. -23- | \ | War II is an eloquent commentary on the limitations of the defenses, The 4 - British following the first World War thought they had in their "Asdic" and depth charges the complete answer to the U-boat, but an only slightly improved U-boat succeeded in the recent war in sinking over 23 million gross tons of shipping. So the story might go on endlessly. | It has simply become customary 4 BJ “to consider an "answer" satisfactory when it merely diminishes or qualifies the . effectiveness of the Weapon against which it is devised, and that kind of custom will not do for the atomic bomb. LEON, e at : Despite such statements as that of canadian General A. G. L. McNaughton that means with which to counter the atomic mi,atready "clearly in sight,"? it seems pretty well established that there is no specific reply to the bomb. The physicists and chemists who produced the atomic bomb are apparently unanimous on this point: that while there was a scientific consensus long before the atomic bomb excisted that it could be produced, no comparable opinion is entertained among scientists concerning their chances of devising effective counter-measures, The bomb itself is as free from direct interference of any kind as is: the ordinary bomb. When the House Naval Affairs Committee circulated a statement that electronic means were already available for exploding atomic bombs "far Short of their objective without the necessity of locating their position, "10 scientists qualified to speak promptly denied this assertion and it was even disowned by its originators. Any active defense at all must be along the lines of affecting the carrier, and we have already noted that even when used with the relatively vulnerable airplane or Y~l the atomic bomb poses wholly new problems for the defense. A nation which had developed strong defenses against invading aircraft, which had found reliable means of interfering with radio-controlled rockets, which had 9, New York Herald Tribune, October 6, 195, p. Te 10. New York Times, October 12, 1945, p. l.