Abstract
DR. JOSEPH NEEDHAM, of the British Council Cultural and Scientific Office, Chungking, invited representative Chinese bodies to make statements on the use and control of atomic energy. The Chinese Physical Society believes that the United Nations Organisation should appoint a commission on atomic energy to ensure that its applications are developed solely towards peaceful objectives ; the proposed commission should organise world-wide inspection, and also an international laboratory, which would be a centre of research on fundamental problems, open to qualified men of science of all nations. The Science Society of China, which is comparable with the British Association in function, deplores the use of atomic energy for weapons of war, and makes the point that, if the benefits of the use of atomic energy are to be extended to all peoples, it is unjustifiable for any nation or group of nations to keep a monopoly on such information. It believes that all knowledge relating to atomic energy should be under the control of the Security Council of the United Nations Organisation. The Natural Science Society of China and the Chinese Association of Scientific Workers point out that the control of atomic energy by individual nations imposes conditions on scientific workers involved which are inimical to freedom of research, expression and communication, and that national direction of such research would hinder development. It is therefore suggested that an international conference to discuss the problem, under the auspices of the Security Council of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, should be summoned as soon as possible ; and that a group of men of science of many nations should take part in the control of the application of atomic energy.
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Control of Atomic Energy: Chinese Views. Nature 157, 221 (1946). https://doi.org/10.1038/157221c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/157221c0