Today in the Sobel Timeline: July 11

On July 11, 1962, North American Governor-General Richard Mason appeared before the Grand Council to deliver a report on the films received the previous day of Kramer Associates' atomic bomb test. Mason's upbeat assessment of the situation surprised the Councilmen. Mason stated that the supercorporation's possession of the weapon assured "world peace in our lifetime," and prevent the nations of the world from resuming the Global War. "Now they realize war will be an impossibility. I see the flowering of this mushroom cloud as a harbinger of a generation and more of peace in the world, and in time, goodwill toward all men." Mason seemed puzzled by the lack of applause following his speech. That evening, Councilman Perry Jay, leader of the opposition People's Coalition, met with Mason to urge him to proclaim a "scientific emergency," and create a crash program to develop an atomic bomb for the C.N.A. Jay pledged that if Mason did so, he would ensure that the year's budget for the Mason Doctrine foreign aid program would pass the Council without debate. Mason rejected Jay's proposal, insisting that the two matters were not related. "We shall aid the starving, and remain a peaceful nation." Jay then went to the home of Mason's Minister for Home Affairs, Grover Speigal. Speigal was also disturbed by Mason's speech, but was convinced that he was rational. Sobel suggests that Jay raised the possibility of a no confidence motion in the Council, but Speigal rejected the idea, pointing out that Mason's term would end in seven months, and arguing that it would be better to allow the electoral process to take its course.