AOee

PROPOSED Q&A ON BIKINI ISLANDERS

Can the natives be returned to Bikini now?
No decision on that question has been made yet.

An

inter-agency team of scientists visited the atoll last
year and collected considerable raw data on the current
conditions

there.

That material is being analysed now.

The ultimate Aecision is not AEC's alone, however.
Department of

the

Interior's

Trust Territories

The

Office,

the State Department and the Defense Department are also
involved.

There is, however,

a good deal of sympathetic

interest within the govarnment with the natives'
to

desire

return.

Questions on the current status of the Bikini Islanders
and on the choice of Kili and the history of the move
should be referred to the Truet Territories Office in

on.
rm

7

the Interior Department.

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