CY
vt
=26releted and then laughed heartily.
Heine, whose parents and grendparents were killed by the Japanese, said
"We (Marshallese) like the Americans,
to have you (U.S.) stay here."
We petitioned Congress with 2,C00 names
If Heine or his fnnati wordees have eny regret
about the petition sent to the U.N. it is that it might bommerang and hurt
the trust territory people.
in on the petition,
"There was a reason we did uot have Americans
They are very nice,
trouble," he explained,
We did not want them to get in
Later Heine came to me and said:
"We want
Mr. (Maynar3) Neas (Acting District Administrator) to be District Administrator,
I? in any way our petition implies lack of confidence in him or the Trust
Territory Government say that it is not not so."
Heine said thet "Everyone
(Americans in the Marshalls) sympathize with us.
They felt a responsibility
for what hanpened."'
That is the concensus of what I found in talking to the
Americans on the island.
Neas, in commenting on the accident, said:
"I
believe officials of the nuclear tests should have given adequate and timely
information te the natives so they could protect themselves,
To my lmowledz2
this was rot done,"
Bob L. Omis, missionary for the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign
Mission, Bostsrn, is on Mojuro translating the Bible for the deeply religious
Marshallese.
Hemade this comment on the petiticn:
Dwight (Heine) is smart.
It wag a sensible way to handle it as it did not
involve (U.S.) Government people.
consciousness,"
"I think I approve it.
It will help the people here get national
Doctor Dunham Kirkham of Avoca, New York, a former Army
doctor and now the Trust Territory doctor for the Marshall Islands, said of
the incident:
"It's tough on these people,
of our promises,
They seem a littie distrustful
They are thinking of Bikini."
(more)
Another Trust Territory