Guards with pistols keep Haddo secure

Press, 22 January 1979, Page 6

Guards with pistols keep Haddo secure

PA Auckland Pistol-carrying guards pace the deck, high-speed police rubber dinghies patrol the water, and the U.S.S. Haddo berthed at Jellicoe Wharf, is as secure as the Crown jewels. The pistols are not loaded but ammunition clips are attached to the gunbelts. A police spokesman said that visiting ships were allowed to have arms on board but could not take them ashore.

A contingent of 14 policemen, backed up by the Royal New Zealand Navy, is on duty around the clock and it lis leaving nothing to chance.

Guards from the Haddo, automatic pistols strapped to their waists, carefully vetted a trickle of towelling-hat and jandal-wearing visitors as they threaded their way across the paint splattered hull yesterday. One police dinghy worked hard chasing away the odd pleasure craft which strayed too close.

Inside the submarine longsuffering crew members manoeuvred small groups of visitors through the warm maze of congested, stuffy corridors.

Most parts of the submarine are out of bounds to visitors. Her secrets will remain jealously guarded until Wednesday, when she will sail.

Peace Squadron members may escort the Haddo out of the harbour, but there will be a further meeting be-

tween skippers before a firm decision is made.

The proposal was among several discussed last night at a meeting of about 30 squadron members. The meeting also decided on ways of following up its protest action last Friday. The Peace Squadron plans to send a report of what happened on Friday to overseas news media and other antinuclear groups.

It will also call for a Parliamentary inquiry into Government policy on visits by nuclear warships and will

try to get the Government to make the nuclear code, now advisory, into a legally binding document. In another legal move, the group will try to find out whether a harbour regulation which bans craft carrying more than 22kg of explosive from commercial wharves applies to foreign warships. Helping the seven persons arrested during the demonstration on Friday is also a priority for the group, which has set up a legal fund to help pay for their defence.