-2= \ mechanical answers to the problem of how to control this new and terrifying force, that was understandable since they were accustomed to that Icind of answer in their own field. But in their efforts to drive home the urgency of the problem, they were serving a high and important purpose. members The more perceptive/ of the military profession were equally disturbed, although for slightly different reasons. Whatever value for peacetime uses atomic energy might have, it had been developed as a weapon of war, and its first shattering effects had been felt in that sphere. What bothered the generals and admirals most was the startling efficiency of this new weapon. It was so.far anead of the other weapons in destructive power as to threaten to reduce even the giants of yesterday to dwarf size, In fact to speak of it as just another weapon was highly misleading. It was a revolutionary,development which altered the est Eee Oy 12 . . na eu ws _—— a basic character of war itself. x \ In the pre-atomic days of the 190s thingechad been bad enough, but one did not have to contemplate very seriously the probable annihilation of both victor and vanquished, Now, even the strongest states were faced with the prospect that they might no longer be able, by their owm strength, to save their cities from destruction. Not only might their regular rivals on the same level be equipped with powers of attack hundreds of times greater than before, but possi- bly some of the nations lower down in the power scale might get hold of atomic weapons and alter the whole relationship of great and small states. It was becoming very hard to see how a tolerable war could be fought any more. Unless atomic warfare could be limited, no single state, no matter how strong its military forces might be, could be at all certain to avoid being mortally wounded in a future war, There was not and very likely would not be a sure defense against atomic attack, or any reliable way of keeping bombs away from a nation's territory. A great power might, it is true, by building up to the limit of its strength, have a good chance of winning a war in the end, but what good was that if in the meantime the urban population of the nation had Ct