A young woman called at the Darwin office of the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) on an unusual mission. At the direction of the editor of the Northern Territory News, Jim Bowditch, she presented an envelope containing three letters. One was for the Director General of ASIO ,Colonel Spry, and the other two were copies for the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, and the Minister for Immigration, Hubert Opperman .
Bowditch had contacted ASIO on April 15 ,1965 and told them that the mail was coming . Colonel Spry was alerted at ASIO headquarters in Canberra. Bowditch , as usual, had another scoop, the looming deportation from Darwin of a British man who claimed Russians in Beirut had asked him to spy for them in Australia. The man,who had written the letters , may have been a double agent while working for the French during the Algerian war. In Singapore and Darwin , he had told Australian security representatives about the request by the “bears “-the Russians-to spy in Australia .
In his letter , perused by Little Darwin ,the man spoke of “ difficulties” with the High Court of England . The veracity of the Russian spy story, he wrote,could be “easily checked” by him setting up at least one contact “with Russian intelligence in your public service.”
ASIO reported that Bowditch rang the Darwin office on April 24 saying the man had written a story "about his espionage activities " and it would be either published in the NT News or sent south for publication . The News, ASIO noted, was owned by the Murdoch group. Bowditch had "intimated "that ASIO was mentioned in the story.
The author of the ASIO report went on to discredit Bowditch , saying that while he was a good journalist , he regarded him as "completely untrustworthy and unscrupulous. " Bowditch , he continued, was not well respected in the Darwin community , an odd comment for a man held in high regard by so many in the Territory and down south . It was further claimed Bowditch had “numerous convictions for drunken and irresponsible behaviour”-which was no so . A recent documentary revealed Colonel Spry himself knocked back the Scotch with gusto. The Darwin ASIO officer wrote the deportee's highly colourful ,"imaginative narrative "appealed to Bowditch’s “literary senses.”
Bowditch had contacted ASIO on April 15 ,1965 and told them that the mail was coming . Colonel Spry was alerted at ASIO headquarters in Canberra. Bowditch , as usual, had another scoop, the looming deportation from Darwin of a British man who claimed Russians in Beirut had asked him to spy for them in Australia. The man,who had written the letters , may have been a double agent while working for the French during the Algerian war. In Singapore and Darwin , he had told Australian security representatives about the request by the “bears “-the Russians-to spy in Australia .
In his letter , perused by Little Darwin ,the man spoke of “ difficulties” with the High Court of England . The veracity of the Russian spy story, he wrote,could be “easily checked” by him setting up at least one contact “with Russian intelligence in your public service.”
ASIO reported that Bowditch rang the Darwin office on April 24 saying the man had written a story "about his espionage activities " and it would be either published in the NT News or sent south for publication . The News, ASIO noted, was owned by the Murdoch group. Bowditch had "intimated "that ASIO was mentioned in the story.
The author of the ASIO report went on to discredit Bowditch , saying that while he was a good journalist , he regarded him as "completely untrustworthy and unscrupulous. " Bowditch , he continued, was not well respected in the Darwin community , an odd comment for a man held in high regard by so many in the Territory and down south . It was further claimed Bowditch had “numerous convictions for drunken and irresponsible behaviour”-which was no so . A recent documentary revealed Colonel Spry himself knocked back the Scotch with gusto. The Darwin ASIO officer wrote the deportee's highly colourful ,"imaginative narrative "appealed to Bowditch’s “literary senses.”
