But Necessary"

Tests "Unfortunate But Necessary"

Although proximity to the Ameri can nuclear testing grounds in the Pacific makes the new tests that com menced there in late April of acute practical concern to some Islands people, most have accepted them as inevitable.

ISLANDS like Fanning and Wash ington are right next door and the islands of the Northern Cooks, like Penrhyn, Manihiki and Raka hanga, are within a few hundred miles.

Mr, L. Gotz, New Zealand Min ister for Island Territories, put the thing in a nutshell when making his first visit, as Minister, to Rarotonga, in late March. The tests, he said, were unfortunate but “necessary,” in order to achieve parity with the Russians.

Mr. Gotz said that although there were many alarmist reports following the last tests at Christmas Island, in fact no damage was done to the Cook Islands. In the present tests, New Zealand, with the full co-operation of the UK and the USA, would take responsibility for the care and pro tection of the Cook Islands Group.

Radio officers, medical officers and others in the Cooks will make con tinuous tests for nuclear fall-out, especially in relation to food.

Late in March a party of American scientists arrived in Rarotonga. They will be stationed there and on Penrhyn, where they will independ ently carry out all the necessary

safe-guarding tests.

Other American scientists were scattered widely throughout the Islands as far west as Fiji to make tests during the bomb explosions.

In late April when Mr. Gotz re turned from his Cook Islands tour, he told a public meeting in Christ church that in the Cooks he had heard that “evil people” were “trying to frighten simple natives into the be lief that nuclear tests in the Pacific would destroy their foodstuffs and, more important to them, their pro creative ability”.

He said on Penrhyn people had been frightened over the effects of nuclear bombs, but the United States was not moving people from islands much closer to the nuclear tests be cause they were confident they were safe.

Despite the Minister’s assurances, protests at the tests in late April were widespread in the South Seas, with most Islands newspapers throwing their columns open to discussion on the matter.