. . -t- The administration has attempted to upgrade copra production and subsistence agriculture for the past several years. There has been a noticeable improvement. However the Enewetak Peopie certainly do not have the economic advantages which they would have had if they had not been uprooted from the larger atoll. The unfavorable economic situation and the persistent desire to return to Enewetak finally stimulated aggressive action by the people. They threatened to evacuate the atoll in 1967 and in 1968 the leaders petitioned the United Nations for assistance in returning to Enewetak. In 1968 they again threatened to evacuate the atoll and come to Majuro. Economic help was given them by &he administration. Relief shipments of food were sent to the community. An ex gratia payment of $1,020,000 was made them in 1969. This was placed in a trust fund, the interest of which has helped. Monies were also allocated for the construction of badly needed public facilities on the atoll. The Ujilang comunity assumed the responsibility for doing the actual Labor involved. These efforts to ameliorate the situation, while welcome, did not lessen the desire of the people to return to their ancestral homeland, They continued to press for this goal, Discussions and meetings were held witn government officials, The long awaited answer reached Majuro on April 19th L972 when the High Commissioner informed the District Administrator that Enewetak Atoll would be returned to its former inhabitants in 1973. This marked the beginning of a new and better life for these displaced people, and an end to their long years of exile.