Starting to hear very disturbing rumours that of Chinese scrap-metal teams may have been looting WWII sunken ships in the Sunda Strait.

These ships, which include the Light Cruiser, HMAS Perth, the American cruiser, U.S.S. Houston, and a Dutch submarine, have been war graves since they were sunk during the Battle of the Sunda Strait on 1 March 1942.

The Perth was commanded by the great Captain Hector Waller who went down with his ship after it was torpedoed by Japanese subs. Of the Perth’s crew of 686, only 218 would eventually return home after the war, the rest were either killed during the battle or in its aftermath or died as POWs.

One persistent rumour has it that the Houston is already reduced to a pile of metal and the Perth is in imminent danger of join ing it.

Surely our senior Naval officer, Admiral Ray Griggs must pull out all stops to make sure the final resting place of so many gallant seamen remains a hallowed war grave.