Sit-Down Protest On Bomb Test Planned

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28223, 11 March 1957, Page 9

Sit-Down Protest On Bomb Test Planned

(Rec. 11 p.m.) TOKYO, March 9. The Japan council against atomic and hydrogen bombs said today that it was negotiating for a ship to carry a “sit down” party to the British H-bomb testing grounds in the Christmas Island area. The council said that no final decision had yet been reached on the sending of the “sit down” party. The Japanese Government earlier announced opposition to the scheme as endangering human life. The Japanese Foreign Office today declined to comment on reports from London that a third Japanese protest note to Britain on the forthcoming bomb test in the area contained “additional points.” Japanese press reports from London said that the third note asked for a promise of compensation should Japan suffer damage as a result of the tests. The Japanese Prime Minister,; Mr Nobusuke Kishi, last Monday told the Lower House of the Diet that Japan was “assuming that Britain would take full responsibility for any damage arising out of the tests.” The chief Cabinet secretary, Mr

Hirohide Ishida, said that the Government would ask Bishop Hinsuke Yashiro of the Japan Episcopal Church, to go to Britain to appeal to the British Government to suspend the tests. Bishop Washiro said yesterday that he would decline to go to Britain if asked because he was convinced the British Government would go ahead with the series of tests regardless of protests. Owners of the tiny Palmyra atoll, nearest United States island to the British hydrogen bomb testing grounds, yesterday filed a formal protest with the British Consulate in Hawaii. A lawyer for the Fullard-Leo family said that the nuclear tests on Christmas Island, 357 miles south-east of Palmyra, might do irreparable damage to fishing in the area and to flora and fauna.

The family said that it planned to develop the 250-acre coral island into a resort and sports fishing paradise. The tiny island is officially part of the city and county of Honolulu, in spite of being 960 miles south of Hawaii. At present it is populated by one American, who acts as weather observer and caretaker.