Helped ?

How Were Raiders

NZ Commission Does Some Official White- Washing

WHEN in January we reported in full the effects of the German raider attacks upon our Pacific shipping between July and December, we ex pressed the belief—which we still adhere to—that there had been criminal negli gence and damnable carelessness in Australia and New Zealand in guarding shipping information against enemy agents; and that those enemy agents had been very busy.

Since then, a New Zealand Royal Commission has investigated the cir cumstances surrounding the sinking of 17 ships within five 'months—five of them in a bunch, at Nauru. And the Commission, after listening patiently for weeks to the elaborate statements by which a host of little pipsqueak officials sought to defend themselves and their jobs, has decided that no one really has been very much at fault, and there is no evidence that much shipping informa tion leaked out of Australia and New Zealand, and no evidence of spy activi ties.

The Commission apnarently believes it was pure accident that the Germans met the “Rangitane” where they did on November 27 (although it was evident to anyone that the Germans lay in a par ticular position and waited for her); and that someone was careless in handling the situation at Nauru.

Officialdom defending incompetent officialdom —it would make the angels weep! But that is how bureaucracy runs a war, and there seems to he nothing that we can do about it. It seems to be far more important that some pirflina little £7OO ver annum official should be allowed to continue in the job into which he was pitch forked at the outbreak of war, than that the whole muddling system should be revised, and re-geared.

EVEN the Commission, at considerable pains to whitewash everyone who might have taken some of the blame, could not get past the fact that seven ships had been allowed to congre gate around Nauru Island, without any warning being given them, and that the raiders came along at their leisure and sank five of them. The Commission savs that the behaviour of the officials on Nauru Island (who knew that ships were clustered thicklv around, awaiting better weather, and who must have suspected the presence of raiders) is “inexnlicable”, but it presumes that Australia is inves tigating this matter. Australia for her part, seems to he leaving the investiga tion to New Zealand.

The Commission bitterly blames the public for failure to co-operate with the authorities in suppressing shipping infor mation: but it savs nothing of the negli gence of the authorities in not compell ing the public to observe proper pre cautions. Whv did not the Australian and New Zealand Governments force the people to do. prior to Januarv. all thev have been forced to do since Janu ary?

Extraordinary Case Of Nauru

THE only man in Australia who has had the courage to speak out is Mr,

W. M. Hughes. And, to use an Ameri canism, he said a mouth-full.

Commenting on March 2 on the New Zealand Commission’s report (issued that day) and its comment on “the inexplic able failure of the Nauru Island authori ties to 'issue a warning,” Mr. Hughes said that when the wholesale sinkings of merchant ships occurred off Nauru last December, there were on the island some spies, traitors, or paid agents of Germany or of whatever Power was responsible for the sinkings. This was the only explanation for the failure of the Nauru Island authorities to give

warning of the approach of a ship using the Japanese flag as a disguise. “We have made inquiries, and that is the only explanation,” he declared.

Later, he made the following state ment:^— “The inquiry which I mentioned was made by an officer of the Navy Depart ment, who was sent to Nauru for the purpose. He interrogated various people concerned. The result was that he could discover nothing to suggest that any thing was wrong with the wireless people at Nauru.

“But it was conceivable, according to

the re P° r L a leakage of information arose out of messages sent by Bentley’s code on behalf of the Phosphate Com mission. This would be enough to indi cate what shipping movements were going on. Then, again, the issue of meteorological reports to the effect that westerly winds were blowing would indi cate that ships were lying off the island.

Our inquiries go to show that the per sonnel of the wireless station was com petent, sound and loyal, “Further, as to whether the people were negligent in not keeping watch for signals, the ‘Triadic’s’ distress signal was actually heard at Ocean Island. The operator on watch at the time seems to have been incompetent, since he took no steps to broadcast this message imme diately.

“It was not until an hour later that he attempted to pass on a garbled ver sion of the message to Suva radio. This is confirmed by the New Zealand officer who investigated the matter.”

Mr. Hughes said he thought it right to supplement this report by repeating what the captain of the “Rangitane’’ had said Australia. When the captain on the raider intimated to the captain of the “Rangitane” that he was going to Nauru again, the captain of the “Rangitane” expressed the opinion that the cruisers would have been warned, and that the raider would be running into trouble. The captain of the raider said, “Oh, that is all right. Everything has been fixed ‘‘The captain of the ‘Rangitane took H? at , to mean that effective warnings of the former vlslt of the raider had not been broadcast/ - Mr Hughes said. “I know nothing of the thing myself, but I am grea tiy impressed with what the cap tain of the ‘Rangitane’ said. He was a man of excellent reputation, in command

of a ship of 17,000 tons, and I could not but believe that he was repeating what he had heard the captain of the raider say.”

Asked how this information affected his statement made earlier in which he referred to spies, traitors and paid agents at Nauru, Mr. Hughes said; — “I expressed my opinion. It would appear that the suspicions I entertained in regard to the negligence or incom petence of the wireless operators at Nauru are not confirmed. I spoke at the time as I felt, but that there has been negligence—although in another quar ter, at Ocean Island —has been abund antly proved.”

“But what about the spies you men tioned?” he was asked.

“If you ask me that,” said Mr. Hughes, “I will ask you, ‘Where is there a coun try where spies are not to be found working tirelessly in the interests of our great enemy T The suggestion that spies are not at Nauru is one which, in view of all that has come and gone, I cannot entertain.”