File Number Date of Openin1i Other Files or Papers bearing on the same Subject OFFICE: HEAD OFFICE, MELBOURNE BRANCH OR SECTION ORIGINATING FILE: New GurN~A F. I. R, - Reternd to for Information. Minute or Date on enclosure which ftle 11 for peeecl out attention. of Branch. National Archives of Australia File Number Date of Opening Other Files or Papers bearing on the same Subject Minute or IJate on lnitJal1. R..,rerred to for which tile I (See In- 11r.tlon or at ruction lnformMtlon. attention. of Branch. No. 11.) OFFICE: HEAD OFFICE, MELBOURNE BRANCH OR SECTION ORIGINATING FILE: IJate on lnltinls. Referred t.o ror which file h Referred to for enclosure whh-b file 111 (~Jn. at ruction ftctlon or paaeed out Information. attention. of Branch. No. II.) information. of Branch. No. II.) File Number OFFICE : HEAD OFFICE, MELBOURNE BRANCH OR SECTION Other Files or Papers bearing on the same Subject Referred to for information. Minute or Date on enclosure which ftle ta for paued out attention. of Branch. National Archives of Australia Referred to for information. Minute or Date on encloeure which file 111 for paaed out attention. of Branch. 11tructlon Referred to for information. Minute or Dat.e on encloaure which flle le for Ped out attention. of Branch. MINUTE SHEET Beam Wireless message M892 to Aviat Port Moresby re particulars of unscheduled overseas flights Memo DSWG343 relative to unscheduled flights departing for or arriving from New Guinea Reference Enclosure 2A. It is undesirable that U.S. Military aircraft, or any other iia.x aircraft, should continue to operate into or out of Australian territory except in accordance with proper authorisations. I suggest, therefore, that the first step should be to ascertain fro1n R. A.A.F. and/br External Affairs the extent of the authorisations already given in the name of the 1\ustralian Government for these U. S. !{ilitary activities. Those authorisations should, if necessary, then be confirmed by formal approval or the Minister in accordance with the requirements of our Regulations. 2. If the present activities of the U.S. Military aircraft - as indicated in Enclosure 2A -go beyond the authorisations already given by the Australian Government t steps should be taken to hav-e application made by the appropriate U.S. authority for the additional authorisation required. The channel of any such approach to the U.S. -i.e., whether through diplomatic or through Service channels - would need to be carefully considered when it is known what dis- crepancy, if any, exists between the current approvals and the c urrent; U. 6. opera.t ions. / A suggeJt d memo addressed to Department of External Affairs and DeparJment of Air seeking the information mentioned in your minute 3 is .l!iocl. 4A Memo from External Affairs advising that information should be obtained fi'om the Service Departments. National Archives of Australia Memo from Department of Air setting out details of approved American operations and advising that the necessity of observing ATC procedures will be brought to the notice of americcn formations. National Archives of Australia MINUTE SHEET ~tter fi'Um Capt. A. Jacobson, Q. E.A., to D.G.c.A. reporting on night flyi.llg in New Guinea D .G.C.A. letter to Capt. Jacobson acJrnowledging receipt of his letter D.G.C.A. memo. to Dist. Supt.,Port Moresby, encloeing a oopy of lett$r received from Capt. Jacobson, and. requesting him to inquire into the Eno. a. l:lA Memo. to Re g ional Director , Port Moresby, refe!Ting to Head Of'fice iremorandum dated 28th Ai.-iril, 1949 re reports of i'light flying in New Guinea. Please aee Bnca. Jl and a. Enc. :a. 17A 2. I waild be glad it-a suitable letter can be ~ted to bring this to the attention of R.A.A.P. for any action which may be thought necessa1"7. J. There is nothing to irnicate whether the aircraft conoerned are Set vice or Civil, but ua the.r are Civil, the s to be no reason ~ they should not operate opeilly. National Archives of Australia ~morandum dated 19th July, '49, to Sec. Dept. of' Air forward- ing copies of reports -en night flying of unidentified aircrai't in New Guinea - for inr-ormation. ENCL.-.2olf Memorandum. dated 26.7049. to D.s., P.M., acknowledging Encl.II and advising that the report requested ha.a now come to band. ENCL.1:0A22A Memorandum dated 8.8.49. to sec., Dept. of Air, forwatding copy of Enol.11A re night flying of unidentified aiiera.ft in New Guinea. Memorandum dated 25.8.49. to Regional Director, Port Moresby, f orwa.rding copy of Navy Offioe memorandrmi re unidentifi&d air- craft in New Guinea. -(Encl.26A and B.) .. ENCLolU randum dated 25.8.49. to Department o'f Navy, acknowledg- ing receipt of Enclol5A and B and advising that a copy has been forwarded to the Regional Director, New Guinea, with instructions to contac~ Naval. Officer-in-Charge. ENCL.a. :L7A National Archives of Australia MINUTE SHEET Enclosures U.A to 28! are ref e1-:cced for your information. 