Aust, 'ban’ on carrier

Press, 9 December 1983, Page 1

Aust, 'ban’ on carrier

NZPA-AAP-Reuter Sydney

Australia barred the British aircraft carrier Invincible from its Sydney dry dock facilities yesterday because the warship refused to say whether she was carrying nuclear weapons, said a Navy spokesman. The Minister of Defence, Mr Gordon Scholes, asked her commander to say whether H.M.S. Invincible was carrying nuclear arms when she sought dry dock facilities to cure propellershaft vibration. “The British refused to say, and Mr Scholes said the Royal Navy could not use the dry dock as long as it refused an answer,” said the spokesman. There was no immediate reaction from the commander of the task group, RearAdmiral Jeremy Black, when the Invincible berthed at Sydney yesterday after a good-will visit to New Zealand. She will stay in the

harbour until the end of the month.

Mr Scholes gave a short statement yesterday saying, “The British Government has informed me that it had decided not to dry dock the Invincible for operational reasons.”

A spokesman for his office refused to say whether Mr Scholes had imposed conditions on the use of the dry dock including assurances that there were no nuclear weapons on board the carrier.

The spokesman emphasised that Australian Labour Party policy allowed port visits by “friendly” nuclear warships provided nuclear weapons were not carried on to Australian soil.

The dry-docking of the 200 metre carrier would contravene this policy if she were carrying nuclear arms, he confirmed.

He said that the Navy spokesman quoted by AA.P. was not authorised to make “such statements.” Navy sources in Canberra told AA.P. that the British Government at first informed the Defence Department that the Invincible proposed making a goodwill visit to Sydney between December 22 and January 6 and sought dry-dock facilities for the vessel during that time. A second signal received last week said that for

“operational reasons” the visit had been brought for* ward to December 8 to 29 and the dry dock was no longer required, said the sources. H.M.S. Invincible was part of Britain’s South Atlantic task force during last year’s Falklands war with Argentina. Australia had been negotiating to buy the 19,500-ton vessel, but the war prompted a change of mind in London. Australia declined the offer of an alternative ship. The Federal Government has refused to confirm or deny whether the Invincible was refused dry-dock facili-

ties. The Invincible cruised into Sydney Harbour to be greeted by one small boat sporting an outsized Union Jack. There were none of the protest boats that cluttered her arrival at both her New Zealand ports of call, Wellington and Auckland, last month. The British Government appears to have diplomatically side-stepped the H.M.S. Invincible docking dispute by announcing that the aircraft carrier would continue its South Pacific tour without immediate repairs.