Foreign Relations: Ready for Debate

By a 16 to 1 vote, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week approved without reservations the nuclear test ban treaty and sent it to the Senate floor for debate, tentatively scheduled to begin Sept. 9.

The lopsided committee vote was not so decisive as it seemed. Several Senators who voted to send the treaty along to the floor pointedly reserved their right to change their minds when actual ratification came up. And the lone committee dissenter, Louisiana Democrat Russell Long, insisted that if certain doubts were satisfied, he would probably vote for ratification.

The committee action came as strong doubts...