Honorable Richard M. Nixon Page 4 May 4, 1973 an atoll, and is fringed with a reef. There is no lagoon, and all shipping from heavy winds and tides isolate the island from November until March or April of each year. Kili Island is almost devoid of marine resoureces. The absence of a lagoon completely eliminates the type of fishing to which the Bikinians were accustomed. Surf and sea conditions at Kili prohibit the use of sailing, sea going canoes once used on Bikini, and these have fallen into disrepair. The fringing surf prevents any vessel of size from approaching closer than several hundred yards from Kili. Off-loading of supplies is often impasSible, and when possible, it is both dangerous and costly. The reef itself is dense and homegeneous and does not support lobsters, other mollusks, or varieties of reef fish. For a fishing people accumstomed to an atoll, Kili is a prison; the reef and surf isolates them and prevents access to the even limited marine resources available beyond the fringing reef. Kili had been a copra plantation during Japanese and times, and most of the arable land was planted in coconuts. German When the Bikinians arrive in 1948, there were only a few pandanus and breadfruit trees, and none of the hardwood trees found on Bikini for use in house and canoe construction. Kili has agricultural potential, but for a marine-orientated people, accustomed to fishing and unaccustomed to tilling soil and cutting brush on Kili, culture has never been either rewarding or successful. agri- Life on Kili island has never been pleasant for the Bikini people. In the early years, and continuing to the present, difficulties are too numerous to explain in detail. surf and sea conditions, the The heavy plus frequent local ship shortages, usually prevented more than four visits a year by a field trip vessels. Failure of the field trips meant that the copra that the Bikini people had produced was left to spoil or be eaten by rats. Failure to pick up copra was strong disincentive to make it. Food shortages were again common and the people became convinced that Kili was another Rongerik. food shortages occurred, In 1949 and 1950 and again in 1952 severe enough so that in 1952 a ton of food was air dropped to the people. Even then, parachutes were not used, and the food was broken and ruined. The efforts at agriculture did not work and produced little food. The Bikinians were Given one large ship, a converted forty-foot whaleboat, which was wrecked on the Kili reef soon after it was procured. The community was in debt and copra production was minimal. Then and now the Bikini people have an expression for Kili: Kili enana, meaning Kili is no good. In 1953 a Kili development project was begun, based upon the United States government information th at Bikini atoll would not be habitable at any time in the near future. The development