RAIDERS AT NAURU

Press, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23300, 9 April 1941, Page 8

RAIDERS AT NAURU

ADMINISTRATOR’S REPORT AWAITED

AUSTRALIAN CABINET’S ACTION (F.0.0.C.) SYDNEY, April 5. The Australian Government has called for a report from the Nauru Administrator, Mr Chalmers, on the findings of the New Zealand Royal Commission on raiders’ activities in the Pacific. The Government does not intend to order a similar inquiry here, but the Acting-Prime Minister, Mr Fadden, said that the New Zealand authorities had been asked to air-mail the commission’s findings. “The Government believes the report will be valuable to Australia,” said Mr Fadden. “Appropriate action will be taken on the findings of the commission as they affected Nauru.” After stating in the House of Representatives that the failure of the Nauru authorities to warn of the raiders’ approach could be accounted for only by treachery, the Minister for the Navy, Mr Hughes, said in a subsequent press interview that the investigation at Nauru had been made by an officer of the Navy Department, who had been specially sent to the island. “This officer could discover nothing to suggest that anything was wrong with the radio people at Nauru,” said Mr Hughes. “The report, however, indicates that leakage of information may have occurred from messages sent by Bentley’s Code on behalf of the Phosphate Commission. The issue of weather reports to the effect that westerly winds were blowing would indicate that ships were lying off the island. Our inquiries go to show that th£ personnel of the radio station are competent, sound, and loyal. I cannot entertain the suggestion that there are no spies at Nauru after all that has happened. It would appear that the suspicions I erwtertained about the negligence or incompetence of the radio operators at Nauru are not confirmed.”