_+ United” ates Departmentof the I. rior -~OFFICE OF TERRITORIES WASHINGTON, D.C.. 20240 - | JUL 29 902 AG Hon. Edward E. Johnston High Commissioner Trust Territory.of the Pacific Islands Saipan, Mariana Islands 96950 Dear Mr. Johnégon: ‘this will be something of a pot-boiler on the subject of the Bikini resettlement.program. It is prompted, in part, by the recent action of the House Appropriations Committee in recom- mending the full amount of your 1970 budget request, but also by the interest in the resettlement program from a number of members of the Congress and the public. Enclosed for your ready reference is a copy of the 1970 budget justification for the Bikini project. Also enclosed is a copy of the “issue" paper which was presented to the Bureau of the Budget last fall by your predecessor and the Department, the paper which formed the basis for the $1.7 million allowance in the 1970 budget. | I would say first, that you are committed only to the 1970 program and that, should conditions on the atoll dictate, you can, with Committee approval, modify that.. The program was put together on - the basis of a brief survey of the atoll last August and some in- formal consultation with the Bikini leadership. For that reason, we have attempted consistently to modify the program for 1971 and future years with terms such as “currently estimated" and “approximately." You may want to change it considerably in the months ahead * ‘ Nonetheless, as soon as the 1970 funds are available to you, you should be prepared to move promptly to implement the first part of the resettlement project, This includes, of course, the start on construction of housing for the returning Bikinians, some basic conmunity facilities, and, perhaps most important, a substantial start on the replanting project. I know that you have had a representative on the atoll during most, if not all, of the cleanup phase and that there have been some consultations with the Bikini people. However, we have no current information on your specific plans for the resettlement project as contrasted to the necessarily somewhat more general proposals of last fall and the Appropriation hearings. REPOSITORY COLLECTION pot/PAso_ poe/ WV ae 2" ! : . / /} f