Jun, Jul, Aug 1962 - Navy League of Australia

^ • -laulic »ml. rouud inln the l*in-itierienre olthe tropies — I made the aquaintani f lbAlberto (luani, the young and intelligentI'riiguayiin Minister to Belgium who had leftlirussels with the Belgian (loveinnieiit at theof the Herman invasion and. after his tryingexperiences, was returning to Montevideo toconsult his Government and have sonic leavebefore rejoining the Belgian tioverumenl atits war headquarters at l.c Havre, lie wasthe life and soul of the part} on hoard andhad a great sense of hunionrDAWN ON BIO BAY: II.M.S. (ILASOOWRECENTLY IN DRY DOCK ArTKKI'ORONELTo sec the fahled beauty »f Kio harbour Iwas up before daybreak and was rewarded byseeing it at its best in the cloudless tropicaldawn, enlivened by the twinkling of themyriad lights along the seemingly endlesswaterfront below the great "sugar loafmountains.There I lunched with the Charge d'Affaires,Arnold Kobertson. as he was then generallycalled, at the leading club, where everyonewas in whites, sinee January is the height ofthe tropical summer. He was jubilant over thegranting of his request to the BrazilianGovernment in Nov. for permission for thecruiser GLASGOW to stay a week in dockafter Coronel and after she had been at seafor four months and so required a completeoverhaul. This request was certainly justifiedin order to make her fully seaworthy butnevertheless was a friendly act on the part ofthe Brazilian authorities and a great personalsuccess for Robertson.As Sir Malcolm Robertson, tl.CM.U-. hewas to be my chief as Ambassador at BuenosAires when'I returned to the Plate at thebeginning of 1i)29 as first Counsellor ofEmbassy to the Mission, which had just beenpromoted to an Embassy — the first Missionto be so raised since Brussels in 1919, Tokyo In1905 — and Washington in 189:1.24ARRIVAL IN llUNTBVlWStt STl'KDEK'SCONFIDENTIAL REPORT ON THE KALK-LANDSWhen three days later on January 10 wereached Montevideo and 1 said goodbye to Dr.(luani, we neither of us could imagine thatalmost exactly 2'> years later he would be thereagain but as Minister for Foreign Affairs andI as British Minister and that we shouldjointly have to deal with the aftermath ofanother British victory in tin- South Atlantic;nor that the ease of the (II.ASOOW just reeeutlvin dry dock in Rio would he invokedb\ him as the precedent justifying the grantingtn the (IRAK SPEE 72 hours for repairs inreply to my official request that she should begiven only 24!The Montevideo of those distant days ofIHI.'i was a very different place to the muchextended and relatively lernised city thatI uas t know when I went there as Ministerin l(i:S4. doing ashore I walked up throughi he old city on its peninsula anil with itshorse trams, and found my way to the pokylittle Legation house on a small square in thatquarter, named the Plaza Zabala. It beingSunday (January I"' the British Minister, Mr.A. Mitchell limes, was away but I was receivedby the Naval Intelligence Officer, acertain .Major de Saumarez Dobree, retiredfrom the Royal Marines, who told me thathe had in the safe Admiral Sir DovetonSturdee's confidential report on the Rattle ofthe l-'alklands would I rare to see it?ITS TRIBUTE To HERMAN (U'NNERY ANDA RECOMMENDATION FOR THE V.C.I naturally accepted with alacrity and over"Forty Years On" I could remember clearlytwo things. (I) Admiral Sturdee's tribute tothe gallantry of the Germans and particularlyto their accurate gunfire by salvos which wasthen relatively a novelty. And (2) his recommendationof a V.C. for a rating who downbelow had put out an incipient fire among thecordite supply which might at any momenthave blown up the whole ship. My recollectionwas that it had been in one of the battlecruisers as 1 had reflected what a disaster itwould have been, since we were not as yetinured to the loss of battle cruisers as wecame to be after Jutland.'To he continued next issue)THENAVYTHE UNITED SHIP SERVICES PTY. LTD.88-102 Normanby Road South Melbourne. Victoria, AustraliaMELBOURNE - CEELONC - PORTLANDand all Victorian PortsThe largest organisation in Victoria tor the fabrication and installation of fittingsfor every description of cargo. Bulk grain fittings a speciality. Dunnagesupplied. Holds cleaned. Decks caulked. All trades available and include:Shipwrights, Carpenters, Joiners,Dockers, Painters, RiggersTelephone: MX 5231LNUTTALL,LATHES0 *L \ •4k~. £&»„!•*•«•*»• - , J^f^KKHtrW^'Telegrams and Cables: " UNISTEVE," MelbourneSome of the 76 NUTTALL All Geared Head, CENTRELATHES al the R.A.N. Apprentice Training Establishment,"H.M.A.S. Nirimba", Quakers Hill, N.S.W.!* - i\ 5—'/"*«BSfcg/&f*&o l If MODERN TOOLS PTY.LTD.•pi^ - ' T N ^w-«Jf ,*t^ — •'* «-:- » 41 '¥ f '/