aspect of arms control by the convening, Nov. 10, of a first-stage meeting of experts to look into the technicalities of protection against surprise attack.

The first experts' conference, which met from July 1 to Aug. 21, was attended by scientists from eight countries, but only the United States, Great Britain, and the Soviet Union are participating in the present political parley. The new experts' conference, expected to be in session for four or five weeks, has geographical representation from ten countries.

Breaking up the complex problem of arms control into segments, and subjecting the separate segments to technical, in advance of political, consideration, grew out of the deadlock that paralyzed the United Nations Disarmament Commission when the Soviet Union started to boycott that body a year ago. Although the General Assembly bowed to Soviet wishes and voted, Nov. 4, to put all 81 members of the United Nations on the Disarmament Commission, little hope is held that such a large group can make substantial progress toward international arms limitation. What hope there is for agreement on controls, general or particular, still centers mainly on the procedures now being followed at Geneva.