PROTEST TEAM TO INVADE FRENCH ATOM TEST SITE

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29068, 3 December 1959, Page 10

PROTEST TEAM TO INVADE FRENCH ATOM TEST SITE

(2VJZ. Press AssoctaUon—CopynoM)

ACCRA, December 1. An international Sahara bomb test protest team today appealed to President de Gaulle from its headquarters in Accra —a derelict hut on the seafront—to call off France’s proposed atom bomb test in the Sahara. In a letter to the French President, handed in to the French Embassy in Accra for forwarding, the protest team said: “Once more, before we undertake our journey from Accra to the test site, we appeal to you to issue the order to stop the test Gladly, in that case, would we give up our journey.” The letter said the team did not want to cause embarrassment to the French Government, but if the “French Government persists in its repeatedly announced purpose to carry out the Sahara test, we have no choice. Conscience compels us to cry out. We must seek to act in a manner that involves risk and sacrifice,” the letter said. The team, which is led by the Rev. Michael Scott, a champion of African causes, has assembled jeeps—flying black and white flags—and enough equipment for the long trek. It is expected to leave at the end of the week

It is understood that an advance party has already made a preliminary reconnaissance of the route up to the Ghana-upper Volta border, where the team will enter French territory. The French Government has refused to issue visas. According to reports, the French authorities intend to arrest the team if it enters the testing area. Appeal in Paris

In Paris, more than 350 Frenchmen and women, including leading professors, scientists, writers, and clergymen, have signed an appeal calling on the Government to renounce voluntarily any nuclear weapons tests.

A public petition is being circulated by the non-political French Federation Against Atomic Armaments.

The petition says those signing do not vjish France to share “in even the smallest measure” the responsibility for putting radioactive particles into the atmosphere to the detriment of present and future generations. It calls on the Government to ban nuclear weapons and become “the first atomic Power to choose freely to devote its energy solely to the service of peace, progress, and reason.”