'We’Re Neutral , Say Pitcairners!

The people of Pitcairn Island, all 80-odd of them, have declared their neutrality amid all the schemozzle over the French nuclear tests. Their homes are less than 1,000 miles from the test zone. If anything went wrong with the big bang, they might get the lot but they refuse to join the millions of protesters.

In his weekly radio chat on May 8 with the Voice of Prophecy, the Seventh-day Adventist Church's international radio production centre in California, Tom Christian reported the arrival of Fri, the nuclear test protest yacht, which is on the way to the test zone.

Fri, with 10 men and three women on board, reached the island with a leaking hull and faulty motor. Repairs were needed and the islanders agreed to try to cast an engine bearing for Fri.

Said Tom, making sure the world understood the Pit cairners' position, “We're neutrals in this thing. We are helping the crew of this vessel as an international act of courtesy\ the same kind of help we would give any ship in distress. That s as far as it goes."