Suddenly It's Official On Canton

By Ken Mcgregor

At least a year after PIM tipped that the US was using mid-Pacific Canton Island to track its experiments with nuclear anti-missiles (July, ’69, p. 28), the British Government has confirmed that the report is correct.

With still no comment from the US Department of Defence, responsible for Canton operations, Britain has also revealed that three other islands of the Phoenix Group—Enderbury, Hull and Birnie (all uninhabited) —are being used for monitoring activities of the huge non-loaded anti-missiles and missiles.

Mr. Brian Harrison, the UK MP who has made several visits to the Islands in his private capacity, in a recent question to the House of Commons, asked for a comment on the use US forces are making of islands of the Gilbert and Ellice Colony.

Mr. Kershaw (for the government) replied that Britain had agreed to the construction of a US “instru mentation facility” on Canton, in accordance with the provisions of the US/UK Exchange of Notes of 1939 regarding the joint administration of Canton and Enderbury.

He said the facility would be an “additional terminus” of the US missile range in the Pacific. The project also involved use of the islands of Enderbury, Hull and Birnie. PIM understands the US is currently firing un

loaded missiles (MIRV) from Nevada across the Central Pacific towards Guam. They are being inter cepted by anti-missiles fired from Kwajalein.

To efficiently gauge this system, the US has a series of tracking-recovery islands stations widely spaced.

Under the UK agreement announced by Mr. Kershaw and to be formalised later this year by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, the US cannot fire any rockets from Canton. However, it can recover spent rockets.

Canton is serviced by US and Samoan personnel out of Hawaii and Pago Pago. Although the UK has equal rights to the island it has no representative there and has no plans of sending anyone to see what exactly is going on. “Administration” is carried out from distant Tarawa, and not surprisingly news of the US Canton deal is startling to government people on Bairiki, Tarawa headquarters.

Meanwhile, in New Zealand, when the US Air Force opened a “classified” atmospheric observation station at a RNZAF base near Blenheim, South Island, the Prime Minister, Sir Keith Holyoake, asked that Press men and students be allowed to look round, after allega tions that the site’s function was related to US military needs. The students had planned protests there against the presence of the American military. But their visit to the base revealed nothing military.