Bikini Natives Want To

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NATIVES of Bikini atoll (the scene of the US atom bomb tests over a year ago) are homesick and want to go bctck US Navy exports, however, have con vinced them that it is still too dangerous to do so. Conditions are said to be safe ashore but water in the lagoon (in which the second bomb was exploded under water on July 25, 1946) is tisll radio active.

Before the experiments were made, the Bikini islanders were taken to Rongerik, where the United States government had built sturdy homes for them ,and provided them with rations.

Although Europeans can see little dif ference between Bikini and Rongerik, the islanders themselves invest their old home with special delights. Rongerik, they say, grows inferior bananas, and the coconuts take longer to ripen.