WRONGFUL DETENTION?

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25566, 20 June 1944, Page 6

WRONGFUL DETENTION?

AUSTRALIA FIRST MEMBERS COMMISSION OF INQUIRY (Rec. 10 p.m.) SYDNEY, June 19. The arrests of Australia First members in. 1942 were the direct result of information received from the security authorities in Western Australia Mr W. R. Dovey, K.C., told the Royal Commission to-day at the opening of the inquiry into the detention of 21 members of the movement. The commissioner is Mr Justice Clyne, who has been asked to report; 1. Whether the detention of certain members of the Australia First Movement was justified. 2. Whether these people weie given an opportunity of appealing against their detention to a proper appeals tribunal.

3. Whether any of the persons concerned should receive compensation from the Commonwealth for wrongful detention. 4. Whether further action should be taken in respect of any of the persons. Mr Dovey. who is assisting the Royal Commissioner, said that in possession of Western Australian members of the movement had been found a most incriminating document which planned sabotage and the disposal of the heads of the army, democratic politicians, business and church leaders. A proclamation to be signed at the armistice welcomed the Japanese as friends, liberating Australia from Jewish domination and the dangers of Communism. The proclamation was accompanied by 20 policy speeches and instructions to the Australian military forces to lay down their arms. The Western Australian Court had subsequently established that certain Australia First members were actively engaged in treasonable practices. It was only proper to say, however, added Mr. Dovey, that the New South Wales members of the Australia First Movement did not appear to have been appraised of the intentions of the Western Australian members. The originator of the Australia First Movement was the wealthy Australian-born William John Miles, an accountant, who spent £4OOO a year of his own money to further its cause. Miles and Percy Reginald Stephenson, a Queensland Rhodes Scholar who became the New South Wales leader of the movement, were friendly with a “rather notorious person ” named von Skerst, the propaganda leader of the Nazi Party in Australia. Other members of the Australia First Movement named by Mr Dovey included Mrs Adela Pankhurst Walsh, who with her husband had visited Japan at the expense of the Japanese Government. On her return Mrs Walsh wrote -articles and made speeches for which she was paid by the Japanese Government. The inquiry is proceeding, and a great mass of material is expected to be presented in evidence before the commission.