The Australian War Cabinet considered a memorandum from VADM Sir Ragnar Colvin, RN, the British First Naval Member and Chief of Naval Staff, which advocated that HMA Ships CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA, and SYDNEY, (cruisers), be assigned to protect convoy US1, (11 fast liners carrying 13,500 Australian and New Zealand troops), from Fremantle to the Cocos Islands.
The Australian Government would not agree to such a depletion of naval forces in Australian coastal waters.