A.
COMMENTS ON AUSTRALIAN RECORBS AND DATA
1.
Ref: NED 3/4/1378, dated July 21, 1958.
a.
Paragraph 3:
(Tab A, Appendix II)
The statement "they sailed through the Pacific
500 miles west of the last atom explosion center in the Caroline Islands"
is, of course, not consistent with our knowledge of the location of the
suspected event which took place at Bikini Atoll.
On the other hand,
they were about 520 miles from Eniwetok and 720 miles from Bikini ac-
cording to their position as shown on course plot (Tab A, Appendix III)
and as reported to our Government in their official advisories.
b.
Paragraph 3:
-
The statement "it was about 70 milliroentgens"
is meaningless either as a dose or dose-rate figure in the context in
which given.
No time mit is indicated.
This is further confused by
the fact that Captain Matsubara is reported in the local (Rabaul) newspaper as using a figure of 70 to indicate that this represented a number
such as "20 counts per minute above the limit of human safety."
In
actuality, the number 70 really indicates 20 counts per minute above
the higher normal backgromd limit of the instrument in question.
Ref-
erence next paregraph below and page 4 story, RABAUL TIMES, dated 25
July~1958, column 3, paragraph 1, under subhead "above limit."
(Tab
B, Appendix VI).
ce
Paragraph 4:
The numbers quoted are well within the normal
background range quoted in their second interview with the Australian
authorities.
Reference NED 3/4/1410 dated July 24, 1958, paragreph 8,
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