International Control Quotes
This quotation represents a colossal failure of politicians to understand science and the way that it works. They assumed that the processes and methods were secrets that if kept secret, would prevent others from constructing an atomic bomb. The reality was that the most important “secrets” had emanated from Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and other published scientific papers. So any competent physicist knew immediately how the bomb worked. A triggering mechanism would need to be developed but that was just a complicated engineering project. The largest barrier was the supply of enough radioactive material with sufficient purity. That then (as today) took a lot of money and some time. But after the initial bomb, the secrets might speed things up but were not necessary. That is why the French and the Russians quickly developed their bombs, and why it did not take the Israelis long once the had decided to invest the resources. China, India and Pakistan did not need the secrets either when much later, they decided to develop nuclear weapons. With the atomic bomb, spying and obtaining secrets shorten the required time and reduce the cost, but are not necessary. This is why nuclear proliferation is so hard to stop.
Japan, then a militaristic power in the East had occupied and controlled Manchuria after the Russo-Japanese War. The League of Nations voted that Manchuria should be placed under international control until elections and independence can be arranged. The Japanese then had a rapidly growing population and Japan felt that the Japanese Islands were not sufficient to produce the raw materials, oil and agriculture needed to sustain a larger Japanese population. Therefore, the Japanese argued that they were entitled to grow and expand to nearby territories to provide for their nation’s needs. When the league of nations rejected the Japanese position, Japan walked out of the League of Nations. Japan would occupy part of China and Korea all leading to WWII. See {627075} for the foreign minister’s later assessment.
One great irony of this statement is that Australia has done extremely well under the Bretton Woods accords of fair and international trade. Not all countries have, but Bretton Woods has lifted more people out of poverty than all the other systems and conventions attempted by the world have together.
This was an extremely prescient statement written even before the first atomic bomb had been used in the war. When the scientists and politicians realized the implications of their success on the Manhattan Project developing the first atomic bomb, they were already meeting to come up with arms controls. It is useful to consider Dr. Franck’s last sentence in the light of the impeding done by Saddam Hussein.
