Nation: Test Talks

After a delay of two months, the quarrelsome nuclear-test-ban talks were scheduled to resume in Geneva this week. In response to a U.S.-British invitation, the Soviet Union last week agreed to pick up the discussions where they left off at the end of the 340th session.

Although the Soviet Union warned that it would resume its own atomic explosions if the West were to carry out any tests during the talks, the U.S. made it clear that it would not agree to any uninspected test moratorium until agreement was reached. Said the State Department: "The U.S. will continue to take such actions as it deems necessary to safeguard its national security until a controlled test-ban agreement is achieved." Thus, the Atomic Energy Commission will go ahead with the fifth in its current series of underground blasts, scheduled for Dec. 10.