Mr. Theodore R. Mitchell 5 October 29, 1974 associated with the original moves) are still under stress. ‘What this means, however, is hard to access at a distance since my theory applies primarily to the months and years immediately preceding and following forced removal. All I can say is that the mental and physical health of the people should be carefully assessed before their shift home and before they are involved in major new ventures -- ventures which would require radical changes in their activities and life style. I say this since the theory predicts that populations undergoing forced removal behave as if a social system was a closed system; that is they change no more than they have to in order to continue doing what they did in the past and the changes which occur are incremental rather than. sudden. The insistence of the people through out all these years that they be allowed to return "home" is consistent with the theory here. But once the people get home and the euphoria of having "won" fades, what then? What can be expected when they begin to settle down with three times the number of people on an idealized homeland which can be only partially utilized. With these questions in mind, I would like now to consider three points. (1) It is very important to recall that approximately 80% of the population is under 30 years of age according to the population figures. In other words, the large majority of the people will either have no | memory at all or only a vague memory of life on Enewetak. It is this age bracket which strikes me as a major unknown. To what extent do the Council of 12 really speak for them? To what extent do they wish to return to the life style of their parents and grandparents? I can not answer this question ata distance, in large part because the Enewetak population within the three volume Impact Statementis treated as if it was homogeneous. But I doubt very muchthat such . is the case, a doubt that is reinforced by the odd statement in the ; reports -- for example, ''A number of people have been exposed to imported foods and other hxcaries'' and the people have "achieved a good understanding of the behavior and values of Americans, and © “iy ‘education away from Enewetak and have developed strong tastes for severz2] have distinguished themselves in government and mission schools." In assessing the impacts of the return on the people I suspect we need at least differentiate from the very beginning between the older 20% and the remainder. (2) Compulsory resettlement projects always run the risk of the relocatees developing a dependency relationship with the relocating authorities. I would suspect that a strong sense of dependency characterizes the older people from Enewetak and that this will continue during the next decade. Even if the dependency does not already exist, most of the people are going to be dependent on outsiders for years to come simply because it will take at least seven years to