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Show The Salt Lake Tribune, Sunday. February 25,1973 ] .Marshajlese to Press Claim Neighbors Want Wrake Island By Jon Anderson Reuters News Agency JAPAN - Leaders of a nation of 20,000 persons are Challenging the United States en a territorial claim they are ready, to take to the United Rations or World Court for settlement. > Wake Island, once an Ameri-ean tourist outpost in the Pa-fific now controlled by the U.S. Air Force, suddenly is tieing claimed by the neighboring Marshall Islands. • The 20,000 Marshallese, living on a string of tiny palm-fringed atolls in the Central pacific, form part of the U.S.-administered Pacific Trust territory generally known as jlicronesia, which is pressing for self-government. "'.' | The U.S. annexed the three atolls of Wake in 1898 and the island reached the pinnacle of £s fame as the site of the first major land battle between American and Jampanese forces in World War II. . • ; A Source of Food * Now the Marshallese claim the island is in fact named ,oB Enen-Kio, for centuries a Source of food, if not a permanent settlement for their an-eestors. t Their claim to Wake has I Seen presented to the Cons' |ress of Micronesia, highest i lawmaking. body for the vast Pacific Trust Territory, in the capital of Saipan. | Chief Marshallese spokesman on the issue is Sen. Ataji Balos, a member of the Jlicronesian Congress, who says: "If necessary I will go to the United Nations and the International Court of Justice to press our claim for Enen-Kio." ; "The U.S. is there by occupation, but .we own ,the island," he added. ! Resolution Proposed '- The 33 lawmakers of the Congress, six of them from the Marshall Island group, are being asked to adopt a resolution that "Enen-Kio is and always has been the property of the people of the, Marshall Islands and forms an integral part of the trust territory." The claim to Wake is based on spoken legends and songs passed down through generations, and today by only a few of the older islanders. Dwight Heine,"_ a Marshallese well-versed in his people's traditions and also a special consultant to the U.S.-appointed territorial high commissioner, says Wake was never a permanent settlement because it was too small'and dry.. Many Voyages But ancient Marshallese did make many voyages to the island and considered it and its surrounding waters a food source. The atoll also has religious significance as a source of a sacred bird's wing bone used in traditional Marshallese tattooing ceremonies. Never particularly important from a military standpoint, \Vake was the scene of fighting at the outbreak of the Pacific war. Japanese troops attacked the atoll on the same day the famous attack on Pearl Harbor was carried out in 1941. When Wake's small garrison finally surrendered two weeks later the island's name became a rallying cry for U.S. Marines throughout the Pacific. Before and since the war Wake was an important stopping place for transpacific military, and .civilian flights. P an American Airways (PanAm) established a seaplane base there in )935. Modern long-range jets have since made the stop usually unnecessary'. • PauAm pulled out in 1971 and the U.S. Federal Aviation Adminstration, which had controlled the island, pulled out its personnel and handed over to the Air Force, which maintains a 9,800-foot (3,000-metre) runway and navigational equipment. Several hundred Americans still live on Wake, although some military, officials now believe the island may soon become obsolete in strategic planning. If so Wake, like another nearby Marshallese atoll, Eni-wetok, site of nuclear testing, could be handed back to local ownership. . The Salt Lake Tribune 2? Feb 73 2 Utah Firms Seek Trident Job Roles : li-lBy Frank Hewlett Tribune Washington Bureau WASHINGTON - Two Utah firms'are bidding for a major role in 'the Navy's ambitious Trident missile program. They*are, according to Sen. Wallace F. Bennett, R-Utah, the Thiokol Corp. and Hercules, Inc., making a joint venture bid for a major research and. development subcontract expected to be awarded this summer. • The senator also said the . Pentagon is considering, among -other sites, the Green River, Utah - White Sands, N.M., missile range complex for testing this addition to the nation's submarine-launched missile arsenal. Prime Contractor The. Lockheed Corp., which developed the Poseidon missile 'program, will be the prime contractor for the Tri-jjent- missile, which has a longer range than the Poseidon. Thiokol and ;Hercules have produced the first and second stage -units of the Poseidon missile in their Utah plants under a joint venture contract with Lockheed. The first Trident submarine is scheduled to join the fleet in 1978. The first 10, each carrying 24 missiles, are to be completed by 1983. The administration's fiscal 1974 budget, now before Congress, contains more than $1 billion for the first of these giant missile launching submarines. Support Center .Early this month the Navy announced that Bangor Naval Annex,, on Puget Sound near Bremerton, Wash, had been licked as the support centei for the Trident program. Plans also were announced for $500 million in new facilities at Bangor for the program, which win provide an estimated 6,000 jobs. Sen. Bennett said existing radar systems at the Green River missile launch .site in Utah and .the White Sands Range in New Mexico could be modified easily to handle test requirements for the Trident missile. |
