SIR, — Herb Greer ' s letter in last week ' s Spectator also requires detailed
answer. Here are some facts.
Arthur Goss and Sheila Jones, who were chair- man and secretary of the National Council for the Abolition of Nuclear Weapon Tests and also mem- bers of the first executive committee of CND, reported to it that the Direct Action Committee were organising a march to Aldermaston at Easter 1958 and that the National Council, while unable to help in organising it, had agreed to support it. This decision was reaffirmed by the CND executive committee which gave its blessing to the Direct Action Committee's plans. True, J. B. Priestley was not keen on marching. Neither was he in 1959. But John Collins called for support of the March at the inaugural meetings and himself spoke at the Trafalgar Square Rally on Good Friday and in Reading on Easter Sunday.
More facts: Alan Clayton's allegations of Com- munist domination of the Scottish and Glasgow YCND were refuted in great detail in an article in Tribune by David Boulton. In order to obtain something like the same coverage for the refutation that had been given to the allegations, a supporter of CND paid for the article to be reproduced as charges never stood up against the facts. I am send- an advertisement in the Guardian. Alan Clayton's
ing Herb Greer a copy of the article.
Facts that were ridiculed by the press. Well, what about the dangers of testing? For years the press belittled the dangers of nuclear testing. When the Russians resumed testing in 1961 many of thent overexaggerated dangers they had until then re- fused to admit. CND told the truth throughout.
CND's reaction to the Cuba crisis was to ern' phasise that unless some breakthrough to dis- armament could be achieved quickly the next crisis would end in nuclear disaster. Hence our short-term programme Steps Towards Peace. I welcome Herb Greer's admission that the crisis scared the hell out of him—but what has be done about it? ig not just enough not to go to Ireland. May I conclude with the quotation from Mrs. Pankhurst read by Vanessa Redgrave in Hyde Park on Easter Monday. Members of the Guards' Club asked her why the windows of the Club had been broken by the suffragettes because they had never done anything to harm her cause. But you have, she said. You d°
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