Will nuclear tests come

to the Marquesas?

From JAMES BOY AC K, in Tahiti

France may conduct nuclear tests on the Marquesan island of Eiao, about 1,000 miles north-east of Tahiti. This is the rumour being spread by major world newspapers, including the reliable Paris daily, Le Monde.

The rumour got started as follows.

Someone at the Journal de Tahiti heard from a friend that some kind of work was about to begin on Eiao, the deserted, northernmost island in the Marquesas group. The work was to be done by the Pacific Experiments Centre (CEP), the atomic test out fit. The local journalist published a “coconut radio” item to this effect.

It was in the hypothetical tense.

I am the local correspondent for United Press International. I called the CEP spokesman and asked him if the rumour was true. He said he didn’t know. I said I would cable the item before the evening. If the story were false, I would cable a CEP denial.

At about 4 p.m. that day, August 14, the spokesman flatly denied the rumour. He said the CEP was not beginning work on an underground test facility at Eiao. He did admit, however, that a team of “tens” from the Bureau of Geological and Mineral

Research (BRGM) would be going to the island to search for exploitable minerals. The CEP, he said, would provide logistic support for the team —that was all. He said the CEP has often in the past helped government scientists working in French Poly nesia, notably CNEXO, the French oceanographic institute now con structing an installation in Tahiti.

The French news agency cor respondent and I sent out identical reports of this CEP denial, which the spokesman termed “categoric”.

Our reports contained the follow ing speculative information. Eiao was classified one year previously as a

“protected site”. No geological poking

around, or exploitation of the island in any way, could be accomplished except with written consent from the Government Council here. No such permission had been accorded the CEP. The governor, however, had given his verbal authorisation to the CEP and the BRGM. (This oversight was corrected two weeks later by the Government Council).

Eiao, a volcanic island, presents no

geological particularities to dis

tinguish it from other islands in the group. Its only distinguishing feature is its remoteness and inaccessibility.

We noted that two of the Marquesas Islands have airstrips, housing, regular food and fuel supplies, etc., all the necessities of life Eiao lacks.

I recalled an announced French government plan to build a third air strip in the Marquesas. Work on this strip, one which would be big enough to handle jet traffic, was tentatively scheduled to begin in 1974. The official reason for such a strip was that North American tourists could visit the Marquesas. The only prob lem would be that there is no accommodation in the Marquesas.

Otherwise, it was something of a mystery why a jet strip was needed for an archipelago with a population of just over 5,000.

The jet strip is planned for Nuku Hiva, the island closest to Eaio.

Our reports speculated that France intended to study the island’s struc ture for the purpose of deciding whether underground tests could be conducted there.

We discounted the mineral research theory. The mineral allegedly to be investigated is abundant in Tahiti.

The week following our reports saw our speculation spread around the world. I read a story written for The Economist and published in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, for which I am also local correspondent, which used terms identical to those of my first cable.

In France, opposition Deputy Michel Rocard addressed a “written question” to Defence Minister Michel Debre concerning the Papeete specula tion. Local Deputy Francis Sanford cabled congratulations to Rocard and said, “Polynesian community awaits government reply.”

At the end of the week, the heli copter carrier Ouragan left Tahiti for a two-month visit to Eiao. It carried dozens of crates to the island which took more than one full day to load aboard. The Journal de Tahiti photographed these crates marked “Eiao” and “BRGM”.

Prior to the Ouragan’s departure, local Governor Pierre Angeli joined the CEP in denying that the BRGM team intended to prepare underground tests.

While denying the Eiao speculation, the CEP spokesman revealed that underground compartments were being constructed on Mururoa. Men and material would seek shelter in them at the time of each future nuclear test on Mururoa.

Which means France will conduct more nuclear tests in the atmosphere, probably in June and July, until 1975.

No underground tests are contem plated there.