NO HOLT INQUEST YET

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31564, 29 December 1967, Page 7

NO HOLT INQUEST YET

(N.Z. Press Association—Copyright) CANBERRA, December 28. The Attorney General (Mr Nigel Bowen) is expected to receive early next week an official report on the disappearance of the Prime Minister (Mr I larold Holt).

The report is being prepared by the Commonwealth Police Department, which was represented at Portsea by some of its senior officers throughout the search for Mr Holt.

It will contain detailed statements by the members of the party with Mr Holt before his fatal swim, and statements from other people who have been questioned for asci ct an CP It will also describe the weather, tides and other factors which may have contributed to the tragedy, and 1 the search for Mr Holt’s body.] It is expected to confirm ; the findings of the State police. Because the accident occurred in Victoria,, the formal responsibility for investigation and search was with the Victorian police. An inquest would be held under Victorian law if Mr Holt’s body was recovered.

The Commonwealth Police Department, without infringing Victorian State responsibilities, made its own report to retain an accurate record prepared when events were fresh in the minds of witnesses.

When the report reaches the Government it could be the basis for a Cabinet decision on whether a public inquiry should be held. It is believed that the Commonwealth police investiga-

tion confirms the case as one] of misadventure. It does not suggest any reason why the Commonwealth Government should take the unusual course of setting up a public inquiry into a matter constitutionally under the jurisdiction of Victoria.

The procedure to fill Mr Holt’s seat of Higgins has not yet been decided because there is no known Parliamentary precedent for the situation.

The inability of the Melbourne City Coroner to hold an inquest until Mr Holt’s body is found means that Parliament has no means at the moment of determining officially that Mr Holt is dead.

The Speaker of the House, of Representatives (Mr W. J.I Aston) is seeking legal advice on whether Mr Holt can be assumed to be dead without having Parliament recalled. Two helicopters again made wide sweeps across the

Point Nepean headland today but found no trace of Mr Holt. The Australian Underwater Federation is planning an underwater memorial for Mr Holt off the Bay Beach at Portsea. The federation’s president, Mr A. de Fina, said the memorial would be a statue or large plaque 100 ft off the shore.