2 . I feel that ltA makes a mountain out of a mole-hill, but would be glad of your views. 3. Please don' t let us get involved in matt- ers outside our particular province, including the in- troduction of codes as proposed in the pen-ult :lma.te paragraph. 4 . Broadly, I consider we should look after t he known a ircraft, let the unknotl'XI. look after themselves a nd l eave the Intelligence matters t o the Services. These papers have been discussed with the Superintendents of Communications and Air Traffic Control. 2. It is considered that the Acting Regional Director is carrying the interpreta.t ion of the Air Navigation Regulations too fa.r when he argues that he must accept responsibility for such aircraft movements as a.re mentioned herein. He has the same interest as &J\Y other intelligent person and that ia to bring to the notice of the proper authorities any movements which may be regaroed a.s b eing suspicious. 3. It would be moat unfortwiate if the Communioat ions Branch were compellsd to introduce a cipher system. It is, however, considered that the introduction of such a system is not necessary. In such cases as discuased herein, it is considered that the Depart- ment's local authorities should report the matter inmediately to the local defence authorities. In this case it would seem th.a.t both the Air Force ani the Navy had representatives available to whom the details of the flights could have been made available. This office could have been informed by Secret letter as a nonnal matter, there being no need for haste it the local defence authorities had been Director ot Aitways National Archives of Australia Memo fDDm Regional Director,New Guinea Region, forwarding copies of reports of f'urther night flights of unidentified l'f. s . 'if National Archives of Australia MINUTE SHEET National Archives of Australia lJ ff Tt!4( I refer to Minutes 49 and 50. I would like to suggest that these enquiries might be m de dre suitably through you. ~ J . ar er. 22nd January, 1953. MINUTE SHEET National Archives of Australia Le;_ boc-v J ad-coy National Archives of Australia MINUTE SHEET Memo. dated 22.9.53 to Seo., Depto of Air, Melbourne, forwarding report and film on "li lying Saucer" referred to at Enols. 66A-67A. Copy of letter on file No. 492/1/411 replying to a request from Mr. E. R. Jarrold of The Australian Flying Saucer Bureau for copies of },fr. Drury s photographs Enol. 69A. Please see Enol. 73A being a reply from the R.A.A.F. to Encl. 68A. The f'inal paragraph of 6BA. is of course merely ll\Y htll'QOur. 2. I suggest the terms of Enclo 73A. might be conveyed to Drury. National Archives of Australia At enclosure 81A I have attached a suggested reply to enclosure 78A. As indicated.by A.D.G.(0) in hie minute 79, this has been written as a private letter. 2. Olle thing that would perhape warrant further investigation is how an .AJnerican national domiciled in California can quote the number of a secret file in this Department and, in addition, he familiar with the contents of an enclosure on that file. ' . 3. I have never heard of Kr. Killer either. and it would appear that l our procedures for handling restricted, confiden?tai, secret and top secret documents may need some overhaul National Archives of Australia M I NUT E SHEET At Enc.78A there is a letter addressed to this Department marked for my attention from a certain Jtax. B. Miller, who gives his address as California, in which he seeks certain information from us regarding the sighting of an unidentified object in the sky, the sighting having been made by our Mr. Drury . in 1953 at Port Moresby. 2. The reason I am writing this minute is because .Mr. Miller is unknown to me, I have never had correspondence with him in regard to the subject he,raises, nor have I discussed the subject with any person outside'this Department. 3. However, in spite of the condition explained in the foregoing paragraph, Mr. Miller is able to quote the number of our official file on which the subject was handled and also the number of a letter in that file. 4. The file in question is the particular one in which I now \vrite and the letter number quoted is that at :::11c.68A. Department the number You will see that Enc.68A is a letter to the ~ecretary, of Air, signed by me and its number is 99/1/478 ~534, quoted by Mr. Miller. 