Writer Believes Station Will Be In Australia

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31983, 9 May 1969, Page 12

Writer Believes Station Will Be In Australia

The Omega navigation system is likely to go to Australia, and for the worst reason possible—because the New Zealand Government is apparently quibbling about the cost, says Nicholas Turner, a free-lance journalist who recently wrote a report on the Omega controversy, in a letter to “The Press”. “It is surely time we stopped calling ourselves a poor country whenever we are asked to contribute to an international co-operative project,” he says. “Little wonder that the Australians, who usually finish up carrying part of our load, tend to look down on us.” Mr Turner comments that some readers of his report may have thought he favours having a station in New Zealand, but in fact he has no strong views either way. His concern is purely with the methods of argument that have sometimes’been used in the Omega debate. “I am far from convinced,” he says,” that an Omega station would threaten our security and I doubt whether Omega is of real importance to the United States nuclear strategy. But an Omega station here would interfere with useful VLF radio research being conducted in this country, and from the standpoint of Omega users in the New Zealand area, it would perhaps be marginally better if the station were in Australia. “On the other hand, if the station is here and under our own control, we will have a share in the control of the system as a whole. “I appreciated the generous coverage you devoted to my report concerning documentation in the Omega controversy. There is one amendment that I wish to make concerning the passage where I said that Wolf Kuebler was the only writer in ‘Navigation’ who had connected Omega with the Polaris programme. “It now appears that Kuebler in fact copied 'the crucial passage word-for-word from an earlier article in ‘Navigation’ by two writers whowere discussing methods of using Omega for pleasure-craft navigation. No indication was* given of their authority for the statement. “I should perhaps explain

how I missed this point earlier. I had requested a librarian to let me have all copies of ‘Navigation’ with articles on Omega, and at the time of writing my report I believed that I had seen them all. The day I sent out advance copies of my report, however, an issue containing the original reference was passed to me,” Mr Turner says.