Earl Russell and the H-bomb [1957]

THIS PAPER REITERATES and explains Russell’s frequently voiced opposition to any straightforward prohibition of nuclear weapons (see Papers 28: xxiv-xxvi). On this occasion his sceptical viewpoint was not intended for publication but disclosed in private correspondence with Sheila Jones, secretary of the National Council for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapons Tests. Jones had presumably provided an introduction to the Japanese visitor Konishi who, according to Russell’s letter of 31 May 1957, had been “disappointed” and confused by the position adopted by Russell when they had met at Plas Penrhyn earlier the same day. On 3 June Russell’s letter to Jones was read at a committee meeting of the NCANWT, where the editor of Peace News, Hugh Brock, expressed an interest in quoting from it in print. The necessary permission was sought and obtained by the NCANWT’S Ianthe Carswell, and Russell’s letter was accordingly published under the title used here (with omissions and some editorial interpolation) in Peace News, no. 1,097 (5 July 1957): 7(B&RC57.19a).