They Ask: How

Real, Honest-To-Goodness Statement- Would Help They Ask: How Radioactive Are The Cooks?

From a NZ Correspondent ightly or wrongly, there has

i some disquiet in the Cook

ids about the possible effect

illouts from nuclear bomb ex

nents carried out near the sh base at Christmas Island.

STATEMENT made by the New Zealand Minister of Health, Mr. lason, recently has not satisfied of the critics, for the very le reason that it didn’t provide gh information. . Mason said: “I know there naturally been great anxiety he Island territories of the ic between New Zealand and Equator because of possible er from radiation; I am there especially happy to assure the e there that the tests made no significant increase in radio ity.” view of what is being said in tonga the Ministerial state , to be effective, should have a great deal more explicit. And is being said? is this—and whether there is basis for it doesn’t, at the mt, matter: What They Claim decision to conduct the h tests in the Eastern Pacific >ne in which New Zealand had ■e a 1 influence (they say). tmas Island is about as isolated tish island as could be found here, having regard to upper irculation and other factors, refore, once the decision was in London, the Cook Islands y became part of a “calculated Everything was done to avoid mination and if any occurred, vould be unavoidable, these circumstances, if con ation did occur the official would be to keep it quiet, all, what would be the point irming the people if nothing could be done about it; and ? pollution was of a border nature, equal to, or anyway mch above what as currently ht to be a maximum dosage? substantiation of this view Rarotonga people submit that fish are being caught at Raro and at Penrhyn—the only s of the group with any geiger srs. s no secret, they claim, that wer a fish with a “count”

above what is considered the danger s P°tted, a scientist is hastily cahed south by air from Christmas Island to examine the fish, which is held meanwhile in the Rarotonga administration freezing chamber A bee-line is made for the freez mg chamber by a Christmas Island boffin as soon as the aircraft arrives which is every few weeks in recent months.

The Rarotonga critics ask why under these circumstances, the test ing of fish at Rarotonga is on a completely haphazard footing, with only an occasional fish being tested --when the man charged with the testing as a sort of spare-time job happens to be round when someone catches a fish.

They ask why this function is in the hands of the Transport Officer —the man in charge of the Admin istration motor garage—instead of under the close supervision of an officer of the Medical Department.

They think if systematic daily tests of fish were taken there would be far more “hot” fish discovered.

Some people have pointed out that the official danger level ‘ counts” regarding fish are based on European and not Isiander dietary habits. Radio-activity is mainly concentrated in the livers, eyes, fins, and tails of fish, which are not eaten by Europeans, but are looked on as delicacies by Islanders.

Therefore, they ask, why under these circumstances is there not an official campaign of publicity warning Islanders to avoid eating these parts at least? The reason given by these people is that the Administration fears that any such publicity cam paign would probably have undesir able effects far beyond the Cook Islands. It would be twisted by in terested persons to mean that there was a dangerous situation existing as a result of the British tests.

May Be Eyewash

All of this could be true, par ticularly in view of the fact that a Honolulu Atomic Energy Com mission official who knows some thing of this subject from America’s unhappy experience in the Marshall Islands, is said to have expressed concern when told that Cook Islanders were freely eating all parts of fish.

But then, it could also be a lot of eyewash, which wouldn’t stand up to examination.

The Minister could clear up this situation, if there is no truth in it, by publishing the actual figures of radio-active counts made in nsh tests, and supplying full details of the system of testing at present in force.

It is a matter of public import ance, and there should be no sug gestion that because some ordinary, well-intentioned persons want some information about it they must be Ban-The-Bomb boys in regular cor respondence with Moscow.