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Salient: Victoria University Students' Paper. Vol. 27, No. 14. 1964.

[introduction]

France plans to hold atmospheric nuclear tests in the Pacific in July 1966. Dissatisfied with the ineffectiveness of New Zealand Government protests, a group of Aucklanders, predominantly students, have formed a new organisation with the object of taking more positive action.

The Committee for Resolute Action Against French Tests (CRAFT) aims to sail a fully-equipped light vessel or vessels into the danger area when the tests are due to be held. Any attempt by the French Government to interfere with the boat, provided it was not in territorial waters, would be an act of piracy and would constitute a breach of international law as laid down in the 1958 Geneva Agreement, says CRAFT.

IF, on the other hand, the French chose to ignore the presence of the boat and to blast it out of the sea, this would prove an even more effective protest, it is claimed.

CRAFT has been formed to coordinate public action against the tests, according to the Auckland Branch President, science student R. J. Northey. Apart from the principal objective, he says, CRAFT intends to act along as many lines as possible, including:
  • Instituting an embargo on the shipment of food supplies from New Zealand to the test area
  • pressuring the Government to sponsor a United Nations resolution against the tests
  • pressing for a special conference of Southern Hemisphere Pacific nations
  • demanding that New Zealand Government vessels be sent to the area.