Conant Scans U.S. Defenses For New Era

Dividing his analysis of the state of our national defenses "over which the shadow of the atomic bomb now falls," President Conant considered both our immediate military neeeds and our long range plans in his address before the Harvard Club of Boston yesterday evening.

President Conant, continuing his pilgrimage of talks on atomic energy which has taken in Columbia University and the Chamber of Commerce of Cleveland, began with an optimistic outlook towards "the first steps taken by the United States, Great Britain, and Canada to prevent an armament race in atomic weapons.

But he then called for an energetic follow-up of these initial moves, outlining a plan for a corps of international industrial inspectors under the administration of a powerful United Nations Organization. The inspectors, said Conant, should have "the right to go any where and see anything."

Once, the corps of inspectors has been established, Conant voiced the hope that the nations involved would agree to dismantle all their bombs, in order to insure that no surprise atomic attacks could be made. For, under the circumstances, it would take months to assemble them.

The key issue, in Conant's eyes, was the improvement of relations between the U.S. and Russia. He asked that "an interchange of scientists and scientific information should take place ... a welcome signal of the opening of the road of mutual understanding between ourselves and Russia."