NAVAL RATING’S DEATH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23500, 14 May 1938, Page 20

NAVAL RATING’S DEATH

SHOT WHILE SHIP AT SEA PUZZLE OF JURISDICTION (From Ous Own Correspondent) SYDNEY, May V. Robert Edmund Dickenson, a 20-year-old seaman on H.M.S, Dorsetshire, was shot dead while asleep when his vessel was near Cairns (North Queensland) on a voyage from Sydney to the China Station. A 19-year-oid senman was placed under naval arrest. The Dorsetshire had made a long stay In Sydney in honour of the 150th anniversary celebrations. She made an unexpected call at Cairns after a wireless message had given news of the tragedy. The body was brought ashore at night, but the funeral was dela;rtd until the next afternoon by, a piuade whether the case should be handled by the Queensland police or by the British Admiralty, as it occurred on the high seas. It was officially stated that an investigation and a trial of the case would be by a naval court-martial and not by the Queensland civil authorities. The detectives who boarded the vessel said they were permitted to view the body, but not permitted to make any investigations into the happening. They were Informed that Dickenson had been found in a hammock, shot through the head about 2 o’clock in the morning. The detectives said that when they asked to be allowed to interview the arrested man they were refused access to him. They were told, too. that the body would not be handed over. The detectives ascertained that Dickenson met his death when the ship was 10 miles off the coast, between Townsville and Cairns.

An officer is supposed to have heard the report of the rifle, and sent someone to investigate. It has not been possible to ascertain what motive,, If any, actuated the shooting. A ,303 rifle was missing from the cruiser armoury. A legal authority expressed the opinion that a naval court-martial and jurisdiction to try a man and pronounce sentence on him provided the prisoner was subject to the provisions of the Naval Discipline Act. The general practice of the British Navy, however, was to hand the prisoner over to the civil police so that they would be dealt with in England by the common law of England. The prisoner would then be tried before a judge and jury of 12. No Australian coroner of policeman could investigate the cause of death as a matter of right. If a man was murdered outside territorial waters and on a merchant vessel registered in Australia the circumstances could be Investigated by an Australian coroner and the Australian police could intervan*.