RIVAL CLAIMS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19783, 5 March 1927, Page 9

RIVAL CLAIMS

A LITTLE ISLAND t AUSTRALIAN PROBLEM FOR PRIVY COUNCIL Who owns Garden Island? Britain did. The Australian Government decided it did. The New South Wales State Government claimed it, and the claim was upheld by the High Court of the Commonwealth. Sir John Simon is to be briefed by the Commonwealth to plead for a Privy Council reversal of the Australian de* cision. Once Garden Island was the main base of the British Fleet in the South Seas. When in 1913 Australia embarked on a naval programme of her own the little island at Sydney changed hands. For 13 years the State Government has asserted its claims to ownership as against those of the Commonwealth, and the ancient wrangle is only now to be terminated in the Empire’s last court of appeal. Homeless Warships. If the Commonwealth appeal is unsuccessful Australia’s two new cruisers and two new submarines, now in course of construction on the Clyde, will have no home to go to, since the island is still the pivot of the Dominion’s coastal defence. Sir John Simon will be assisted by Air Wilfred Barton, an Australian member of the English Bar. Mr Barton is the son of Sir Edmund Barton, successively Prime Minister and Chief Justice of Australia. It is not known who will be briefed in the interests of the New South Wales Government. Air J. G. Latham, K.C., AttorneyGeneral of the Commonwealth, hoped to conduct the case himself, but his early departure for Australia will make this impossible. The briefing of the great Liberal statesman and jurist is indicative of the importance which Air Bruce ’s Government attaches to- the issue of the controversy. Navy’s Quandary. If the High Court decision should bo sustained, and the Commonwealth receive notice to quit, the infant Navy of the Dominion will find itself in a Gilbertian situation. W T hat will become of the 13 warships and the 3,500 bluejackets? Will they have to steam from port to port in search of shelter, and find none? Before the Washington Disarmament Conference the ’ stralian Navy numbered 25 vessels, with a personnel of 4,843. As a result of the Washington Agreement, it was reduced in 1923 to its present strength. The four additional units will be ready towards the end of this year.