Jeere
Acril 20, 1950
-~-e2-
Derry
in regard to the
-xiste?
ge
s
It was appearrent thet a feafeeling of ursency
seminar 7t Breelrnaven., Largsen's fecling evidently was
reed; to “evart ‘for their Acme states anc
that ‘the etudent about
communities spatula 2+ furnisheu “ith es rete answers to as many cf
the provlems
> he had enumerated in detcil asc “sossitle and that
if it were not possitle te sive such answers at that time thet tke
Federal Government could te
subject to severe criticisn for net having
figured all oF thec eth ings out in advance of starting the actual
treiaing »regr wm. TI 4 was ast expressed but crobebly some -f the .JSEB
people felt that if such criticism eventuatec,
subsequent training
srograms of their own would thereby be jeocaréized. Thus the imprecsicn
was given that the tomeaiate purpose sf this meeting was that of
collecting quickly from a variety cf interestec sources opinions ona
multitude of subjects related to radichgical defense which could be
Aistilleé and transnitted to the Brookhaven students by means of 1!
approaching seminar.
Larsen made the noint that the policies te ve
given to *he Breckhaven seminar shculd be released similtanecusly to
the students in the cther courses and vresumably to states which were
not represented at any cf the courses.
Larsen left she meeting fairly early (mot returning for the Later
sessicns) and the Chairmanshi- of it was assumeé tr Dr. Kiefer.
the Giscussion sregressed and conments sade by varicus of the
narticipants indice ted thet
vhey also
shared the feeling,
As
exoressed
acove, as tc the immediate pgursose of the aeeting, Kiefer emonasized
but in addition to the immecists need for information, NSEB was
desirous of drawing upon Suc agencies represented for help in solving
all of the proolens which hai teen set forth.
In she later
stages cf
the meeting, particulerly ine second day, the atmosonere of great
urgency in <etting Tinal answers te the many complex problems was
dispelled so acertcin extent. I pointed out thet many of the statements woie h were veing nade cuestioning the -ropriety of conducting
the udcoaitoring courses at this time, the fact, for instance, that
many staves did net have full-flecsed civil defence organizations or
civil defense budgets and therefore there vas likelihood thet secondLevel courses might “ave to te delayed for an indefinite »eriod of
time, Mad been raised by our own people in the training centers when
the vrogremn was in the fornative stages; aevertheless, it had been
agreed finelly ty both AgC and NERB representctives that it was
worthwhile to maxe a start in the initial teaching training orogram
so thet all activities woule not be in & stcte w suspended aninatim
woile all planning was ~eing completed, orn on anticnel and gtete
levels.
I pointes out that the assunrtioa uhich seemed to be im-licit
in the USK presentrtion, nemely, thet che state s, woon return of their
reprecentatives Prox
from the training crurses ‘ould inrediately start out
2
on second-level trnining
anc cerhays .9 astrey in so doing because they
id not Lave cLl of
the enswers
wa
a]
tie croolemgs wich were being
bye
fo
VW
‘
now ARCHIVES