SYDNEY, August 11. /TASS/. The Australian Parliament has sent a petition to the country’s top brass to return the cannons captured during the 1853-1856 Crimean War to Russia, Chief of the Australian Branch of the Union of Cossack Warriors of Russia and Abroad Simeon Boikov who heads the initiative told TASS on Wednesday.
Many Russian cannons captured as trophies during the Crimean War of the mid-19th century are currently located in Australia. They are installed as war trophies in front of historical military facilities in several cities in the country.
A letter by the Australian Parliament’s Petitions Committee reads that the request to return the cannons to Russia was examined at the Committee’s meeting and submitted to the House of Representatives, which forwarded it to the country’s defense minister. The Australian minister for defense has 90 days from the presentation of the petition in the House of Representatives on August 9, 2021, to respond to it in a legal procedure, says the document obtained by TASS.
The Australian Branch of the Union of Cossack Warriors of Russia and Abroad is certain that the reply, which it expects to receive by late 2021, will be positive and the cannons that defended Russian ships during the Crimean War will be returned to the home town of Sevastopol.
"The change of epochs and governments is not a reason for canceling the legitimate decision that Australian Prime Minister William Hughes made in the distant 1917. Moreover, our initiative has found support among Australians, including the leaders of the Australia First Party," Boikov stressed.
Once the Australian Defense Ministry approves the petition, compatriots will turn to the Russian Military Historical Society to discuss the technical aspects of the return of the cannons and find a worthy place for them in their home country, he added.
The petition for the return of the Russian cannons to Russia was filed to the Australian Parliament in early June this year. In its petition, the Australian Branch of the Union of Cossack Warriors of Russia and Abroad cited century-old archive documents to request incumbent Prime Minister of Australia Scott Morrison to honor the decision by then-Prime Minister of Australia William Hughes (in office from 1915 to 1923), which to date is legally binding, and return the cannons to the Russian Federation.
History of Russian cannons in Australia
The Russian cannons cast in the mid-19th century at the Alexander factory in Petrozavodsk in northwestern Russia were in service with the Russian army during the Crimean War and were captured by allied forces along with other trophies. Later, the cannons were delivered to Australian cities where they were installed in Centennial Park (Sydney), outside barracks in the state of Victoria (Melbourne), in front of the building of the Adelaide Armory, near the gates of the Anglesea Barracks in Hobart and in Launceston City Park in Tasmania.
More than 100 years later, a group of researchers that worked in the Australian state archive discovered declassified diplomatic cables from Sydney to London and letters by the prime minister and the Governor General, which form the basis for the legal return of the cannons to Russia.
The Crimean War was a military conflict fought in 1853-1856 between the Russian Empire, on the one hand, and an alliance of the British, French and Ottoman empires and the Kingdom of Sardinia, on the other hand. Major battles took place in Crimea and therefore, the military conflict is called the Crimean War in Russia.