Rabaul Times, Pabaul, July 25, 1958 I asked through the ship "Has any one been sick? have you a sick bay?" but could not get an answer. IN CHAIR Aman half sleeping in a deck chair rose to his feet when he heard ny footsteps. I repeated my questions to nim. He looked at ne for a few seconds, lifted his shoulders, and replied: a few minutes we eat." "In BLOOD TESTS MADS ON 51 MEN Back on deck I found Dr, Hassler naking arrangements to ship blood-tested at the Administration clinic, One of the police officers grinned and said "I wonder how the Doe tests then, Does he shove a bit of litmus paper in their mouths to see if it turns red?* We all laughed, The Japanese looked at each other in silence for a few nomsnts, Then they must have decided it was a good joke, because they joined in the laugh. Only 14 men were blood-tested at first, but later Dr, dassler decided to run through the complement of 51 officers and men. Prom the 51 he found that five were suffering from reduced white blood corpuscle count, which is an effect of radiation exposure, 5ut he considered that even these five were in no dager. Later in his office he said: "This is my first shall we say, ‘atomic! ship, I suppose it is yours, too, "I have reached several conclusions, "The first is that there is no joubt in my mind that this ship did receive some radiation contamination, Zxactly how much we eannot say because we have only the report of what happened early last week. CAUSE "There is little doubt that radiation probably caused the bleod condition revealed in five nen, "Bat if these men had been seriously affected as far back as early last week we wuld begin te have seme symptoms by new. BEST AVA ILAgL C opy