DATELINE: 14th February 2001
MINISTERS' WRECK BAN-WAGON
The Government is about to publish a public consultation document on how to prevent divers from tampering with maritime war graves. The move comes after more than 170 MPs signed a Parliamentary Early Day Motion tabled by Brian Cotter MP, calling for "the establishment of an exclusion zone around naval war graves for a minimum of 100 years from the time of loss".
EDMs are a method by which MPs draw preliminary attention to issues, to be considered for Parliamentary Questions. In reply to Cotter's EDM, tabled following a concerted pro-ban campaign conducted by regional press in southwest England, the sport diving organisations are writing to each of the EDM's MP signatories to put diving's side of the story.
In reply to the claim that legislation is the only way to stop divers who desecrate war graves, the BSAC, PADI and SAA are expected to stress that diver education is still the best way forward; that any thought of bans should be balanced against the good that divers do in inspecting and reporting on wrecks; and that any ban, while suppressing good-willed diving, would not stop many hardcore wreckers.
The BSAC, PADI and SAA launched the Respect Our Wrecks diver education programme last March, as evidence mounted that the MOD was becoming increasingly concerned over wreck tampering. And longstanding pro-protection campaigns have been conducted by Friends of War Memorials and by the HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Repulse Survivors Association, whose application for protection of the two British warship wrecks off Malaysia resulted in a Commons adjournment debate last October.
But the recent press campaign by West Country newspaper the Western Daily Press, which attacked the "wholesale plunder" of war graves, and Brian Cotter's EDM have raised the ante.
Soon the consultation document, compiled under the eye of the MOD and the office of Dr Lewis Moonie, Under Secretary of State for Defence, will be in circulation pending possible crunch talks between the Government, diving organisations and other involved parties.
Ban options would include two levels of protection under the Protection of Military Remains Act - "look-don't-touch" and an outright ban - which would apply to designated sites in British waters. Measures for British naval wrecks outside British waters might be possible through elements of the Merchant Shipping and Maritime Security Act 1977, and the Merchant Shipping Act 1995.
Divers and others have been invited to contribute their views to a new website, wreckrespect. org.uk, which was launched in January as a forum dedicated to the war graves issue.