YOIZUKI AT RABAUL

Chronicle (Levin), 12 March 1946, Page 5

YOIZUKI AT RABAUL

*9, SPECIAL INVESTIGATION DOCTORS TO MAKE REPORT Received Monday, 10.15 p.m. SYD1MEY, March 11. Several iiours , ahead of scheduie, tiie Japanese destroyer Voizuki arrived ai; Rabaul shortly after midday. Oiiicial sources at Canberra reveaieci to-day that there are oue japanese anci three Formosan doctors aboard. Tlus news is the first mtimation of the presence of doctors, as wiien asked a question by Sydney pressnien before tlie smp sailed, the captain said he had 110 doctors, but "some medical order iies. VVhen the Minister of the Navy (Mr. Makin) replied to Opposition cnticis.ii he said only that he thought there was a doctor abroad. The report of the doctors wiil be presented to the special investigators appointed the Gonunouwea tn Govern.nent, who are now examining the sliip, accompauied by a Giimcja .ofliciai, the senior navai ollicer and an Ar- .erican representative. Authoritative sources give the Government 's reason for not orderi in the ship into a Queensland pcrt as a fear that the Comnmnist-controiled Wharf Labourers' Union would attenipi. to tie her up indefi-iitely as an antiGovernment demonstratlon. The Government investigators arc Mr. Justice Simpson, of the Austraiia:. Capital Territory Supreme Gourt Erigadier F. G. Galleghan. Depiity Director of the Oommouweaith invcsu gation branch, New South V7aies, Mr Adrian Curlewis, of the New South Wales Sar, and Mr. G. P. Mahoney, Ox the Crown Solicitor's oflice. Mr. Chifiey, the Federal Prime Minister, has refused the Australian Press any facilities to allow newspape. correspondents to fly to Rabaul to inspect the ship. Tlie Australian Newspaper Propriet ors' Association nad the necessary plane avail.ibie and mtended that a Llc.i G ross representative should accomparg tiie correspondents as an observer. AL that was required was Government per mission, which was refused by Mr. Chifiey after consultation with his Ministers. The reaction to the Government 'r, dispatch of the investigators is that the responsibility for sending the ucstroyer from Sydney has still to bc shceted home. In Canberra it is regarded as certam that the Governmont wiil face a censurc motion when Parliament meets o*. Wednesday. The hospital ship Mikawa Maru, 01 11,000 tons, • which, under Generai MacArthur's order, is to pick up the women and children and their male relatives when they are disembarked, is also close to Rabaul.