Legalised Brothels Urged

As Solution To Tahiti's 'Explosive' Social Problem

The Semeur Tahitien, a Roman Catholic newspaper in Papeete, recently made a vehement protest against a campaign being conducted by local newspapers favouring the introduc tion of legalised brothels in Tahiti.

THE newspapers have been arguing that, with the huge influx of troops and sailors in Tahiti for France’s nuclear tests at Mururoa Atoll, and with more expected, legalised brothels are the only answer to the social problem that has been created.

The Semeur Tahitien stated: “As Christians, it is our duty to oppose the establishment of legalised and protected prostitution”.

The paper’s sister journal in Noumea. Semeur Caledonien, which added its voice to the clamour, said that “establishing houses of prostitu tion is a graver danger than atomic radiation”.

Certainly, the French plan to hold nuclear tests in their section of Polynesia has created problems for Tahiti that the French Government seems not to have envisaged when the decision was made three years ago to build the base at Mururoa.

By mid-April more than 20,000 people had arrived in Tahiti in con nection with the nuclear tests and the local people seemed dazed by everything that was going on.

Outnumbered

Several thousand more servicemen are expected before the end of May, and by that time the local girls will be hopelessly outnumbered.

Five ships of the French Navy are expected in Noumea on May 13 en route to Tahiti from France via the Cape of Good Hope and Mada gascar.

They are the 27,000-ton aircraft carrier Foch, three escort vessels and a tanker. The Foch has a crew of 2,500. including 176 officers, and carries 50 Dassault Standard jet bombers which can carry atomic tactical bombs.

The 9,380-ton anti-aircraft carrier De Grasse is also due in the Pacific soon.

Eight French naval aircraft, en

route to Tahiti, passed through Port Moresby in mid-April. One of them had its nosewheel slashed by a 43year-old electrical technician with the Department of Civil Aviation (see opposite).

Other, less violent protests against the French tests, which are expected to begin in July, continued to come from other parts of the Pacific in April.

NZ Opposition

In Wellington, New Zealand, 200 members of the New Zealand Cam paign for Nuclear Disarmament listened to an address by an Opposi tion MP, Dr. M. Finlay, in Parlia ment House grounds after a march through the city.

The New Zealand Prime Minister, Mr. Holyoke, stated for the ump teenth time that his Government was “continuing to express its opposition to the French plan” to conduct the tests. He added that he had called for an official report on the extent, if any, of the health hazard that might be expected in New Zealand from the tests.

In Peru, the Chamber of Deputies unanimously approved a motion con demning the French tests and urging all parliaments of the Western world to express their opposition.

This protest coincided with a move in Lima, the Peruvian capital, to bulldoze the city’s brothels out of existence. • The Bougainville Company in April took delivery of a new 600-ton vessel for its Bougainville service.

The vessel is the Nukumanu, ex- Waiben . which the company bought from the Brisbane firm of John Burke Ltd. Nukumanu is a sister ship of the Edenhope, also owned by the Bougainville company. Edenhone will arrive in Brisbane at the end of May for a survey, when she will be renamed Nukutoa. Captain of Nukti manu is Frank Stewart.