Action On Tests Urged

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30839, 26 August 1965, Page 14

Action On Tests Urged

(N.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND, Aug. 25. The president of the Federation of Labour (Mr T. E. Skinner) hopes that a Pacific region trade unions’ conference in Sydney in December to protest against the French nuclear tests will do more than pass resolutions.

Mr Skinner, who has recently returned from Amsterdam, where a New Zealand resolution protesting against the tests received the unanimous support of delegates to the International Confedera-

tion of Free Trade Unions’ conference, said the obvious way to prevent the tests taking place was to have work stopped on the Gambier Island site. The Free French Trade Unions were opposed to the tests, said Mr Skinner, but they had got nowhere with President de Gaulle. The French people generally were also against the tests, but when it was realised these were going to be held the weight of public opinion resulted in the Government switching the test site from the Sahara to Gambier Island, which was not far from the phosphate deposits of Nauru Island. “This is why we are very

concerned,” said Mr Skinner. “Our whole future is in danger because of the possibility of radiation in our phosphates. The very economy of the country and the health of the nation is endangered.” If the tests were not dangerous, as the French Government claimed, why were they not being held in the Sahara, asked Mr Skinner. It would be far cheaper for the French to test in the already established area. Mr Skinner said the New Zealand delegation to the Sydney conference had not been selected. If there were any women in the unions to be represented they could possibly be appointed to present the women's point of view.