“¥ A Avteet nee bee eee Ont ioe sad Se et een ee ete eeee ee ee 1 TanR atte. a ste ? Outs deny oo gu bean (em Hon. Clifford P. Case ee 408315 ' e087 United States Senate DES Lo wes. Washington, D.C. 20510 Dear Senator Case: bee : UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR OFFICE OF TERRITORIES WASHINGTON, D.C, 20240 BEL ee ¢C were ra Aster ert oe oye This will acknowledge your letter of December 11 asking our comments with respect to two letters which you have received from Mr. and Mrs. Todd Jenkins, Peace Corps volunteers on Kili Island in the Marshall Island's district. , The overall history of the people now living on Kili, as related by Mr. and Mrs. Jenkins, is substantially correct. Their home atoll, Bikini, was acquired for use in nuclear testing in the late 1940s and the Bikini people were moved ultimately to Kili Island in the southern Marshalis. Bikini is an atoll whieh is typical of most of the Marshall's districc. Kili, hewever, docs not have a lagoon but is a single island with a fringing reef. Access to and from the island over the reef is admittedly difficult. Although this kind of island is not the usual one, it is by no means uncommon in the Pacific and Marshallese people have lived fer many years on a similar island, Mejit. The people of Bikini were paid $325,000 for Bikini Island. Of this amount $25,000 was paid in cash ane the remainder was invested in a trust fund, the income from which is periodically paid to them. Houses and other village facilities were buiit for them at the time of their removal to the island and other assistance was given to them toward establishing their new home. Although swaller in land area than Bikini, Kili is more fertile and lies in part of the Marshalls that has a more ample rainfall. Agricultural production thus is somewhat easier than in their home island. Nevertheless, we recopnize that the people on Kili have always enter< tained a desire to return to Bikini, ‘This is a desire with which we sympathize and more than a year ago the Hizh Commissioner and this Department requested the Atomic Energy Commission to make a new survey of Bikini to determine whether or not levels of radio activity are such that the Kili people may safely be returned. This study, which involved a field trip by a scientific team to the atoll in the early part of this year, has not yet been completed and the samples and data gathered have not yet been fully analyzed. It is therefore premature to say whether or not the Kili people might safely be returned to Bikini. — BEST COPY AVAILABLE aoe oust se eetae s LQra