U.N. Trusteeship Council debate on the Marshallese petition, 1954

The United States Government is very sorry indeed that some inhabitants of the Marshall Islands apparently have suffered ill effects from the recent thermonuclear tests in the Pacific proving grounds

I am informed that there is no medical reason to expect any permanent after-effects on their general health, due to the falling of radioactive materials.

The United States Government considers the request and the suggestions of the petitioners both reasonable and helpful.

the United States would not have been conducting such tests if it had not been determined after very careful study that they were required in the interests of general peace and security.

it is reasonable and right, as the petitioners suggest, that any Marshallese citizens who are removed as a result of test activities, will be re-established in their original habitat in such a way that no financial loss would be involved.

In the Council the United States secured the adoption by a vote of 9–3 (USSR, Syria, India) of a resolution tacitly approving our continuing such tests in the Territory.

The slowness in making a settlement of the compensation promised these people is causing increasing criticism in the Trusteeship Council.

I urge that these settlements be worked out and made forthwith.

A Soviet resolution which would have recommended that we discontinue the tests, as well as an Indian resolution which would have sought an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the legality of conducting such tests in the Trust Territory, were both decisively defeated.

From the point of view of the United States the most important item on the agenda of the recently concluded Fourteenth Session of the Trusteeship Council was the petition of the Marshallese people protesting the use of their islands

AP story written in way which will evoke public sympathy with Heine ’s position.

New York Times story criticizing US on this point killed temporarily.

be added to delegation with understanding that when petition

considered he would be released from delegation to speak for petitioners.

quotes Dwight Heine , as spokesman and as one of authors of petition

have caused irreparable harm to the health of part of the indigenous population and have resulted in serious property damage

should desist from testing hydrogen and atom bombs in the Trust Territory.

Operative paragraphs recommend that: ( a ) US stop tests in trust territory. ( b ) Provide full compensation to those affected by recent tests. ( c ) Restore full rights of inhabitants to all land used for tests.

In the course of our conversation I had occasion to say that there had been a number of atomic explosions in the USSR and that I wondered what had happened there. Mr. Sumskoi’s reply was, “but that was not in a trust territory”.

Petition is signed with 111 signatures, 11 purported to be members of the Marshallese Congress hold-over committee and 100, separately numbered, purported to be interested Marshallese citizens.

Subject: Complaint regarding the explosion of lethal weapons within our home islands.

The following should not be misconstrued as a repudiation of the US as our governing agency for the UN under the trusteeship agreement

aside from the complaint registered in this petition we have found the American Administration by far the most agreeable one in our memory

whose complete recovery no one can promise with any certainty

All the experiments with lethal weapons within this area be immediately ceased.

The people of Rongelab would have avoided much danger if they had known not to drink the waters on their home island after the radioactive dusts had settled on them.

All human beings and their valuable possessions be transported to safe distances first, before such explosions occur.

Adequate funds be set aside to pay for the possessions of the people in case they will have to be moved from their homes.