Australia in Peace and War: External Relations Since 1788

425 Pages·1991·22.239 MB·English

by  T. B. Millar

T.B. Millar
AUSTRALIA
PEACE A N D W AR
This book was published by ANU Press between 1965–1991.
This republication is part of the digitisation project being carried
out by Scholarly Information Services/Library and ANU Press.
This project aims to make past scholarly works published
by The Australian National University available to
a global audience under its open-access policy.
AUSTRALIA
IN PEACE
AND WAR
EXTERNAL RELATIONS
SINCE 1788
Second Edition
T. B. MILLAR
S3
Australian National University Press
A division of Maxwell Macmillan Publishing Australia
Member of Maxwell Communication Corporation
Australian National University Press is a division of Maxwell Macmillan Publishing Australis
and a member of the Maxwell Communication Corporation.
AUSTRALIA/ Maxwell Macmillan Publishing Australia Pty Ltd,
NEW ZEALAND 2 Lord Street, Botany, NSW 2019, Australia
USA Maxwell Macmillan International Publishing Group,
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First published 1978
Second edition 1991
Copyright © 1978, 1991 T. B. Millar
Design by Norman Baptista, NB Design
Typeset in Hong Kong by Graphicraft Typesetters Ltd
Printed in Singapore by Kim Hup Lee Printing Co.
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
Millar, T. B. (Thomas Bruce), 1925 —
Australia in peace and war : external relations since 1788.
2nd ed.
Bibliography.
Includes index.
ISBN 0 02 946820 5.
1. Australia - Foreign relations. I. Title.
327.94
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced
stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any
means, electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission in
writing from Maxwell Macmillan Publishing Australia Pty Ltd.
Contents
Illustrations vii
Preface to the Second Edition ix
Preface to the First Edition xi
Introduction 1
part l—BEGINNINGS 7
1 The nineteenth century 9
part 2—1901-1939 21
2 The imperial connection 23
3 Japan 47
4 The United States 62
5 The League of Nations 78
part 3—1939-1945 93
6 External policies during World War II 95
part 4 THE CONSERVATIVE
ASCENDANCY 1945-1972 123
7 The impact of Asia and the ‘communist threat' 125
8 Britain and the Commonwealth of Nations 134
9 The American lifeline 156
10 South-east Asia 182
11 Japan 226
12 China and Korea 236
13 The Indian sub-continent 254
14 The Pacific neighbourhood 264
15 The Middle East, Africa and the Indian Ocean 290
vi AUSTRALIA IN PEACE AND WAR
16 The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe 301
17 Western Europe 318
PART 5-THE liberal tendency
1972-1990 327
18 The Whitlam experiment 1972— 75 329
19 The liberal conservatives 1975-83 346
20 The Labor conservatives 360
21 Geography versus history 374
Selected Bibliography 392
Index 403
Illustrations
The British Empire delegation, Paris, 1919 • 31
The Imperial Conference 33
Hughes’s vision of the Peace Conference 34
The Motherland’s misalliance 50
Sleeping at his homework 51
Safety First 90
‘They tell me things are not too good in Europe,
Dave.’ 91
‘But—er—you’ve grown up!’ 109
Australia demands an independent voice in peace
talks with Japan 115
Australian delegation to the United Nations
conference, San Francisco, 1945 118
Dr Evatt and Mr Hyde 186
Asian Students’ Protest 210
‘That’s Carmichael... ’ 220
Cutting the apron strings 338
Petty’s Australia—and how it works—1967 376
For permission to reproduce the illustrations the author
gratefully acknowledges the courtesy of the copyright
holders, Janet Glad, C/- Curtis Brown (Aust.) Pty Ltd for
the Norman Lindsay cartoons, the Sydney Morning Her­
ald for the Eyre cartoon, the Australian War Memorial for
the photograph of the British Empire Delegation (Nega­
tive No. A216), the National Library of Australia for the
photograph of the Australian delegation to the United
Nations Conference and for the cover photographs (the
American fleet at anchor in Sydney Harbour, 1908; General
Sir Thomas Blarney signing the instrument of surrender at
the formal surrender of the Second Japanese Army, 9 Sep­
tember 1945; arrivals in Sydney, 1924; Sir Robert Menzies
with Sir Winston Churchill), The Bulletin for the Dyson,
Low, Unk White and Fanner cartoons, and Messrs Bruce
Petty and Larry Pickering for their cartoons.
Preface to the Second Edition
T
A HE FIRST EDITION OF ANY BOOK IS LAUNCHED WITH NO
real knowledge of the reception it will be given. I spent much of my time
over several years working on Australia in Peace and War, so was grateful
that the book became a standard text in university courses in several
countries. This reflected the fact that no one else had written a volume of
this kind covering, however patchily, the whole period of Australian politi­
cal history; that from 1915, and especially from 1942 until 1975 (the end of
the Vietnam war), Australia had been an important participant in major
world events—it was ‘in the news’; and that despite its length (602 pages)
the book (especially the paperback edition) was sold at a price most
students could afford.
In the decade following publication, the book continued to sell, until it
