Nearly four decades after Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt disappeared in churning surf off the country's south coast, a coroner yesterday officially confirmed what most people already suspected: He drowned.
Holt was 59 years old when he vanished while body surfing in a wild swell off a beach near his home in Victoria state on a summer afternoon on Dec. 17, 1967.
His body was never found and until yesterday he was officially listed only as missing and presumed drowned.
The absence of a body spawned a slew of colorful theories about his disappearance -- the most famous being that Holt, leader of the conservative Liberal Party, was a spy for Beijing who was collected by a Chinese submarine.
"It is sad that, over the years, all of these fanciful and unusual theories about Mr. Holt's disappearance should receive public ventilation, overshadow his life and require an explanation," Coroner Graeme Johnstone said in his findings yesterday.
The law in Victoria in 1967 did not allow a coroner's inquiry into apparent deaths where no body had been found. The law has since changed and state police recently asked the coroner to investigate Holt's disappearance as part of a clean-up of their missing persons files.
In the course of the investigation, the coroner's office asked the nation's top spy agency, the Security Intelligence Organization, whether it had investigated the Chinese submarine theory or had files relating to Holt's disappearance.
"ASIO responded indicating it had no information," Johnstone said.
Holt's youngest son, Sam Holt, a 66-year-old Melbourne lawyer, said the family had expected the coroner's finding of death by drowning.
"From when it happened in 1967 to now, we have always said it was a matter of accidental drowning," Sam Holt told reporters. "We never gave any credence to these more fanciful theories that have been floating around."
The son described the Holt theories as an Australian version of the conspiracy theories that surround the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy in 1963.
"No one could accept that there wasn't some enormous and sinister plot behind Kennedy's assassination," he said.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was