HUSH-HUSH PROBE

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21854, 26 October 1945, Page 3

HUSH-HUSH PROBE

GEN. BENNETT’S ESCAPE

ANGER IN AUSTRALIA BLAMEY CRITICISED (10 a.m.) SYDNEY, Oct. 26. Resentment against the action of General Sir Thomas Blarney, Comman-der-in-Chief of the Australian forces, in ordering a nush-hush army probe into Lieutenant-General Gordon Bennett’s escape from Singapore is being expressed by some Federal Ministers, says The Sun’s correspondent in Canberra.

The Ministers claim that tne. inquiry is an insult to the War Cabinet, Australia’s supreme war-time executive body, which held, an inquiry after General Bennett’s, return and later expressed complete confidence in him. They point out that • the present Prime Minister, Mr J.- B. -Chifley, and the Army Minister, Mr. F. M. Forde, General Blarney’s ministerial chiei, were members of the War Cabinet which exonerated General Bennet.t.

The army inquiry will open in Sydney to-day and will not be open to the press or public. The Minister of Defence. Mr. J. A. Beasley, has already stated that the Commonwealth was not responsible for the inquiry ordered by General Blarney. This indicates that the Government was not consulted before General Blarney decided on the inquiry, and the Ministers are complaining that ne has,. in effect, defied the War Cabinet decision In reply to insistent demands tnat the inquiry should be held in. public, authorities on army law -.ontend that there is “no statutory provision and no Australian precedent" for an army court of inquiry being open. Critics of General Blarney’s action in ordering the inquiry into General Bennett’s escape urge the appointment ol a Royal Commission to inquire into the whole Malayan campaign and the strategy involved.