H-BOMB TESTS IN PACIFIC

Press, Volume XCV, Issue 28264, 30 April 1957, Page 13

H-BOMB TESTS IN PACIFIC

Sir William Penney To Leave On June 1

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright)

(Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON, April 29. Britain’s atom weapons chief, Sir William Penney, has booked an air passage leaving London on June 1 for Sydney. The flight is presumed to be connected with the forthcoming nuclear tests on Christmas Island, in the Pacific. The booking is on a British Overseas Airways Corporation flight due in Sydney on June 3. Officials of the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority had no comment to make on Sir William Penney’s journey, early today.

No date has yet been given for Britain’s Pacific nuclear tests. The Government’s warning to ship- I ping to keep clear of a defined area around Christmas Island is effective from March 1 to August 1.

The “Daily Express” says tkvo important questions are raised r»y Sir William Penney’s decision. They are: Have the tests been delayed for a further six weeks because the scientists have run into technical trouble in preparing the bombs? Is the trouble so serious that Sir William Penney has to go to Christmas Island to supervise the first—and most important —explosion in person? In Tokyo, Japanese Fishery Board officials confirmed today that a fleet of nine Japanese fishing vessels was operating within the British designated danger zone waters around Christmas Island. They are operating from Samoa. Reports yesterday said the vessels had refused to leave the area. A spokesman for the Cape Muroto Tuna Fishing Co-operative, western Japan, said the co-opera-tive had instituted a system of hourly radio messages requesting the fleet to leave the danger zone, but no contact with the vessels had been made. A spokesman said the fishing grounds around Christmas Island were traditional Japanese fishing grounds. He rejected the British Government’s published statement that Japanese fleets had begun operations there only during the last three or four years. “They have every right to go on fishing there,” he said.

A Maritime Safety Board official said the board had taken the case “under review.” He added that the board might dispatch a patrol vessel to escort the fleet out of the danger zone. A Japanese official - spokesman said his Government was studying a proposal for appeal to the Internationa) Court of Justice for a ruling on freedom of the high seas as affected by the restriction of large areas by nuclear tests. He instanced the Christmas Island area.