agitated scientist

The case of the agitated scientist

A few months back I was working away in the Hamilton Library in Hawaii, writes a PIM correspondent from Honolulu. I gradually became aware of the presence of a neighbour who was leafing in a rather agitated manner through reference books on the Pacific Islands, including the Pacific Islands Yearbook.

His search seemed to be getting him nowhere, and his evident exasperation grew accordingly. Eventu ally, the librarian introduced him to me, sug

gesting that I might possibly

be of some help.

It turned out that my rather frantic neighbour was a scientist employed by one of the United States nu clear agencies, and that he had a profound interest in

questions of the sovereignty

of various islands in the Pa cific, especially the smaller coral atolls.

He referred to an old map which showed that the US had formal claims to most of the northern Cook Islands, to Tokelau, to many of the islands of Kiribati (then still the Gilbert Islands) and of Tuvalu (for merly the Ellice Islands).

The map also showed that

there was a sharing of sover eignty between the US and Great Britain over Canton and Enderbury Islands. He didn’t hesitate to trot out the old chestnut of the US Guano Act of 1856, and took some convincing that the US did not indeed have any territorial rights, as sug gested by that act, over the Cook Islands, Tokelau, Tuvalu or sundry other Pa cific Island nations.

I was curious as to why a

gentleman in his position

was making such inquiries,

and I asked. His reply was that the US had entered into agreements with countries like South Korea and Taiwan according to which, in return for certain pro visions safeguarding the peaceful uses of nuclear en ergy, the US would under take to dispose of nuclear wastes from these countries.

Because this was a federal matter it was virtually cer tain that no state within the US, including Hawaii, would sanction the dump ing of these wastes within their territories. Therefore, it was essential to find some place or places over which the US had some claim, which were not incorpor ated within the US, where nuclear waste dumps could be set up. The argument then went that isolated coral atolls seemed to offer the best solution an attitude that would certainly be

challenged by the many

people who are familiar with, and have been moved

by, the examples set by the

exploitation, for the pur pose of developing nuclear weapons, of such places as Bikini and Moruroa.

I was naive enough to suggest that the US in fact did have some isolated islands over which her claims were undisputed.

For instance, there was Johnston Island, which had already had a role in nu clear testing. Couldn’t it be used? Oh no, came the scientist’s reply, that would never do. Johnston Island was already being used to

store chemical warfare el ements .. .

After this memorable

personal experience, I was

immensely gratified to learn

of the firm attitude of oppo sition taken by Pacific Island Leaders at the July meeting of the South Pacific Forum in Honiara to tenta tive US plans to store nu clear wastes in either

Midway, Wake or Palmyra

(PIM September).

Perhaps it is appropriate

at this point to recall an Associated Press despatch

from Washington early this

year which stated that the ‘US Army plans to blow up 26 deteriorating land mines

containing deadly chemi

cals, exploding them in

place at Dugway Proving

Ground, Utah’. The then US Secretary for Health, Education and Welfare, Joseph A. Califano, was quoted in the despatch as saying: Tt is clear that the existence of these land mines is a cause for grave concern. Because of their deteriorating condition and their exposure to the el ements, their continued existence poses an ongoing danger to public health and

safety.’