Selwyn Lloyd's disclosure that agreement on cessation of atmospheric and underwater atomic tests is near should be pleasant news even to the most adamant militaristic chauvinists; its significance as an international accord far outweighs even the great value of stopping tests.

Along with Lloyd's optimistic statements about the chances for agreement, comes a program for discussion of controls on underground tests which represents a major step forward in international negotiations. He suggests that a group of scientists from all nations concerned with underground test controls should make joint experiments to evaluate detection methods.

This concept not only represents a substantial advance in international scientific co-operation. If it is adopted by the Geneva conference which is studying the test ban it would also be a major blow for taking security matters out of the hands of individual nations and putting them under the control of international bodies.

The difficulty of getting an international group exercising control over even such a conspicuous activity as testing bombs does not augur well for world disarmament plans, but if new suggestions such as Lloyd's continue to be produced, the hope for real international controls in other fields will become far brighter.