Hungarian Church Press, 1968 (20. évfolyam, 2. szám)
1968-06-01 / 2. szám
HOP Vol XX Special Number 1968 No 2- 171 -(08004) 112) This require m3 nt is, of course, hardly contestable* Opinions differ mainly in the question, of Vhow"„ Without entering here into these questions, we refer again to the Autumn, 1967, Report of the UN experts: "the risk of . a nuclear war exists as long as there are atomic weapons" (end of § 4l)o 113) Therefore, we-have to welcome all proposals to the effect that the resources used at present for armament should, at least partially, be expended on the support of the developing oountries0 That was what Pope Paul VI proposed t the General Assembly of the UNO on October 4«,.196.5, repeating nis appeal made a year before in Bombay« - It is in this spirit that the encyclical "Populorum progressio" declares "any armament race that exhausts resources an unbearable scandal" (§ 53)o 114) In recent literature, we find more aid more references to the increased danger of unstable balance and ever more intensive armament» (See, el ge, the expositions of id Go Howe in "Evangelische Kommentare" 1968, Nos ) Without analysing these considerations more closely, we can see in them the evidence of the fact that the possibilities of balance beirgupset are never excluded* 115) The difficulty of the task is illustrated by the '''fact that some authors see the evidence of the ineffectiveness of the negotiations for allembracing disarmament programmes so far in their failure to ensure a balance in steps taken for disarmament, (Cf. Gerhard Schlatt; Wettrüsten i.ind .Abrüstung im Atamzeitalter, Stimme der Gemeinde, 1965, Nos 15—16o) But the. risk entailed in the armament race is still greater, aid tise maintenance of a balance based on it demands efforts at least as great as the balance to be maintained in disarmament» 116) The Second Vatican Council also pointed in this direction; "The balance brought about by the armament race is no reliable and true peace" (On the Church in the World of Todav, § 8l) 117) At the Geneva Conference on Church and Society, M, Kohnstamm formulated a similar thesis® To be correct, we note that his lecture did not explicitly deal with the question of disarmament0 118) We find it deplorable that a World Disarmament Congress comprising all nations (the convening of which was dealt with in a resolution of the UNO Assembly on November 29, 1965) has not yey^&lizcd, 119) We refer again to the report cf UNO experts in 1967 assessing the possible consequences, usefulness and limitations of the planned agreement cu non-proliferation® .120) In the course'"of disarmament negotiations, in January, 1966, the number cf such states, was estimated at ten0 - According to an extinction of A. Parson in the December, 1967, issue of Saturday Review, six states will be able,to produce their own atomic weapons in two years, and twenty-five states within less than ten years® At present, the re are atonic reactors in operation in 41 countries» S„ Nklund, Director of the International Atomic Energy Agency cf the UNO, declared at a press conference in Budapest in June, 1966, that in 1970 the atomic energy generating plants then functioning would produce, in his estimation, 8»000 kgr plutonium, one—third of which/Ipc in.countries having no nuclear weapons at present«
