As prospects for a nuclear test ban agreement at Geneva become progressively brighter (and sporadically dimmer), it seems apparent that Western negotiators, hastening to score a propaganda victory and, possibly, contribute to a healthier world, have overlooked a vital point in the mechanics of a moratorium. Under the partial draft treaty, as it now reads, all testing will stop, even those explosions which may be necessary for the continuation of experiments in the peaceful application of atomic energy.

Such a restrictive treaty could well be as damaging as no treaty at all. If scientists are forced to give up all hopes of testing theories on the constructive use of the atom, atomic research will lose many of its most devoted and imaginative workers. Even if the ban is legally only a temporary one, there will be a strong moral commitment implicit in it, which may make it difficult ever to resume tests. Considering the possible finality of the agreement they are undertaking, the men at Geneva should introduce flexible provisions governing peaceful experimentation under an international agency.

Although such a proposal will give the Russians one more talking point with which to obstruct a final solution, the failure to consider peaceful tests would be a dangerous one. Progress in the attempt to turn atoms into plowshares should not be sacrificed to the pressure against weapons tests.