First Blast Over

The Bomb!

BRITAIN exploded her first H bomb “in the Christmas Island area” on May 15, eastern zone time, May 14 western time..

Flt.-Lieutenant Alan Washbrook, RAF, dropped the bomb from a great height from a Valiant jet-bomber.

The weather was described as per fect for the test with light N-W winds from 10,000 ft to 60,000 ft which would carry the radio-active fall-out away from populated areas.

It had been believed that the first test would be made in April.

The delay had given rise to reports that a “hitch” had developed, or that serious technical difficulties had arisen.

Speculation was intensified at end of April when it was announced that Sir William Penney would leave London on June 1 for Sydney—presumably en-route to Christmas Island. Penney had not intended being at Christmas Is. for the test—it was to have been supervised by another top British scientist, Mr. Gillan J. Cook.

Meantime, as regularly as the dawn, protests were lodged against there being any bomb-test at all; end as regularly, some member of the British Government has asserted that the bomb would be exploded, no matter what. It all becomes a little tedious.

Most realistic-minded people have by now accepted the premise that Britain had got to let her bomb off somewhere; but no one who lives within a 1,000 miles of Christmas Island was any too happy about it, and it would be idle to claim that they were—or are. Tests will continue until August.

Penrhyn Will Have

Ring-Side View

“Anyone who says that British bomb tests are going to take place at Penrhyn Island is talking nonsense”, said New Zealand’s Minister of Island Territories on April 29. Mr. Macdonald was referring to a statement to this effect in the English “New States man and Nation” of April 20.

However, if the bombs are to be exploded in the vicinity of Malden Island, Penrhyn will still retain the distinction of being the nearest inhabited island —Christmas Island is more distant—and the explosion should be both seen and heard at Penrhyn. One authority has given the audible range as 1,000 miles in still air. Penrhyn is about 350 miles from Malden. RAF aircraft are now maintaining communications between the meteorological station there and Christmas Island.