6 . The foregoing condition seems to be rather extraordinary in that a Californian resident can quote the number of a Secret file of this Department and the number of a secret letter on it, together with extracts from that lett r. 7 . At first sight .this seems to be a bad security leakage, bu~ examination of the file indicates a possible answer as to how the particular conditions came about. 8 . At Enc.22A of File 492/1/411 there is a letter from the Australian Flying Saucer Bureau seeking copies oi' photographs taken by Mr. Drury and a copy of the reply to that letter is at Enc.69A on this file, wherein we advised the matter bad been passed over to the Depa.rtme11t of Air for their attention. 9 . At Enc.73A herein, t here is a letter from the Department of Air addressed to me personally, which inter alia advised that the President of the .I''lying Saucer Bureau had asked the Department of Air for copies of the photo aphic enlargements and saying they proposed to send him some copies. National Archives of Australia 10. I rather feel the answer to the particular problem lies in the particulars given in th~ preceeding para~raph in that in replying to t he President, the Department of Air has quoted the letter a t Enc.68A in full, or very nearly so. As Mr. Miller indicates in Enc.78A, he is a member of various, what I shall call, Flying Saucer Societies, it is distinctly possible either he or one of the Societies of which he is a member, through a contact with the Australian body, obtained a copy of the letter from the Department of Air. 11. There has been no loss of security, the only point being whether it is proper for one Department to disclose in open cor- responclence to outside persons the con~ents of a Secret letter received from another Department. It is to be noted the classif- ication which the Depa~tment of Air gives to such a subject is purely a matter for them. 12. I refer the matter to you for your information and further action should you feel tbat the explanation given in the foregoing paragraph is not satisfactory. Encl. 85A has been marked to me. 2. Operationally, I believe that the matter could be left in the hands of the Region and from the contents of Encl. 85A, they seem to have a good judgment on the diplomatic considerations involved. 3. I am referring this to you as I think the reply to Encl. 85A should be prepared by you National Archives of Australia First A. D MIN UTE SHEET First A. D . G. (A). At Enclosure 82A is a draft minute which was prepared by Mr. Cooney in March, 1958, which in ef:ect clears the matter raised by Mr. Wiggins in Minute 83. After discussion with Mr. Hastings I believe that Mr. Cooney spoke to both yourself and Mr. Wiggins about this matter and it t.1as agreed no further action was necessary Re your Minute "37. You will note that at Enclosure 82A there is a draft minute which was prepared in March, 195q, in reply to Minute 83. I understan<l the matter was investigated and discussed with Mr. Wiggins shortly after Minute 83 was written and that it was agreed there was no loss of security. First A. D. G. (A). Reference Encl. 92A. 2 . This is the first I h[1ve heard of such a film and perhaps you could throw some light on it. If you have no kno,vledge of the matter I shall refer the letter to the Queensland Region for advice if you would return the file to Senior A. D. G. (F . O.) Note of .. 11.ction: Referring to Minute 93 the previous histor,y related to this film is contained on this file at Encls. 66A, 67A, 68A, 73A, 74A and 81A. 2. There is already~ confliction in the stories on the file in that the information dt Encl. 81A is not consistent with earlier correspondence such as that at Encl. 74A. Further enquiry to Mr. Drury establishes that he still has at least part of the film and it is therefore con~idered appropriate that he should correspond directly with the Ballarat Astronomical Society. National Archives of Australia 0 . I .C . Rekry MINUTE SHEET this file has generally been classified as "Secret" there is now no need of attachment of this classification to the correspondence at Encls. 92P., 94-l and 95'1. and Encls. 94A and 95A may therefo:re be despatched as unrestricted letters. National Archives of Australia TranNSport Do not remove this shee t f rom file CORRESPONDENCE is NOT to be placed o n t his ARCHIVES FILE. If there is new correspondence for this file, it must be returned IMMEDIATELY to Registry for the fil e to be REACTIVATED. Registry Form N022 National Archives of Australia NAA: MP1279/1, 99/1/478 As discussed by telephone, I enclose herewith a copy of the letter received from the Ballarat Astronomical Society together with a copy of our interim rep 17. You will note that I have indicated that they can expect to receive further advice from you in the near future. ~. T. C. Drury, eensland Regi