COASTAL STATIONS

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 62, 15 March 1927, Page 9

COASTAL STATIONS

DEFECTS IN AUSTRALIA

EXPERT NAVAL OPINION

(Received 15th March, noon.)

MELBOURNE, This Day.

Giving evidence before the Wireless Commission, Commander Cresswell, of the Australian Navy, said that a weaknoss existed in the wireless coastal service provided at Melbourne for the receipt of telegrams from ships, and for ensuring safety of life at Sea. He said that the Melbourne commercial wireless station had been removed to the site of the broadcasting station, and this tended in tho direction of one station Interfering with tho other. In the case of the ketch Helen Moore, which wont ashore, tho destroyer Yarra spent two hours trying to send urgent messages to tho Melbourne Radio Station. The delay was mainly due to intorfereneo, which tho witness bolievod to be due to the proximity of tho two stations. He also alleged that the coastal stations wero unsuitable for defoncc purposes. In answer to tho chairman ho said that the Naval Board had no authority to insist on the provision of services which they considered necessary for tho defence of Australia. Ho believed that tho naval authorities should bo consulted on any proposed changes of stations, as the question was a serious one for British ships operating in the Pacific in war timo might be seriously prejudiced.