Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 27, No. 14. 1964.
Protection Of Our Children
Protection Of Our Children
At a recent public meeting of CRAFT in Auckland, it was stated that opposition to the tests was based on the fact that they were being held in defiance of a world consensus of opinion as expressed in the nuclear test ban treaty. It was also pointed out that no adequate scientific evidence had been brought forward to suggest that the tests would have no deleterious effects on New Zealand citizens in Pacific dependencies. There would "almost certainly" be an increase in the numbers of stillborn and deformed infants and in deaths from leukaemia and cancer, it was claimed by Northey.
CRAFT intends to base its vessels on Pitcairn or the closer, uninhabited Oeno group. It has been in contact with Pitcairn Islanders, who are sympathetic to the project, said Northey. The base will be a centre of operations to which supplies can be brought, and also a radio base. Vessels will remain in the testing zone till the French take action against them or explode a nuclear device.