AUSTRALIAN GENERALS

Greymouth Evening Star, 23 October 1945, Page 6

AUSTRALIAN GENERALS

BLAMEY AND BENNETT MALAYA ESCAPE INQUIRY (N.Z.P.A. Special Australian Correspondent) SYDNEY, October 22. Australians are at present deeply interested in two inquiries affecting the Australian Army. The first of these is the military investigation to be held irsb Lieutenant-General H. Gordon Barnett’s escape from Malaya after the fall of Singapore, and the second will deal with allegations of food shortages among A.I.F. unus garrisoning the Wewak area of New Guinea and other islands. n . The inquiry into the escape or Lieu; tenant-General Bennett, who commanded the Australian forces in Malaya, was ordered by the Commander-,in-Chief of the Australian MilitaryForces (General Sir Thomas Blarney) following the receipt,of a report from Lieu tenant-General A. E. Percival, who was General Officer Commanding the Allied forces in Malaya. It is remembered here that there was considerable uneasiness in some sections of the Federal Cabinet when the news of Lieutenant-General Bennett’s escape first reached Australia, but this disappeared completely once he had been intereviewed by the War Cabinet. There was unanimous private as well as public and Ministerial, backing for the statement which Mr. Curtin made as Prime Minister exonerating Lieutenant-General Bennett. Mr. Curtin, in his statement, said: “We have expressed to LieutenantGeneral Bennett our confidence in him. His leadership and conduct were ,in complete conformity with his duties jo the men under his command and to his country. He remained with his men until the end, completed all the formalities in connection with the surrender, and then took the opportunity and risk of escaping.” Service chiefs of staff also endorsed Lieutenant-Gener-al Bennett’s helion in escaping. Now General Blarney, who is on the verge of retirement at his own request, orders an inquiry into Lieutenant-Gen-eral Bennett’s escape and selects the board to hear the charges.

“ PUBLICITY DEMANDED It is regarded in some .Ministerial Quarters in Canberra as being without precedent that a matter on which a War Cabinet decision has been made should be the subject of independent probing by the Army Command. It is understood that no charge will be □referred against Lieutenant-General Bennett when the board of Army officers begins the inquiry. It is likely, however, that the board’s findings, whethex' adverse ox - favourable, will be forwarded to the Federal Government after their submission to General Blarney. The inquiry will differ from a court-martial and will be •merely an inquiry under military law to establish the justification, or otherwise, for a particular act—the decision to escape. Former servicemen’s organisations, former prisoners of wax’ from Malaya, and the newspapers have been quick to sympathise with Lieutenant-Gen-erarßennett. and demands have been made that the inquiry should be open to the public. If the inquiry is held Into the escape of Lieutenant-General Bennett, they claim, a similar 1 inquiry should be held into the escape of General Blarney from Greece in 1941. .11 is understood that Lieutenant-General Bennett, will press fox' his own inquiry. The second inquiry, into allegations of food shortages in the islands, has been ordered by the Minister of the Army (Mr. F. M. Forde), who earlier (on the advice of unnamed high officers) denied that there was any shortfage of food among A.I.F. units. Complaints by servicemen about food in the islands persisted, and an inquiry has now been decided on. Here, also, the form of the inquiry is considered to be unsatisfactory to the public as it is to be conducted by two former Army colonels selected by Mr. Forde. The Sydney “Sun,” in an outspoken editorial, says: “Purely military tribunals are not. good enough. Civilians of high standard removed from the authority of General Blarney should be included on these boards, and if Mr. Forde really wants to get answers to questions which are causing the Australian people grave concern he might ordex’ a wide and open inquiry into the tactics of General Blarney. ■Hundreds of young Australians lost their lives in the campaigns in Bougainville, Wewak. Aitape, and New Britain, which the result of the Japanese war has proved to have been unnecessary.”