Furry Fears Military Control in Atomic Bill

Commenting on the passage of the revised McMahon Bill for the control of atomic energy, Wendell Furry, associate professor of Physics, said yesterday, "The bill is terrible but not as bad as it might have been."

Furry has returned from a trip to Washington on behalf of the Association of Cambridge Scientists, on which he and George Valley, of MIT, attempted to convince Congressmen of the need for complete civilian control of atomic development problems.

Since his return last Friday, the bill has been reported out of conference and passed, but according to Furry the revised bill has only given the appearance of civilian control, and he added, "There is still going to be a very strong military influence on the five man civilian commission. A great deal depends on the President's appointments to the commission."

Under the bill as it has been passed, many of the features which the scientists considered objectionable have been maintained including a military liaison board, extremely strict security regulations, and, with presidential approval, the right of the military to continue to produce atomic weapons.

Furry said that the commission would be severely hampered by the fact that the law requires it to give all its information to the military Maison board, but does not make the board open its files to the commission.