went out of print, but it simultaneously became increasingly dated.
Australia itself became far less relevant to most major international
situations. (In the new Oxford History of Australia, vol. 5, the 76 pages
dealing with the period 1972-88 include three paragraphs on foreign
affairs.) And the publishers told me that for the book to be accessible to
students’ pockets I would need to reduce it in length by about a third. As I
have written the book mainly for students rather than for libraries, this
became decisive.
It was essential to incorporate the fruits of recent research as well as an
account of later developments. This has compounded the problem of
length and presented a considerable challenge, which I have met only by
deletions that have significantly reduced the scope of the book as a work of
reference. I have deleted all the appendices, statistical and documentary,
and the introductory chapters about the land and people and the making
x AUSTRALIA IN PEACE AND WAR
and conduct of foreign policy. This information is all available in other
places, though not in one place. The events of the late 18th and the 19th
centuries are presented more sketchily than I would have wished. Several
short chapters are deleted. Other material is condensed to make place for
the new. While few authors like to see the scope of their work reduced, I
believe that the narrative of the second edition is tighter, more accurate
than the first, and of course more contemporary. I am grateful to those
reviewers of the first edition who pointed out errors of fact or typography.
The editorial comments have varied considerably, and I could not have
acted on them all without emulating Stephen Leacock’s hero, galloping off
madly in all directions. The narrative is of necessity selective. Some critics
complained at the shortage of archival material in the references. I can only
plead guilty. I have taken into account published as well as some other
archives, but the sheer volume of documentary material produced each day
by what is now the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade is more than
any one person can read, let alone digest and assess.
The organisation of the book again presented problems. In some ways it
might have been better to start all over again and let the narrative flow
down the two centuries. Being substantially without research assistance and
occupying a busy post in London, I found that prospect too daunting, and
have left it to later scholars to write. I still hope that this second edition will
be useful both to students and to the general reader.
I acknowledge with gratitude the additional help of Jayne Brand, Jocelyn
Brown, Lindie Davey, Stuart Harris, Richard Higgott, Paula Lucas, John
Piper, Wendy Robins, and especially Robin Ward who prepared the book
for publication. I am grateful to the Department of International Relations,
Australian National University, on which I tried out the ideas in the last
chapter.
Sir Robert Menzies Centre for Australian Studies
University of London
November 1990 T. B. Millar
Preface to the First Edition
T
J . HIS BOOK BEGAN IN AN ATTEMPT TO WRITE A SECOND
edition of Australia’s Foreign Policy, which was published in 1968. As I
worked at the revision, I came to realise that what I wanted and needed to
write was a different book altogether, not an assessment of current foreign
policy and relations but a history of them, especially their development in
this century, from the time the six colonies formed the Commonwealth of
Australia. So I began again, and this is that book, although it includes a few
items from the earlier work, which is now out of print. There are also
paragraphs which first appeared in articles in Foreign Affairs, The Round
Table, and Pacific Community, and which are used by permission.
Many people have helped make this book better than it would otherwise
have been, by research, comments, criticisms, suggestions, or pieces of
information. I gratefully acknowledge especially the help, in their several
ways, of Hugh Collins, Peter Edwards, Nicola Feakes, Hester Gascoigne,
Keith Hancock, Norman Harper, Bill Hudson, Philip Hurst, Milton
Lewis, Peter Lyon, Betty Macfarlane, Jim McIntyre, Neville Meaney,
Bruce Miller, Nancy Mullins, Robert O’Neill, Charles Price, David
Sissons, John Ward, Robin Ward, Alan Watt and Michael Wilson. The
Institute of Commonwealth Studies and the Royal Commonwealth Society
in London provided invaluable hospitality and library assistance. ANU
Press gave wise editorial advice. Cheryl Hood in addition to making helpful
comments on the text, performed nobly the thousand tasks associated with
the final stages of the manuscript, most of which was typed by Sandra
Kosseck, Jacqueline Nichols, and Shirley Steer.
Some points of explanation: unless otherwise indicated, the currency
used is Australian—the Australian pound (£) up to 1966, the dollar ($)
thereafter, one pound being equal to two dollars. The Australian pound
was initially worth a pound sterling, then it depreciated to about 0.80 of a
pound sterling. Today, the pound sterling is worth about 1.5 Australian