ijpPjJI LJ* I '* '’■■hi; ®^ren\, 4 Defence: What dlls * Tliursday June IS 1981 -t fc.-- No 60.957 0- can we k Price twenty pence ; afford? Page 6 v ■ - v cb >' ofa s T. BL making Chancellor’s more cars :vnKj ■ ■' .ius.A' ''*• '■ with 30,000 I . fir-,_ ».r critics on reactor threat T. fewer men From Patrick Brogan, Washington, June 17 1 :i A report prepared for Primeprime Minister. The1 directdirector-01 By Edward Townsend Congress says that the Iraqi general of the IAEA told hishi ; - ‘v... s?y."n- '• Sir Michael Edwardes, chair- experimental nuclear reactor board of directors last week tliathat ’ -'• ‘ '•• , “• win boost for man of loss-making BL, dis- destroyed by Israel oh June 7 the reactor could not be used- ■> ••,. i closed a new set of productivity could not nave been used to to produce material for nuclear : I«l,| figures yesterday snowing that build nuclear weapons secretly. weaponsL f, 3 '’•■-r >!,. C- -’ the company is sow making The report, a written by the' . The Washington Post more cars with 30,000 Fewer research service of the Library - describes the IAEA report this workers than a year ago. of Congress, suggests that Israel morning, and says that it claims railways was mistaken in considering the Tn the first five months of that there are only two methods reactor a threat. By Julian HarHand, Political Editor this year, BL produced'an esti- by which plutonium could be ■ v mated 170,000 ears--about 4 It says: “In normal obtained. One was to wrap a ». * The Cabinet alter two hours petfdveness, which tad been per cent more than In the same operations, (be Iraq reactor “blanket” of uranium around "l— ••• of talks on economic strategy declining for years, could have produced • small the reactor’s core, and foe other . • fc period of 1980. yesterday, was said to have During the iasr decade he amounts of plutonium, probably to put the “ blanket” immedi- agreed that the Treasury’s said, money incomes had risen Sir Michael said "that since much less in a year than the ately under foe core. '. broad general policy should by 335 per cent, while output the start of 1978 more than 5kg required for 2 sophisticated In both. cases, according to 60,000 people had left the com- weapon or* the . 15kg for a had risen only 16 per cent. But pany, making BL’s total United the IAEA, ** ordinary _ visual Mrs Margaret Thatcher and rhe Government; Sir Geoffrey simpler weapon. inspection would reveal its pre- -• ■ r : *■ Kingdom labour force 120,000, Sir Geoffrey Howe, Chancellor argued, had made progress. It and that ■ ttemanning had not “If the reactor had been sence." The-Israelis ought to of the Exchequer considered had broken the trend, and caused a single major strike. operated solely to produce as have been aware of-this. 1 'hr '• afterwards that they had won manufacturing productivity was Thirteen factories had been much plutonium as possible, Mr Begin claimed that Iraq endorsement of their view that now rising. There must be no totally. «r partly closed. the changes in operation would ; was refusing to allow an L4EA the reduction of inflation, relaxation, he said. _ Tbe closure of the Rover have been so noticeable as to inspection. There was an inspec- though made harder by the fall More than one minister, how- quickly, announce this purpose tion, last January,, and another ei plant, at SotihuU is expected to in the value of the pound, must ’er, with Mr Peter Walker, reduce the labour force by. a to internatiooal inspectors.” was due this month. .He said remain the main target, and the Minister of Agriculture, The report observes, thar the that .a Baghdad newspaper further- 5,000 during the next 14 1 1 that sustained recoverv in out- Fisheries and Food, .to the fore, months and Sir Michael has al- reactor would have -been quoted . President Husain of put and employment demanded urged that public sector borrow- inspected “ probably at Iraq -last October saying, that" U I, ready indicated that numbers u I ■ that. ing should be allowed to rise 'will continue to fall until the monthly intervals, after the. reactor - wa? to be used startupstartup”, ”, by the International There was. however, substan next year. end of. next year. against Israel". There was no tlai disagreement about Uie f°r His speech yesterday, de- Atomic Energy Agency such quotation. SDI (IAEA). Mr Begin claimed that a sec- proper level of public expen- T ?1? P?” livered to the American Cham- M ret chamber, 40 metres' (about diture for next year, and J electrification ber. of Commerce in London, On the whole, the Iraq . ' '"'‘Iff was designed, ' however, to research reactor probably 130ft) under the..reactor, had : anxiety about the rising level Prosramme. And they seem to . • ’ ' ''n of unemployment. ba?