H.M.A.S. AUSTRALIA.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19039, 8 December 1923, Page 15

H.M.A.S. AUSTRALIA.

MAY BE SUNK Al SEA.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, November 29. The fate of H.M.A.S. Australia is still unThe suggestion that the battle cruiser should bo filled with colicrote and ha used in the construction of a breakwater at Cons Harbour, on the North Coast of New South Wales, is, according to the Minister for Defence (Mr Bowden), impracticable. He says that the opinion of the Admiralty is that if the Australia were disposed of in this way it would be a technical infringement of the Washington Treaty. The Coff's Harbour Chamber of Commerce is fighting hard for the utilisation of the Australia in the manner suggested, and in a letter to the newspapers says: “'The Minister for Defence (Mr Bowden) suggests that the Australia should be sunk outside Sydney, so that the people of tho metropolis could witness the spectacle from the mainlandjust tho kind of thing one would expect from a Sydney solicitor. It would certainly be a change from the everlasting racing and other games provided for the people of Sydney. But there is one thing Mr Bowden has forgotten; Sydney is not New South Wales, although it is rapidly getting that way, and tho sinking of the Australia at Goff’s Hailxur would save New South Wales £IOO,OOO. Wo know that at the present time at Dartmouth, in England, condemned warships are being filled with rubble and used to strengthen the seawall. We suggest that the Australia should ba used likewise.” Tho suggestion certainly seems more sensible than the spectacular sinking of the ship that played so large a part in the war.