tA Af
W1I Ik
NQ DATE 10 May. 1973
AUSTRALIAN APPLICATION TO INTRNATIONAL COURT
OF JUSTICE
Australia has filed an application in the International
Court of Justice at The Hague requesting interim measures to
restrain France from further atmospheric nuclear tests in the
. Pacific. This was confirmed today by the Prime Minister and
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Wbitlam.
The application was lodged with the Registrar of the
Court late yesterday by the Australian Ambassador to the
Netherlands, Dr Thomson, and the Australian agent for the Court
proceedings, Mr Brazil.
Shortly before the documents were filed the Australian
Ambassador to France, Mr Renouf, had delivered to the French
Foreign Ministry a letter from Mr Whitlam to the French Foreign
Minister, Mr Jobert, informing him of Australia's decision to
resort to the Court.
Mr Whitlam also announced that the Chief Justice of the
High Court of Austrrlia, Sir Garfield Barwick, had been appointed a &/ 2
-2-
as an ad hoc judge for the hearing of the case. This has been
done in consultation with the Government of New Zealand. An
applicant party to proceedings was entitled to nominate a judge
additional to the 15 elected judges of the Court.
Sir Garfield planned to leave Sydney or Saturday,
12 May for The Hague, Mr Whitlam added.
Mr Whitlam said that the talks which concluded last
night in Canberra between French and Australian scientists had
not changed the Australian Government's views regarding the
hazards to health created by the French tests in the Pacific.
The talks, held at the Australian Academy of Science,
ended with the Australian and French teams of scientists agreeing
to report separately to their respective governments. Mr Whitlam
expressed his thanks to Sir Rutherford Robertson and to
Professor Gauvenet, the respective leaders of the scientific
teams, for the scientists' joint study of the radiation hazard
Droblem.