® £arrieil, kitor counter suggestions that the BL could not have been operated been constructed to build solely to .produce plutonium weapons. The French, who built Mr James Prior. Secretary of ProP°sals were recovery plan, being backed State for Employment, charac- separate meet-, . witiuum ther £9a0m nf state aitL- Photograph by John Manniim without quick detection, or tbe reactor, say that the claim was concerned with decline. withdrawal of-the facihty from is fanciful, ana Mr- Begin said teristically raised this first. He pended By IS members of 0 on Sunday that he made M an had come armed with figures “e pbiner’ an WMMuaBy large “In 1980- we halted' the de- the IAEA safeguard regime. numb 3X141 cline in our marker share on Furthermore; foe report con- honest mistake”. The Israelis' ’’ ' !1 •• from Treasury sources, which ^' Quailed approval Campaign hot affected, says cheerful Benn - also claimed last week that he quoted, showing unemploy- wa|,glveJJ- _ , . trucks .and cars, a decline that cludes -that foe reactor, in foe ment standing at three million - Mr Norman Fowler, the bad gone on for many years. By a Staff Reporter best of circumstances, -would American intelligence had in- Since the launch of the Metro 1 '.Mr-Wedgwood Benn, cheerful . **1 am feeling very well,” have been a most .inadequate formed them that Iraq was or more in two or three years Secretary of State for Trans- wedding anniversary which be basis for a weapons programme. building a bomb, but now admit time. porr, is expected to' make a pur-share of the car market has if slightly unsteady, yesterday he declared. “That must be was celebrating by going home. _ . statement to Parliament next hot only stabilized but 'gone up It says that assuming the reac- that nothing of the sort hap- clambered" into an aging red obvious. ” After a rest until the “It will be our- first lime to- pened. There was what one source week, again.*? -. • ’"* end of July and a holiday in gether without an engagement tor were operated to produce described as an “- arm’s length " ic js not known how large an Mini and headed.for borne; and as much plutonium as possible, . Most important,. Mr Begin, __ m ^ ,r u la uwi Kiiuwu jjuw itfiKC OAK The strategy' might include August, “ I 4haU start- again in for a very long time”. discussion on the expenditure investment has been approved; cuts; but it was notl-eoidined^ recuperation before' returning. September Mr Michael - Foot, --who “ tbe production, of as much repeated on Sunday that the] cuts which the Treasury will be - bur minisrers TSK on to negative .ketion, be '-Mid. to the Labour Party campaign as 20kg of plutonium per year reactor would become critical- His absence, he said, would addressed. the policy confer- bmet seeking next year. One spend- stringent productivity targets' The*.hew Triixjiiph".Acclaim trail. •' = ence of the Iron and Steel would have required virtually early in July-and that it could being-built at; Cawley in col- affect “not in the slightest” perfect operation with no mis-, not be attacked-afterwards for £ which will Sean the shedding of! Wearing carpet slippers and Trades Confederation at Bourne- fear .of releasing a huge cloud appears to have argued that OTTCniI thousand rail jobs- laboration with Honda of Japan walking unevenly, supported, by . his campaign for the- party mouth- yesterday, appeared 'to. takes, breakdowns or unex- was now coming off the pro-* bis wife Caroline, he dismissed deputy leadership. “It is not pected technical ‘ problems.' of radioactivity, over Baghdad. The one firm agreement to, : about me, ir is about issues. tone down his attack on Mr “So a lesser amount would The French insist that the programmes any further. There come ouc rf the itseI£ duction line, just 18 months his 12-day stay in Charing Cross 1 ■ - and. the issues are well Benn. 'He' urged the party to reactor would jiot have, become n after tbe joint-venture-agree-; Hospital with pqlyneuntis as. have been more likely. If . sol °n arguments. that; yesterday’s experiment launched. ** ' settle its differences and con-' tbe amount produced in a year, critical before foe autumn. The 1, wi11 be ment was sighed. Like the' no more than “a' nuisance”.,. cenirate on the real enemy”, JfnirJSlnJ^Sd th^SaJiS ^eoeatetf Bte Prime . Metro and . Land-Rover pro- Bat he admitted that he would He declined- to comment on probably would not have been congressional report also . sug- infn turn, m the autumn. Treasury theMinister discussions is' said toconstructive. have found the Government. enough to do the necessary ex- gests that no great amount of ject^ the* Acclaim had been on not be back in action for some Mr Healey or Mr Foot but Conference, page 2 weeks* perimental work,-to learn how radioactivity.