For the first time since The Bomb burst, a great government cracked down on its talkative, uneasy atomic scientists. The government was Britain's; the crack-downers were Ernest Bevin and his temporary collaborator, Winston Churchill.
Cried Churchill, angered by reports that some scientists threatened to publish everything they knew about the atom: "... I hope the law will be used against these men [scientists] with utmost vigor. . . . On many occasions in the past we have seen attempts to rule the world by experts of one kind or another. There have been theocratic governments. It is now suggested that...