Indignation Over

"Canberra" Story

Many people in the Solomons, including Government officials, were indignant about a story in a Sydney Sunday newspaper of August 5 which said that a small aircraft would take off from a Tulagi airstrip on August 9 to drop a wreath over the spot where the "Canberra" went down in 1942.

The pilot of the plane was described as a former coast watcher, now a plantation owner on Tulagi, who was stationed in the Solomons during the war.

He was stated to have written to Mr. Harry Alford, of Waverley, Sydney, who was trying to form a "Canberra" Veterans' Associatlion, that he had sighted the wreck of the "Canberra" on a rock shelf in about 40 ft. of clear water while flying in his plane off Savo Island.

The BSIP Information Officer told "PIM" that the Sunday news paper's story on these points was "rubbish".

"There is no airstrip and no plane at Tulagi, and there is no plantation and no ex-coast watcher," the Information Officer said. "There are no small aircraft in the Solomons. As regards the alleged sighting of the 'Canberra', the Admiralty chart shows 400 to 500 fathoms of water in the place where the 'Canberra' is believed to have been sunk. The sea is bright blue, but you can't see through it."

Mr. Alford later told "PIM" that the disputed parts of the newspaper story had been given to him by the man who described himself as a Tulagi plantation owner and he had accepted them in good faith. Mr. Alford would not reveal the man's name.