5 Cablegram from Evatt1 to Department of External Affairs
Washington, 25 June 1946
848. Secret Most Immediate
I propose this afternoon to make a statement to the Atomic Energy Commission outlining Australia’s views. After pointing out the urgency of the problem, the divers interests which must be taken into consideration, and the need for a just and equitable time-table for the exchange of information and the imposition of controls and sanctions, I propose to summarise the Australian position as follows:
‘The Australian Government advises a general international convention which will
- Vest in an international authority, control over all rights and raw materials, processes, plants and the production of plants for the exploitation of all forms of Atomic energy, leaving, however, as much freedom as possible to nations and provide for research and other activity where this is not dangerous to international security.
- Establish a system of effective control and inspection along the lines indicated by Mr. Baruch.2
- Provide that, when the controls and safeguards have been effectively organised, the manufacturer of Atomic weapons and the stock pile of material for military purposes cease and that existing stocks of bombs be dismantled.
- Provide that all information of importance for the peaceful use of Atomic energy shall be made available to all nations through exchange of personnel and through free and open publication, notwithstanding that some such information may be of some slight military significance.
- Accelerate development of converting Atomic energy to peaceful purposes.
- Provide that there shall be a just and equitable sequence for the implementation of all the provisions of the convention, including the provisions set out in (a) and (b) above, and acceptance by each of the parties to the convention of all of its obligations and sanctions.’
A[NAA: A1838, 720/1 part 1]
- 1 H.V. Evatt, Minister for External Affairs.
- 2 Bernard Baruch, US representative on the Atomic Energy Commission. On 14 June 1946, Baruch proposed the creation of an International Atomic Development Authority which would be entrusted with ownership and control over all atomic energy activities, including those ‘potentially dangerous to world security’. The proposal, subsequently known as the Baruch Plan, was based substantially on the Acheson-Lilienthal report (see note 3 to Document 4), but included new provisions for ‘immediate, swift and sure punishment of those who violate the agreements’. See Elliott L. Meyrowitz, Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons: The Relevance of International Law , Transnational Publishers, New York, 1990, pp. 147-9.