VIGIL

Lit by the passing car's headlights, the poster proclaimed: 'Atoms for Peace, not War.'

It was one a.m. in Whitehall last Sunday morning. Under the bleak neon lighting, in the shadows of the tall government buildings, young people patrolled the pavement in pairs.

What were these young members of the Direct Action Committee against Nuclear War hoping to achieve by their all-night vigil?

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THE BEST THING. Roy Parsons, 25-year-old print-worker and member of Brixton Labour Party, hoped that this and similar action might make people more aware of the Government's policy.

'The best thing we can do really is to get the unions to black work on rocket bases and H-bombs.'

Ted Bond, a member of Kensington Labour Party, agreed. Both were bitter about Bevan's attitude to the Norwood resolution at last year's Labour Party conference.

Political action, they felt, was absolutely necessary to defeat the menace of H-bomb warfare.

April Carter, a former student who is now a full-time secretary of the Committee, hoped that the vigil would draw public attention to the Government's latest policy of using power stations for military production as well as for civilian purposes.

Harry Mister, business manager of Peace News, thought The Newletter's pamphlet 'Black the H-Bomb and the Rocket Bases' helped the campaign.

Providing the individual members supported the action, he was in favour of blacking work on bases and bomb.

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ANOTHER VIGIL. 'I feel a protest was needed against the Government's latest decision,' said Dorian Bradley, a 25-year-old teacher, who added that the weakness of the campaign was 'that up to now we haven't got through to the working people enough'.

On the Horse Guards' Parade a red-coated, white-plumed sentry was pacing out another kind of vigil.