Checks On French Test Effects

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31052, 6 May 1966, Page 13

Checks On French Test Effects

(N.Z.P.A. Reuter—Copyright) PARIS, May 4. President de Gaulle has told Peru, Colombia and Ecuador that strict security measures are being taken to ensure that France’s Pacific nuclear tests have no harmful effects on their peoples.

In letters to the Peruvian, Colombian and Ecuadoran Presidents, President de Gaulle suggests an exchange of technicians to examine security measures.

The letters are in reply to messages from the three Latin American Presidents expressing concern over the effects of French tests. The messages all appealed for the friendship between themselves and France to prevail in stopping the tests.

In reply, President de Gaulle said the tests were important for France, which “must have the appropriate means to pursue its policy of world equilibrium and consequently peace.” He said several other countries had tested nuclear de-

vices in the Pacific “without provoking, except for restricted zones and for a limited period, prejudicial effects on fauna, flora or human activities.”

The tests would not be “as extensive as previous tests,” said the President. French experts had deliberately chosen a testing site “far from all inhabited and windswept regions.”