Page Two THE MICHIGAN DAILY Friday, August 5,1977
Swiss radio sor o 'war'

GENEVA, Switzerland '
Swiss radio apologized yes
day for a satrical program
which phony news bulletins
ported an East-West war
which neutron bombs w
dropped and 480,000 people]
ed. The broadcast triggere<
rash of panicky telephone ca
The 50-minute program
titled "Sorting Out the Fai
was aired Wednesday night
mediately after the regi
evening newscast.
R E A L I S T I C sound
news flashes interspersed

) - tween music and local com-
ter- mentary reported that heavy
in fighting broke out along the
re- border between East and West
in Germany. Later bulletins said
vere neutron bombs had been set.
kill- off and there was a regretful
d a announcement of the death toll.
ills. The Swiss radio incident re-
en- caller' Orson Welles' "War of
cts" the Worlds" broadcast on Hal-
im- loween 1938 about a make-be-
ular lieve Martian invasion of New
Jersey. That broadcast touched
off panic and a mass exodus by
ing thousands of New York area
be. residents.
"480,000 people killed but no
'N destruction and goed luck for
the survivors,": one Swiss radio
editor said ,in summarizing the
program. "The intention was
to satirize the concept of the
neutron bomb as a dean bar'b.
We thought it would be clear to
everybedy that these news
flashes were fiction."
THE SATIRE was based on a
West German magazine story
War

on the bomb, which some com- 40 worried calls were received from a rerun of the show plan-
mentators' described as a wea- during the night - mainly from ned for Sunday. The radio is
pon made to kill people and German tourists or liste:ers in operated by the Swiss Broad-
leave property undamaged. The neighboring southern Germany. casting Co., a nonprofit, semi-
recently developed U. S. war- More calls came in the morn- private organization that is in-
head produces twice the dead- ing and at least one American dependent of government con-
ly radiation as a conventional called his home town paper on trol
nuclear bomb but less than one- the West Coast to get details. "We really didn't anticipate
tenth as much blast power, heat "All were raving mad when this reaction," said Juerg
and fallout. Thus destruction to they were told why they should Kauer, editor of the radio's en-
buildings and other inanimate not be alarmed," said one ra- tertainment department. "We
objects would be far less. dio official. thought the news flashes were
Some of the estimated 2(10,000 \ Editors apologized for the so sarcastic and exaggerated
listeners didn't find the satire program and said the news that there was no doubt they
very funny. Officials said about flashes would be eliminated were made up."
France drops Guiana plan
PARIS (A) - A two-year-old inally applied for government government tightened earlier
government plan to send 30,000 sponsorship to settle in the col- requirements for age, financial
white settlers to develop ony, tucked on South America's status, professional ability and
French Guiana, the last colony northern shoulder between Bra- health.
on the South American main- zl and Surinam and best Jean-Emile Vie, who is with
land, is being called a failure. known for nearby Devil's Is- the Cour des Comptes, an in-
Only about 30 colonists have ar- land, malaria and leprosy. vestigative agency overseeing
rived. MOST WERE eliminated government expenditures, said
About 38,000 Frenchmen orig- when, after further study, the in a written evaluation that the
program was initiated with
lots of publicity but without pro-
per study or funding.
He was the top ranking civil
servant in the Ministry for Ov-
erseas Territories until this
spring when he joined the Cour
de Comptes. The agency's name
translates literally as court of
accounting.
VIE SAID the plan "
(=y raised international distrust,
h c n. and disappointment in France
and bitterness in French Gui-
ana."
He also said the government
has had to assure several na-
tions that France is not return-
ing to colonialism.
A ministry spokesmatl had no
comment on Vie's accusation,
but said Olivier Stirn, the sec-
retary of state for overseas ter-
ritories, made it clear when the
S'"plan was announced that it
would take many years to be
implanted.
WHEN THE PLAN was
launched, reporters were told
that the idea was to develop 20
per cent of the colony's 35,000
square miles of forest and wipe
out French dependence on for-
eign paper suppliers and a
eign paper suppliers and a
yearly loss in foreign exchange
of about $460 million.
Most of the settlers were to
be involved in forestry, paper
and agriculture.
Only one French forestry
project, involving International
Paper, a U. S. firm, is now
given some chance of success,
? t'although it does not involve pa-
per manufacture. The newspa-
per Le Monde said a second
project involving another Amer-
ican company, Parsons and
SWhitemore, likely is doomed
for want of a $500 million com-
" 's t I", +; s^' a" ; mitment from the French gov-
ernment.
In agriculture, Vie reported
that studies recommended the
creation of 250 farms. So far, 16
have been created.
Salada says
Judge a person by the depth
of his soul, not by the length
of his hair.
THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Volume LXXXVH, No. 59-
Friday, August 5, 977
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