Volunteers Wanted For Nuclear Protest Ship

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31089, 18 June 1966, Page 20

Volunteers Wanted For Nuclear Protest Ship

Volunteers to sail a protest ship to the Pacific area where French nuclear tests are to be held, are being called for by the Christchurch branch of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. The branch has been authorised by the Committee Against Atomic Tests, an Australian organisation, to accept the names of volunteers. “So far there have been no volunteers from Christchurch, and there are no great hopes that there will be any,” the secretary of the branch (Mrs R. Plumridge) said on Thursday. The type of person wanted was preferably someone who knew a lot about ships. “There could be such a person about,” she said.

The branch has already received several donations towards the project, and there have been promises of further gifts.

The Australian organisation, formed last year to protest against the tests, already has well-advanced plans for the voyage into the testing area. It is hoped the voyage will protest both against the tests and the French action in closing off vast areas of

the ocean to all travel, “. .. the high seas have traditionally been free to all.” A 37-foot ketch, the Marilyn 11, has been bought for the project, and much of its price of £4500 has already been raised.

The vessel, which will be manned by an international crew, has already been taken for a trial run. Those who have volunteered as crew include an Australian master mariner and Australian seamen, Belgian and French Quakers, a Ceylonese Buddhist monk, an American and an Australian journalist, and a Canadian anthropologist. Mrs Plumridge said the vessel might take up to 12 persons, and the crew would probably be selected from the volunteers. The Christchurch committee of the C.N.D. has decided to establish a trust fund for donations towards the expenses of the protest voyage. In an advertisement in “The Press,” the branch said that if the project failed, gifts would be returned. “Even if the protest ship is not able to postpone or stop the French, it will arouse world opinion and help prevent future tests. It will serve as a powerful declaration to other nations who are considering the acquisition of nuclear weapons that world opinion no longer will support such acts. Stopping nuclear testing is everyone’s responsibility,” said Mrs Plumridge.