Australian Major For Collaboration Charge

Northern Advocate, 27 June 1946, Page 5

Australian Major For Collaboration Charge

CANBERRA. June 26. The Government has finally decided to proceed against Major Charles Cousens for alleged collaboration with the Japanese by broadcasting over the enemy radio. Witnesses are being secured from Japan, and the case will be commenced in the Magistrate's Court. This will throw upon the Commonwealth the cous of establishing a prima facie case. After being arrested in Japan by the United States authorities shortly after the end of the war, Major Cousens has spent nearly ten months under open, arrest without being officially warned of what procedure the Australian Government intended to adopt. UNPRECEDENTED Delay in bringing the Cousens’ case was due to its unprecedented nature, the legal difficulties involved, and the necessity for investigations overseas, said the acting AttorneyGeneral (Mr Halloway), in the House of Representatives last night. He said the Government as doing its best to bring the whole matter to conclusion. Members could be assured that Major Cousens would be given a fair deal and that he would be afforded every opportunity to call whatever witnesses he desired. Major Cousens was. in civil life, a professional broadcaster. When taken prisoner on the fall of Singapore, he was placed in Changi camp, but was later transferred to Tokio. RADIO WORK FOR JAPS? It was alleged against him that at first he broadcast a news commentary daily and subsequently, for approximately a year, wrote news commentaries for a Japanese short-wave station. It was alleged that these commentaries were calculated to undermine, at a critical stage of the war, Australia’s resistance to the Japanese enemy. Cousens' case had no precedent in Australian law. for it was never anticipated that an Australian would be open to a charge of adhering to a foreign enemy in a foreign country.