Even during the war there is and should be time for peaceful gestures to draw our neighbours closer. One such has just been made to Mexico. Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the American Philosophical Society have combined to give Mexican Institutions 200 valuable books on astronomy and mathematics.

This recognition of cultivated tastes is particularly appreciated by Mexicans. As Dr Carlos Graef Fernández, the scientist who accepted the gift, says, "Most North Americans go around believing that Mexico is a land of guitar players and romanticists, incapable of intellectual effort."

The Mexican war, with its loss of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California, left with Mexicans a deep distrust of the United States. This natural fear of a stronger neighbour was largely wiped away by President Wilson's insistence that the Mexicans be allowed to settle their own civil wars without interference. This accounted for the failure in 1917 of the Zimmerman note, whereby Germany tried to tempt Mexico into war on her side, by promising the restoration of the "lost provinces" in the southwestern United States.

Next-door neighbours, whether nations or individuals, are happier if they are good friends. President Roosevelt's recent trip and conferences with Comacho should be a contributing factor. Our recognition that Mexico has a real intellectual life as well as a sensitive heart also should forward this friendship.

MEXICO CITY. - The Latin American nations will establish in a year or two a continental nuclear research centre, and Mexico hopes to be its headquarters, a noted Mexican nuclear scientist said Saturday.

Dr Carlos Graef Fernández indicated that Mexico probably leads all Latin American nations in atomic research.

The Mexican scientist said Argentina and Brazil are also in the race to be the headquarters of the proposed research centre, but both nations wasted much time in "frustrated experiments."

Meantime, the work of Mexican scientists was coordinated with that of foreign scientists and a division of labour and material was accomplished to save time and effort.

Dr Carlos Graef Fernández said Mexico concentrated in nuclear research to improve agriculture. But research is also going on in Mexican laboratories on the application of atomic science to medicine.

Same Report as 2.

MEXICO CITY, May 24 - A Mexico City newspaper quoted a leading nuclear scientist today as claiming radioactivity from nuclear weapons tests caused the heat wave responsible for the deaths of 23 children in Monterrey.

The newspaper, La Prena, reported that Dr Carlos Graef Fernández, Mexico's foremost nuclear scientist, blamed radioactive discharges in the atmosphere as the cause of the intense heat which hit the Mexico City during the past week.

Temperatures in Monterrey rose as high as 113 degrees.

The newspaper also said that Graef reported the existence of a radioactive-produced chemical called estroncio [sic], which had been found in livestock feed in Mexico.

La Prena declared that the estroncio affects bones but this far there have been no ill effects found in humans.

MEXICO CITY. - One of Mexico's top nuclear scientists says people who eat a lot of tortillas apparently absorb less strontium 90 from nuclear explosions than other persons.

Dr Carlos Graef Fernández said Mexicans have absorbed less of the damaging particles from fallout than other inhabitants of many other countries.

He said this is probably due to the abundance of calcium in tortillas, a staple in the Mexican diet. Calcium, he said, lessens the strontium bones absorb. Tortillas are very thin cakes of fine corn meal which have been treated with lime.

Graef Fernández is head of the sciences faculty at the University of Mexico.

MEXICO CITY. - One of Mexico's top nuclear scientists says people who eat a lot of tortillas apparently absorb less strontium 90 from nuclear explosions than other persons.

Dr Carlos Graef Fernández said Mexicans have absorbed less of the damaging particles from fallout than other inhabitants of many other countries.

He said this is probably due to the abundance of calcium in tortillas, a staple in the Mexican diet. Calcium, he said, lessons the strontium bones absorb. Tortillas are very thin cakes of fine corn meal which have been treated with lime.

The first reports of the proposed atomic energy plant for the Gulf of California near the mouth of the Colorado River were far too brief to be satisfying. The few facts that were disclosed, however, indicate that a development of major significance to Mexico and the Southwest is probably on its way.

The proposal is to build a nuclear reactor at or near the mouth of the river. The reactor's job would be two-fold: to generate electricity and to distil salt water. The news reports say the plant would serve Southern California and Arizona, and the Mexican states of Sonora and Baja California.

Thus the magnitude of the proposed project is revealed. Any plant large enough to serve this arid and growing region with electricity and fresh water has to be a large one.

The mouth of the Colorado River is located on Mexican soil. Would the Republic of Mexico approve this kind of close cooperation with Uncle Sam? There is good reason to believe that Mexico would approve. For it was a Mexican who proposed the Gulf of California location. He is Dr Carlos Graef Fernández, scientific coordinator of Mexico's national Commission for nuclear energy.

It is highly unlikely that Dr Graef would have made such a proposal without the prior approval of his government.

By the same token, it would appear that the United States government has also pledged its cooperation. For the whole plan was proposed by a panel of experts, and this panel is headed by James K Carr, Undersecretary of the U.S. Department of Interior. As undersecretary, Mr Carr is right-hand man to Secretary Stewart L Udall, an Arizonian who is thoroughly familiar with the need for water in the arid Southwest.

Hence it appears that the nuclear reactor project at the mouth of the Colorado River has the prior approval of both the United States and Mexico. The proposal came as a surprise to the general public, however. And there was some confusion caused by the fact that it was first revealed at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, while holding its seventh annual meeting in Vienna, Austria. The project does, of course, have world-wide significance. Large areas of the world are desperately short of both water and electrical power. The U.S.-Mexico plant can serve as a pilot project for similar large-scale units in other parts of the world.

At the same time, this plant will have a profound effect upon the entire economy and future outlook of this vast desert region, of which Yuma is the geographic centre. Yumans well know what the Colorado River soil can produce when it receives adequate water. The proposed plant alone could supply water for 150,000 to 300,000 persons.

MEXICO CITY. - The United States and Mexico are nearing a decision on whether to construct the world's largest nuclear desalinization plant, according to a top Mexican physicist.

Carlos Graef Fernández, director of Mexico's Nuclear Research Center, said a bilateral commission had concluded after a five-year study it was feasible to construct the plant in the northern Mexican state of Sonora.

MEXICO CITY. - The United States and Mexico are nearing a decision on whether to construct the world's largest nuclear desalinisation plant, according to a top Mexican physicist.

Carlos Graef Fernández, director of Mexico's Nuclear Research Center, said a bilateral commission had concluded after a five-year study it was feasible to construct the plant in the northern Mexican state of Sonora.

The plant would cost $60 million. It would supply fresh water and power to Sonora and Baja California in Mexico and Arizona and California in the United States.

Graef commented at a meeting of the organisation to proscribe nuclear arms in Latin America. Delegates from 16 Latin American nations are attending the weeklong conference.