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TIED HOVER
OFFICE OF TERRITORIES
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20240
Hon. Clifford P. Case
United States Senate
Dear Senator Case:
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DEC 19 40.07
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Washington, D.C. 20510
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39 Wont
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
‘Sd
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 Marshalls. Bikini is an atoll which is
typical of most of the Marshall's district. Kili, however, does
.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 Pacizic and Marshallese people have lived for many
years on a similar island, Mejit.
Tne people of Bikini were paid $325,000 for Bikini Island.
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Of this
amount $25,000 was paid in cash and the remainder was invested in a
trust fund, the income from which is periodically paid to them. Houses
and other village facilities were built for them at the time of their
Yemoval to the island and other assistance was given to them toward
establishing their new home. Although smaller 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 recognize that the people on Kili have always enter=
tained a desire to return to Bikini. This is a desire with whichwe
sympathize and more than a year ago the High 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. |
.