fests doom is acific isles * United States H-bomb and A-bomb tests have made “e Pacific Islands of Bikini and Eniwetok uninhabitable. Ng A United Nations mission, sent to the islands, which ae UN trusteeship territory, has reported that the island- 5 displaced so that the tests could be carried out will . Bbably never be able to re- On. G+ quoted the harsh observa- made by the high commis- Oner of the Marshall Islands, “which these islands are part at “conditions on Bikini pre- ded the people from return- s there for many years, if er.” his is the U.S. reply to the “tition of the displaced is- /aders to the UN two years ‘o that the tests constituted qamenace “to our life, liberty, ssppiness and possession of the . G.” gChe islanders forcibly re- ved from Bikini numbered A further 137 islanders re removed from Eniwetok. The population of two other ands, Rongelap and Utirik, re injured in the first H- .mmb test in March 1954. They ~ffered from lowered blood- ‘unt, burns, nausea, and fall- © hair. The UN mission sent out by e Trusteeship Council to in- ire into the islands visited em earlier this year. Its re- Yrt is to be debated at the ing session of the Trust- ship Council. t was headed by Sir John. WacPherson, a former gov- or of Nigeria. The mission also inquired “to the present state of the landers. . “It found that those taken jom Bikini and put on the is- ds of Killi had complaints a serious nature” about eir present conditions, though sinditions of those taken from waiwetok and put on Ujelong stand or atoll were more sat- gfactory. y It said that the people of Re other two islands who had ween injured in the H-bomb t had not developed serious diseases as a result, and that N healthy babies had been jorn to them since their ex- josure. , The report gave no reason sor the commission’s verdict, Ut official reports have re- ently been published of Bri- “sh and American scientists wa «the widespread and pro- mged dangers of atomic and ydrogen bomb tests. In past discussion in the rusteeship Council on U.S. sse of UN trusteeship terri- wry for such tests, most pow- ws have avoided the Soviet d Indian challenge that such dse is contrary to the whole bnception of trusteeship. © But if the islanders are to ye Geprived permanently of Meir islands, then the question ill arise of whether the clause N such agreements pledging the trust power “to protect Native rights over land” “has not been violated. Radiation limit reached by 1962 NEW YORK Every person in the world may have the “maximum per- missible amount” of radiation by 1962 if atomic bomb tests continue at the present rate. The full deadly effect on both present and future gen- erations would be felt by the seventies. These may be the conse- quences of atomic bomb tests, according to Ralph Lapp, U.S. atomic physicist, in a speech . to the Middlesex County, N.J., Medical Society. Lapp worked on war-time atomic projects. Lapp based his prediction on the “very conservative as- sumption” that weapons tests by the big powers will be steadily accelerated at a rate which would find them doubl- ed by 1970. * UN report disputes commission’s claims U.S. sup WASHINGTON To Lewis L. Strauss, chair- man of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, native inhabi- tants of three Pacific islands seemed ‘well and happy” after getting a sizeable dose of atomic fallout. That, at least, is what Strauss said in an official report on March 31, 1954, exactly one month after the first H-bomb explosion at Bikini. Last week the truth caught. up with Strauss, and long-held suspicions of many people were again confirmed official Washington has systematically suppressed or falsified facts about the H-bomb. When the mushroom cloud of the first H-bomb explosion of March 1, 1954, drifted astray with shifting winds 236 native residents of Rongelap, Ron- gerik and Uterik islands were exposed to fallout. In his official public report of March 31, Strauss said he visited the fallout victims three weeks after the blast. “The 236 natives appeared to me to be well and happy,” Strauss said then. “The excep- tions were two sick cases among them, one aged man in advanced stagés of diabetes, the other a very old woman with crippling arthritis. Neither of these cases had any connec- tion with the tests.” Last week a United Nations commission reported its ob- servations of these same fall- out victims. The UN investigators found that just about the time that Strauss said he saw the Pacific islanders, some were suffering from “spotty loss of hair and skin lesions.” Within 48 hours of their ex- posure to fallout, about three weeks before Strauss visited them, “about two-thirds (of the victims) experienced nausea ...a large number ex- perienced itching and burning of the skin, and in a few cases of the eyes.” \ Strauss witheld these facts when he described the victims “as well and happy.” More frightening than offic- ial falsehood is official “error.” The week’s disclosures con- firmed the H-bomb tests are not ‘“fool-proof,’ that very hazardous mis - calculations attend each test. : \ In this year’s test, it has now been officially acknowledged, the plane crew missed the tar- get by about four miles and the ground observer crews mis- calculated by one and a half miles in their estimate of where the bomb fell. Even more glaring miscal- culations were made in the 1954 tests. After witnessing the March 1, 1954 test, Representa- tive Chet Holifield (Dem. Cal- ifornia) said the explosion “was so far beyond what was predicted that you might say it was out of control.” In his official report, Strauss sought to minimise the error. Nonetheless, he admitted: “The yield was about double that of the calculated estimate.” ~ According to some experts, Strauss’ estimate of the mis- calculation was conservative. The test was supposed, to ap- proximate four megatons (equivalent to four million tons of TNT). Actually it reached around 14 megatons, according to U.S. congression- al sources. Just how those islanders be- came exposed to radiation was explained by Strauss as fol- lows: “The wind failed to follow predictions but shifted south The truth about the H-tests | — U.S. officials first denied, then admitted, then denied again soldiers had been injured when the U.S. conducted this series of atomic tests at Yucca Flat, Nevada. pressed test dangers of that line andthe little is- lands of Rongelap, Rongerik and Uterik were in the path of the fallout.” In 1954, therefore, by offi- cial admission there were “miscalculations” in estimat- © ing the power of the explo- sion and the course of the wind. In 1956, there were “mis- calculations” in hitting the target and in observing the place where the bomb dropp- ed. So much has been official- ly admitted. But what hasn’t? The question is underlined by Streuss’ record for evasion and suppression. Strauss suppressed inform- ation on the extent of the fall- out after the first H-bomb ex- plotion at Bikini. Although the bomb was dropped on March 1 1954, it was not until Feb. i5, 1955, that Strauss, after many “leaks” and persistent questions, finally made public some of the fallout facts. For people everywhere the record of official U.S. -per- formance should make the prospect of more nuclear ex- plosions disquieting. June 29, 1956 — PACIFIC TRIBUNE — PAGE 3