Pugwashites Meet at Kitzbuhel

...Albert Schweitzer's call for the renunciation of the destructive use of the atom has had a great influence in Western Europe...

...At the Lac Beauport conference, Sir Charles Darwin raised a problem of world-wide significance: How can we help increase food production in the desperate race against the pressure of rapidly increasing population...

...HANS THIRRING, a Socialist member of the Austrian Parliament, was a colleague of Albert Einstein's...

...instead, they believe what their official press and radio tell them...

...A politically balanced organization of scientists, on the other hand, might gain influence in areas beyond its primary field of competence...

...In 1946 he published Die Geschichte der Atombombe, which contained calculations that proved a hydrogen bomb could be constructed...

...It will have the largest number of participants and the widest scope...

...Since 1921—except for a period during the war when he was dismissed by the Nazis—he has been the head of Vienna University's Institute for Theoretical Physics...

...At the same time, it is important that an adequate and representative number of Western scientists participate...

...To transform the loose group of Pugwashites into a permanent organization may be a first long step in this direction...

...Unfortunately, the vast majority of Russians do not believe this...

...For, if the conference is suspected of being dominated by the Communists, it will fail to have any influence in the West...

...Soviet intelligence is acute enough to recognize that Russell's views are not shared by influential circles in Washington...

...The conferees meet in closed sessions for six days...

...energy sources and population problems...

...Eaton has made himself unpopular in some quarters by his ill-chosen remarks about the FBI, while Bertrand Russell is being called a defeatist because he said he would rather surrender to Communism than risk an all-out nuclear war...

...it could be solved by the cooperative effort of scientists, demographers and social-welfare experts...

...We may expect that equally significant, if better conceived, recommendations could be made by a well-organized body of informed, courageous and cooperative scientists...

...This is not easy, because many prominent Western scientists hesitate to attend, lest they compromise themselves by discussions with the Communists...

...the promotion of international...

...The New Leader has published a full discussion of this last issue between Lord Russell and Sidney Hook, to which I should like to add one comment...

...education for the age of science...

...The first of these convened at Eaton's home in Pugwash, Nova Scotia in July 1957 and discussed the dangers arising from the nuclear-weapons race and the possibilities of disarmament and control of atomic weapons...

...Nuclear physics, aerodynamics and rocketry are going to change warfare more radically than the invention of gunpowder...

...and, in many branches of economic or military planning, the help and advice of scientists are urgently needed...

...Science has already changed the world in which we live...

...cooperation and trust among nations...

...Nor do I share Sidney Hook's apprehension that Russell's attitude may encourage the Soviet bloc to wage war...

...they should feel it their duty to descend from the ivory tower of pure research and to raise their voices, warning their fellow men against the destructive use of scientific discoveries...

...But this, according to the familiar dogma, will come as the natural result of the "inherent contradictions of capitalism.' Any attempt to accelerate the process by all-out war against an enemy whose bombers are permanently air-borne would be rejected by the realists in the Kremlin...

...Indeed, it has too often happened in the past that non-Communist movements with purely humanitarian aims were infiltrated and then taken over by Communists because the non-Communist members pulled out...

...and, if present trends continue, within the next two generations the number of human beings who will starve to death will be infinitely greater than those affected by atomic fallout...

...This is due to Eaton's role in sponsoring two similar meetings of scientists from East and West...

...Individual scientists have already spoken up with far-reaching effect It was Albert Einstein's advice to President Roosevelt that paved the way to the development of atomic energy...

...The Pugwash meetings have been called "leftist" or "fellow traveling" by some journalists in an effort to deter non-Communist scientists from participating...

...The agenda contains three main headings: the dangers of war and nuclear tests...

...While the good will and ethical motives of both Alberts are not subject to question, one must recognize that their actions have been criticized in many quarters for different and often conflicting reasons...

...It might try to enlighten their leaders and direct their activities toward the more radical aim of relaxing tensions and avoiding any kind of war...

...Scientists have seen politicians and militarists use the fruits of scientific research to lead mankind close to the rim of the abyss...

...a world security system...

...the consequences of the arms race...

...Whether the Kitzbuhel conference suffers such a fate will depend largely on whether the participants find ways and platforms to make themselves heard...

...then there will be two days of public meetings in Vienna, at which President Adolf Scharf of Austria, Lord Bertrand Russell and American industrialist Cyrus Eaton will make public addresses...

...There is no doubt that every Marxist-Leninist dreams of Communist world domination...

...What is necessary is to demonstrate to the Russian people—not their rulers, who know it well enough—that Western nuclear weapons are weapons of defense, not aggression...

...This problem is not political...

...Scientific activities along these lines might bring us nearer to Plato's ideal of a state ruled by philosophers...

...The second, held at Lac Beauport, with Eaton again the host, considered a wide range of problems growing out of the developing arms race...

...On the other hand, said Russell, a physically sound human race would get rid of tyranny in a relatively short time, as it has done before in the course of history...

...As of now, the race is being lost...

...Atomic scientists from East and West gather in Austria next week to discuss peace PUGWASHITES MEET AT KITZBUHEL By Hans Thirring On September 14, eighty world-famous scientists from East and West are expected to gather at Kitzbuhel, Austria to discuss problems of survival in the nuclear age...

...life in a scientific age...

...It is hoped that the Kitzbuhel meeting will bring together a balanced representation of scientists from the West and from the Communist countries...

...After all, it is said, the scientists sound off with advice to the statesmen, who, in turn, thank them politely, file the resolutions that have been adopted into the nth pigeon hole of their cabinets, and carry on as before...

...relaxation of world tensions and the possibilities of disarmament...

...But, to return to the third Pugwash conference, I am frequently asked: What useful purpose do such meetings serve...

...The Kitzbuhel meeting is perhaps better known as the "third Pugwash conference...

...One of the first tasks of such a group—to be tackled perhaps at Kitzbuhel—might be to communicate with the rapidly growing "Kampf dem Atomtod" movement in Germany and its powerful Japanese counterpart...

...The starting point was Russell's answer to a purely academic question: In the long run, which is the greater evil, Communist domination or all-out nuclear war...

...Russell replied that such a war would destroy most of mankind and do irreparable and irreversible genetic damage to the survivors...

...Although Russell's reply was correct, it was neither wise nor diplomatic to answer such an academic question...

...A more correct answer might have taken the form: It is a waste of time even to consider such a question because mankind will never be faced by the dilemma: Communist domination or nuclear war...

...Certainly a conference that is ignored is useless...

...and the responsibilities of scientists in the contemporary period...

...The Kitzbuhel conference is the most ambitious...

...Specifically, the conferees will discuss such problems as the biological effects of nuclear tests...