RESETTLEMENT OF PEOPLE 4 1961 continued the 750 acre island, or about $10 per zone" for incoming Inter-Continental acre a year, and provides that the U.S. Ballistic Missiles shot from California. will “improve the economic and social conditions of the Marshallese people, particularly at Ebeye..." "...it is the conviction of the United States that it has the responsibility not only to its people but to all the peoples of the free world to maintain at a maximum its capacity to deter aggression and preserve peace. Thus it believes that...further tests are...absolutely necessary for the eventual well being of all the people of this world." U.S. statement to U.N. Trustee- Kwajalein: The central two-thirds of Kwajalein's lagoon becomes a new "im- pact area” for missiles. Faced with several hundred inhabitants on the islands bounding this area, known as the “Mid-Corridor," the Defense and Interior Departments decide the "most practical and economic solution to the range safety problem" is to relocate the people to Ebeye Island. ship Council in response to a petition from Marshall Islands leaders (April, 1956). four one-room apartments, and also a sewer system, fresh and salt water distribution systems, and a power plant. No funding, however, is budgeted for 1963 Kwajalein: A case of polio in the American population on Kwajalein starts maintenance and upkeep of these facil- an epidemic in the northern Marshall ities. Although the polio vaccine was discovered 8 years earlier, no one DECEMBER Kwajalein: The first 28 had been given shots. 212 cases of severe residual paralysis resulting from polio are recorded among the apartment units are completed and assigned to the Mid-Corridor people. 18,000 inhabitants of the Marshall Islands. The rate in the U. S. is about one patient with severe residual “We cannot make enough copra. The reason is that the people have to eat it, and the rats also eat it...We also need sail cloth and other materials to equip our ca- paralysis per 1,000 cases of polio. —=- "Land means a great deal to the Marshallese. It means more than just a place where you can plant your foud crops and buiid your” houses; or a place where you can bury your dead. It is the very life of the people. Take away their land and their spirits go also." Petition from Marshall Islands leaders to United Nations, March 1956. noes...The conditions on Ujelang —_ are worse now...there are more -peeple now, especially children who are too young to work or to work hard, but who must also eat. We did not complain when the Navy told us we had to leave our atoll Kwajalein Island (the command base of the Pacific Missile Range) is signed by the Kwajalein landowners and the U. S. Government. The lease provides $750,000 in compensation for use of I002b10 - of Enewetak...We cooperated with the Americans...Now we need help badly, we ask America for help in our suffering. us home." 1964 Kwajalein: A 99 year lease for ——— Islands. The Army begins an "Ebeye Improvement Project," which includes the construction of 78 cement block units each containing Help us, or send Enewetak leader on Ujelang,1969. 1965 JANUARY Kwajalein: Marshallese from the 13 inhabited Mid-Corridor islands (continued on page 17)