FOREIGN RELATIONS: Jolted Illusions

A cheerful observer wearing rose-colored glasses might have seen last week some hopeful signs of progress toward disarmament, especially if he focused on Geneva. Scheduled to begin behind locked doors in Geneva this week was an East-West conference on technical aspects of reducing the threat of surprise attack. At another Geneva conference, U.S., British and Russian delegates were already in their second week of talks on nuclear-test suspension, though progress was stalled by the clash between Soviet insistence on stopping tests right away and "forever" and U.S.-British insistence that a foul-proof inspection system must precede any long-term agreement to halt tests. To help the conference's slender chances of success, the U.S. and Britain had, as of Oct. 31, halted nuclear tests for a one-year trial period on condition that the Soviet Union do the same.

But toward week's end, any illusions of progress toward negotiated disarmament got a sudden jolt. In Washington, the Atomic Energy Commission announced that the Soviet Union had set off two nuclear explosions since the start of the Geneva conference. The explosions, "both of relatively low yield," took place in southern Russia, said AEC, rather than at the Arctic site "where most of the tests in recent weeks have been held." President Eisenhower promptly issued a statement notifying the world that "this action by the Soviet Union relieves the U.S. from any obligation under its offer to suspend nuclear-weapons tests." The U.S. would continue its suspension "for the time being," said the President, but if the Soviet Union did not "shortly" settle down to business and agree to a one-year halt, the U.S. "will be obliged to reconsider."