Professor Ivor A. Richards, one of the first workers in basic English, yesterday called the $92,000 purchase of Basic's copyright by the British government a "very small sum" for a language that could prevent atomic warfare.

"Communication might now be our best bet against destruction," he asserted. "Since basic English is perhaps our best communication with other peoples--the Russians, for example--conceivably, then, it could guard us against atomic bombs and warfare."

The price paid for the simplified language of 850 words--as against a King's English total of 414,000 words in the current Oxford English dictionary -- was called "insignificant in view of the prodigious powers Basic possesses, and the enormous feat on the part of its inventor."

The simplified language was described by Professor Richards as a tongue of "a thousand uses." During the war broadcasts were beamed to the enemy in Basic because of ease in transmission despite enemy attempts at jamming.

Professor Richards was a co-worker of C. K. Ogden, inventor of Basic English, during the early stages of the development of the language introduced in 1930. Since he arrived here in 1939, Richards' work in Basic has been directed to teachers of English in foreign countries and American instructors working with children who have difficulty in reading.