During this same period of time, however fSeptember, October, November of 196) negotiations had begun with the British for the use of Christmas Island. The British were quite anxious to have us go ahead with weapons development and they were quite anxious for us to use Christmas Island. However, they had a number of restrictions which were most difficult for the U.S. Perhaps the most difficult was that they wished to know what each shot was for including in moderate detail weapon design and to prove that shot is worth ring peters we could do it. t dor G besect. They did not want anyjland-base-tor_lagoodbased shots because they did not wish to cause that much damage to the island. The island incidentally was in use as a Coconut plantation manned by Gilbertfesenatives brought in by contract by the British. A New Zealander was the local administrator. They also wished to have a safety veto, particularly as regards to weather, and they wished to have the right to make measurements on the shots themselves as they might desire. In hindsight, | do not think the British thought these were restrictive requirements since we had been exchanging CU weapon information with them for some time and they felt it clear lyftheir island. However, these requirements were not acceptable to the U.S. It was particularly unpalatable to the U.S. to have its test program subject to the judgement of another nation. While these considerations were being debated, the U.S. sent a survey team to Christmas Island. This survey was requested by the Task Force arranged thru the State Department and was kept most discrete. The survey consisted of the scientific deputy of the Task Force, several technical representatives, an engineering representatives from,|Hames=eedetrves. The British had retained a small garrisgon on Christmas island presumably in case they wanted to go back to testing and also to continue to maintain their claim of ownership of the island. Perhaps the most outstanding feature of the survey was the IS