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PRESS STATEMENT BY THE HON. DR. D.AÂ« CAMERON,

O.B.E., M.P., COMMONWEALTH MINISTER FOR HEALTH

(Please published as from Melbourne, today, Wednesday, March 30.)

In an address in Melbourne this afternoon, the

Commonwealth Minister for Health, Dr. Cameron, compared the

forces of atomic and nuclear energy to Macbeth1s dagger.

"Unlike Macbeth's dagger," he said,"they are

not even sensible to sight, but unless mankind is careful, they

could be put to similar although far worse uses,"

The Minister was speaking at the opening of the

first course on the principles of radiological protection, which

is being conducted at the Commonwealth X-ray and Radium Laboratory,

in Melbourne.

The course has been organised by the Director of

the laboratory, Mr. D.J. Stevens.

It is being attended by members of the Industrial

Hygiene Section of the Victorian Branch of the British Medical

Association. It will comprise six weekly sessions.

Dr. Cameron said the establishment of the course

was a most significant sign of the new times in which the world

now lived. The explosion of the first atomic bomb at Hiroshima

ushered in a new era for mankind and signified a profound

alteration in the lives of all human beings.

"The explosion of the bomb was a signal to the

world that a new age was beginning, and that we would in future

live in the presence of new scientific conceptions, and

largely because of thegi, of new social conceptions,

"These things have brought great new resÂ­

ponsibilities, not only for the scientific professions, including

medicine, but also for industry and business, and indeed governments,

perhaps especially for governments and that really means for all of  us.

"It is imperative for us to control and use the

great new forces science has made available, and not let them

dominate us. This is difficult for many reasons, not least perhaps,

because they are intangible and invisible, and to the ordinary

man mysterious.

"It is therefore essential that we all should

do our best to discharge the responsibilities to which I have

referred.  The safe use of radiation and radio active substances

rests ultimately on proper supervision and adequately trained

staff in the establishments using them, and this is of fundamental

importance to public safety.

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"The Commonwealth Government believes that

its Department of Health has a great responsibility in this

matter,

"So much of the department1s time is taken

up with the sociological aspects of medicine that the public

tend to imagine that these are its only preoccupations. This

is certainly not so, and we regard these lectures as most

important."

