| Main Performers | Anthony Greenwood,
Dr Anthony Storr,
Prof Charles Alfred Coulson,
Sir Richard Acland,
Pamela Frankau,
Diana Collins,
Canon Edward Carpenter - speakers |
| Performance Notes | "H-bomb is producing rebels and cynics
No one knew beforehand what the drug thalidomide could do to babies, but almost everyone knows what radiation can do - the cruel deformities it can cause. So said Mrs Diane Collins, mother of four children and wife of Canon L John Collins at a public meeting at the Albert Hall on Monday night.
Dealing with the moral implications of the deterrent - 'a nice respectable word for a bomb' - Mrs Collins decalred 'We shall never see our victims. Most of them won't be born until after we are dead. How can Christian people demand safety at such a price?' The meeting, organised by Christian Action and the Peace Friends Committee, applauded Mrs Collins as she went on to talk of the way in which young people were affected by the support given by the Church and State to the manufacture and testing of H-bombs.
NO MORAL RESTRAINT
'Many of them,' she said 'are turning with rebellion and cynicism against moral restraint. 'What is a little fornication compared with poisoning babies? What is beating up one old woman compared with thousands of deaths through radiation sickness?' We are inflicting a terrible spiritual injury upon a whole generation, particularly the younger generation. We were training some to obey orders which could well release a nuclear holocaust.
By condoning the H-bomb, said Mrs Collins, we were producing three kinds of young people; rebels who were confused and disillusioned, cynics who believed in nothing and nobody, and conformists who wanted to support society but who were being conditioned into the belief that the end justified the means. Canon Collins asked members of the audience to help stir the Christian point of view on the H-bomb. The Church must face up to a question it had long been reluctant to answer.
THE SCIENTIST
Other speakers included scientist Prof C A Coulson, who spoke of the real concern of scientists who had helped make and develop the atom and hydrogen bombs. It was the scientific point of view that, because of the growth of the 'nuclear club' someone somewhere would explode one in a time of crisis, even by accident or a 'misunderstanding.'
Canon Collins had earlier read a message he has sent to the Premier protesting against Britain's plan to resume testing. It would sabotage the chance of international agreement said the message. The meeting had begun with loud interruptions by members of the League of Empire Loyalists. Several were ejected by stewards. At one stage a clergyman who appeared to have been stationed at the organ silenced impromptu speeches with loud blasts on the bass notes." (Kensington Post 16 November 1962) |