No Knowledge Of Base
(Parliamentary Reporter) WELLINGTON,
June 19.
The New Zealand Government has no knowledge of a submarine base at Wallis Island, 1800 miles north of Auckland, which France is reported to be building.
According to the Department of External Affairs in Wellington, some speculation had been noted in French newspapers.
The department does not have information concerning a report in the “Samoa Bulletin” that a nuclear submarine base is being built at Wallis Island.
That newspaper’s report said two French aircraft had passed through Western Samoa carrying French construction workers bound for the island.
“I would be very surprised if the report is true,” said the First Secretary at the French Embassy in Wellington (Mr Alain Sice) this evening. “I have no information on any such base. It is not possible to believe everything you hear, you know. "I don’t think France will have a nuclear submarine before 1969 or 1970,” he said.
Wallis Island lies about 200 miles west of Samoa and 300 miles north-east of the northern-most island of the Fiji group. . The main island, Uvea, is seven miles long and four
miles wide and has a largely Polynesian population of about 7500. A barrier reef surrounding the Island is broken by 22 small islets and the main channel through the reef is in the south. It has a depth of
about 15 fathoms and leads into a mooring bay. Wallis Island lies in the southern trade wind belt and its climate is warm and humid. Coconuts, breadfruit and bananas grow around the fringes and the natives cultivate part of the centre of the island. The United States; Army had a base on the island during the Second World War and bijilt an airstrip there now used ,by the French airline, U.T.A., on the New Caledonia, Tahiti route.
Captain Samuel Wallis was ' the European discoverer of the island in 1776. French missionaries settled there in 1837. The island became a French protectorate in 1844 and a self-governing territory with a French Resident in 1959.
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Bibliographic details
Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30472, 20 June 1964, Page 1
Word Count
338No Knowledge Of Base Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30472, 20 June 1964, Page 1
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