R. E. Hollingsworth
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Our recent experiences with Eniwetok have demonstrated an urgent
need for agency-level coordination of future United States actions
pertaining to that Atoll.
The visit of the Marshallese in May
included senior members of the Trust Territory Administration
headed up by the Deputy High Commissioner, the District Administrator
of the Marshall Islands District, Micronesian Congressman Ataji Balos
(a severe critic of U. 5. actions in Micronesia), the Magistrate
and a Councilman from Ujelang (the present home of the Enivetoxese),
the District Attorney of the Marshall Islands and several attorneys
who are in a lawyer-client relationship to the Eniwetok leaders
and people. fhe thrust of the visit, as evidenced by a close-out
meeting on May 20th was the urgency of an early return, the determina~
tion on the part of the Marshallese to determine their own destiny
by drawing up their own specifications for rehabilitation, their
dismay at the continuing use of their lands for a variety of apparently
unrelated and uncoordinated purposes and, specifically regarding
the lawyers, their clear intention to document in detail current
and future United States actions for later useinbehalf?oftheir
Clients. {By a separate informal memorandum, this latter point
thas been brought to the attention of the General Counsel, Hq).
Because there was no designated spokesman for U. 8S. Government
interests at the May 20th meeting and because there were issues
and questions of multi-agency concern, my representative who
attended at the request of the Deputy High Commissioner accepted.
. responsibility for two actions:
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,
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to convey to appropriate national level authorities the
need for central U. S. Government coordination of all
future actions pertaining to Eniwetok.
b. _ to convey to the same authorities the desire and the need
of both the Marshallese and, in their behalf, the Trust |
Territory Administration for current and accurate information regarding United States actions and intentions.
(In this connection, it is noted that there is in the
tape recorded record of the meeting an acknowledgement
by the Deputy High Commissioner that until March 1972
the Trust Territory Administration was not aware of the
PACE Program, although quite substantial efforts on that”
program had then been underway at Enivetok for some months.)
I believe that the conditions set forth in this memorandum
strongly suggest the establishment at
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the Washington level of.a
single manager for all future United States actions pertaining