A GERMAN U-boat crept through the hitherto safe defences of the home fleet in Scapa Flow, Orkney, on 14 October 1939 and torpedoed the battleship Royal Oak. A huge quantity of dangerous ordnance remains aboard the Royal Oak and other sunken warships. How to salvage the ordnance safely is a huge challenge. These ships are our 鈥渓egacy wrecks鈥�. In April, several government departments met to discuss matters relating to them. I asked the veterans鈥� minister Ivor Caplin what will be done.
He replied that Norway and France are investigating ways of identifying and locating their wrecks, as are the US and Canadian coastguards, who are attempting to develop a wreck database. The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) is consulting with other departments on the best ways of resolving various legal principles and ownership. He hoped to have a preliminary view in a few months.
On the issue of pollution from the wrecks, a database at the UK Hydrographic Office contains 60,000 records of wrecks worldwide, of which approximately 20,000 are named vessels. Within the western hemisphere there are 422 records of UK military legacy wrecks, only 275 of which are charted, and in the eastern hemisphere there are 501 records with 295 charted. The MoD will continue to address individual cases of potential pollution hazards from UK military wrecks, based on their own merits, and take whatever action necessary, the minister said.
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So be it, but 833 men lost their lives as a result of the Royal Oak disaster. What happens now is a sensitive matter.
IT IS good when young ministers take a special interest in other countries. Paul Goggins, who became an MP in 1997, has a special interest in Colombia and is now a junior minister at the Home Office. I recently brought to his attention some French research suggesting how to pinpoint the sources of Colombian emeralds that drug traffickers and terrorists widely use as currency, and he promised to follow it up (快猫短视频, 15 May, p 45). He now tells me the Home Office鈥檚 director of research, development and statistics has agreed to take up the matter. If the French technique shows promise, the Home Office will consider whether to use it in disrupting the drug trade.
Goggins adds that the new UK-wide Serious Organised Crime Agency takes a strong strategic approach to crime and terrorism by disrupting it wherever it is vulnerable. The Home Office will need to judge the extent to which emerald smuggling is key to financing organised crime and terrorism. The minister has asked for that to be assessed.
I have put down a parliamentary question asking when this is likely to be complete.
