French Embassy Denial

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31763, 21 August 1968, Page 1

French Embassy Denial

(N.Z. Press Association)

WELLINGTON, August 20.

No injury from radio activity had been detected among Polynesians since French nuclear tests began in the Pacific, a French Embassy spokesman said tonight.

The Embassy was replying to allegations made last week by a Raiatea islander, Mr

Charles Brotherson, who said that young men were sick—with their skin peeling off and their hair falling out. The spokesman said that territorial authorities had not received an application for an inquiry into radioactivity on the island from the population of Raiatea. The authorities in Polynesia, together with the health service, were in a position to deny positively the published allegations, he said.

The spokesman said that no contamination had been found in fish, arid it was out of the question that serious or even mild poisoning could be traced to the eating of contaminated fish.

He said the reply to Mr Brotherson’s allegations was being made only after all the necessary inquiries had been made to the French Government and the territorial authorities in Polynesia. France will explode its first hydrogen bomb before Saturday if the weather is suitable, United Press International reported today.

The explosion already has been postponed from last week-end. It could be put off again if high altitude winds are too strong over Fangataufa Atoll. The site is 800 miles south-east of Tahiti.