Postscripts

Radiation

A group of Marshall Islanders accidentally exposed to nuclear radi ation 18 years ago are refusing to be examined by a medical team from the US Atomic Energy Commission.

AEC medical teams have made annual visits to the US-administered Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands to examine the people of Rongelap and Utirik atolls, in the northern Marshalls, ever since they were ex posed to fallout radiation from a Bikini hydrogen bomb test blast in March, 1954.

According to AEC records, an un predicted wind shift blew clouds of fallout on four inhabited Marshall islands lying to the east of Bikini.

Some 290 people, including 28 Americans and 23 Japanese were ex posed to the radiation. The medical condition of the Marshallese victims has been the subject of much argu ment in the territory during recent months.

According to Dr. Robert Conrad, senior scientist at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York, 53 of the 64 Rongelapese who re ceived the highest level of radiation are still living. Of these, 39.6 per cent, have developed thyroid abnor malities.

The spokesman for the Islanders, Ataji Balos, representative of the Congress of Micronesia, has been a persistent critic of US treatment of radiation victims. Mr. Balos says: “Dr. Conrad and his team of doctors might be the most qualified in the world. I do not question that. I just don’t trust them. It was the Atomic Energy Commission that dropped the bomb”.

Last August, representative Balos invited a Japanese medical survey team to the Marshall Islands to con duct an independent inspection of the Islanders. The team arrived in in December, headed by a noted radiation specialist from Hiroshima— the target of an atom bomb in 1945.

But the team got no farther than Majuro, the district centre of the Marshalls, before its members were ordered to leave by Trust Territory officials because of an immigration

misunderstanding.

Mr. Balos then took his case to the Congress of Micronesia in February

this year, and accused the United States of consciously exposing the Marshallese to fallout radiation and using them as “human guinea pigs” to study the effect of the H-bomb.

He said the government ousted the J apanese to prevent “what might prove to be an embarrassing expose of American treatment of Marshallese radiation victims”.

In response to Mr. Balos’ accusa tions, Dr. Conrad said the doctors had been “unjustly wronged”. He went on “We have given the Marshallese the best treatment avail able anywhere. We have published everything and made it known to the medical field at large”.

The Trust Territory government then invited three prominent Japanese doctors to accompany the AEC medical team. Mr. Balos agreed to the arrangement as long as the Japanese worked independently of the AEC doctors and submitted a report to the Congress of Micronesia when the survey was completed.

This idea fell through when only me of the Japanese doctors came to he islands. Asa result, Mr. Balos nstructed his constituents to resist my attempt by the AJEC doctors to examine them. The survey team re mained on Rongelap for several days in the hope that the Marshallese congressman would change his mind Dr that his fellow-congressman, Mr.

Charles Domnick, would allow his constituents on Utirik to be examined.

Both efforts proved fruitless and the AEC team left the islands.

Mr. Balos now says that he intends o secure an “impartial medical team : rom the United Nations World Edealth Organisation (WHO) to examine the Marshallese fallout /ictims. “Dr. Conrad would be wel come to accompany them,” he added.

The Congress of Micronesia has now set up a special joint committee concerning Rongelap and Utirik Atolls.

The Congress has declared that he people of the atolls should re ceive the best medical care available md also be compensated for the injuries which they suffered. The ;hree-man committee will conduct bearings and investigations and is empowered to command the produc ion of all relevant evidence so that t may report to the President of the senate and the Speaker of the House nf Representatives by May 25.

Dredging Trouble

There was a sad falling out be ween West Samoan Minister of Marine, Hon. Tupuola Efi, and rnrmer harbourmaster Peter Plowman

n March over the Samoa Times' abelling of the Asau Harbour project l “fiasco”. Plowman made a scath ng attack on Tupuola in a letter to he paper. He made no bones about he fact that he agreed with the views >f the Samoa Times. He was of the iew, as supported by a number of sxperts, that the passage into Asau agoon should have gone through the eef further to the west of the present tassage. “This would have meant that 0 per cent, of the blasting could ave been done on the reef at low /ater,” he said.

He added he doubted if the possi ility of dredging the natural channel ad ever been considered, “something diich could have possibly been done y our dredge Palolo in a matter of icnths”, and that the strong currents t Asau had always been known to im. He had mentioned these in an rticle he wrote for PIM in 1962 on le loss of the Joyita.

Mr. Plowman sympathised with the merican firm as a result of the Sects in the delay of the Asau lannel work. The delay meant un utainty as to whether ships could iter the harbour for the purpose of ;moving Potlatch timber. If they mid not, Potlatch, as general lanager T. Shelton said, would suffer were economic loss and might have 1 fold up.

)pen Door

From 1966 to September 30, 1971, c Australian Immigration Depart ent allowed 230 Fiji migrants of lon-European descent” to enter and side in the country, the Common salth Senate was told during Ques >n Time on March 22. In the same riod 25 migrants from Western imoa took up residence. Getting >wn to more detail, the department ted non-European entrants from ji for permanent residence in 1970 44 and last year 33.

Fiji non-European students enter g between 1966 and 1971 totalled 8. There were 105 students from estem Samoa during the same riod. In the visitors’ list, Fiji comes zh up the table with 5,129 over s same six-year period, a figure ex uded only by Japanese (33,552), 571)i anS ar, d Si n § a Poreans

elf-rule Now

The first mutterings in American moa about self-government reached ashington in late March. The moan high chiefs called on the US

Congress for legislation enabling the iamoan people to elect their own [overnor. But Congress looks like idopting a go-slow attitude until its nterior Sub-committee on Territories las had a first-hand look at the situa ion.

The Samoans have champions in tie shape of sub-committee chairman 'tulip Burton, a Californian demo rat, and Hawaii’s Patsy Mink, who uggested that a visit to Tutuila by the iib-committee members could whip p support for Samoan aspirations.

Mr. Burton thinks the time has ome for Samoans to elect their own overnor, but Samoa Governor John [aydon isn’t so sure. He agrees with le Interior Department’s Assistant scretary Harrison Loesch that care il preparation for financial and rganisational changes should pre jde any election by the people them- Ives.

On the Samoans’ side, High Chief danoa, member of the Samoan mate and its former president, de ares: “We are determined to control ir own affairs within our own life ue,” but qualifies that with, “We imoan leaders are cautious and oughtful men and we do not urge indamental changes lightly.” He ided that there was no reason to ithhold self-government, “even ough Samoa does not wish to lange its relationship with the US overament.”

Early in the 1960s, the Fijian chiefs id the same idea.

l Better Line

It can be accepted that telephone rvices in Western Samoa will be usiderably improved by the end of is year, according to the Minister Post Office and Radio. Impending ojects include the addition of 300 iephone lines to the existing tele ione system, a telephone system be een Apia and Asau and within the ;au township itself, an improved dphone system between Apia and ileolo, public coin telephone facili s in many coastal areas in both polu and Savaii, a telephone ex ange system for Salelologa and id mobile radio telephone services, ore post offices are being planned r the villages.

urtle Farming

Do you have 45,000 turtles? Why t go into turtle farming, then, as ery part of the turtles’ anatomy cept its head is commercially