Empire Lost: Britain, the Dominions and the Second World War

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Empire Lost: Britain, the Dominions and the Second World War Page 28

by Andrew Stewart


  33 Memorandum prepared by Robinson (CO),12 May 1937, CO886/32.

  34 Garner, The Commonwealth Office, p. 15.

  35 Amery to Baldwin, 23 May 1925, DO121/1.

  36 Parkinson, The Colonial Office from Within (London, 1947), pp. 12-13; Garner, The Commonwealth Office, pp. 15-16;The Buildings of the FCO', http://193.114.50.10/directory/dynpage. asp?Page=61.

  37 Amery to Baldwin, 23 May 1925, DO121/1.

  38 'Memorandum prepared on the Building of the Colonial Office by Sir Frank Baines, Office of Works, 9 October 1925', CO886/32.

  39 'Memorandum prepared by Ministry of Works', January 1938, DO35/548D.

  40 Garner, The Commonwealth Office, p. 26.

  41 Typical of such sentiments were those offered by the Canadian High Commissioner Vincent Massey in March 1936: 'The machinery of the DO instead of keeping us in close touch with foreign crises at present seems somehow to provide an obstacle or rather delay in getting news which we could get and sometimes do receive informally from the FO. What good purpose does the DO serve?'; Vincent Massey, What's Past is Prologue (Toronto, 1963), p. 236.

  42 Garner, The Commonwealth Office, p. 137.

  43 Lester B. Pearson, Through Diplomacy to Politics: Memoirs, 1897-1948 (London, 1973), p. 108.

  44 Hubert Montgomery to Foreign Secretary, 23 July 1926, FO372/2216.

  45 H.V. Hodson, 'British Foreign Policy and the Dominions', Foreign Affairs (Vol. 17; July 1939), pp. 762-3.

  46 Garner, The Commonwealth Office, p. 26.

  47 Patrick Walker, The Commonwealth (London, 1962), pp. 97-116.

  48 Amery to Colonel Sykes, 13 October 1941, Amery Papers (Churchill College, Cambridge), AMEL2/1/33; Ridgway F. Shinn Jr, 'The King's Title, 1926: A Note on a Critical Document', English Historical Review (Vol. 48, No. 387; April 1983), pp. 350-2.

  49 A. Berriedale Keith, Speeches and Documents on the British Dominions, 1918-1931 (London, 1932), pp. 16-47; B. E. Dugdale, Arthur James Balfour, First Earl of Balfour, 1906-30 (London, 1936), p. 381; Mansergh, Problems of External Policy, pp. 1-88; Mansergh, Problems of Wartime Cooperation, pp. 11-16; Heather Harvey, Consultation and Cooperation in the Commonwealth (London, 1952), pp. 1-10.

  50 'Constitutional Relations between the United Kingdom and the Dominions', Note prepared by Charles Dixon, August 1946, DO35/1112.

  51 Speech at Edinburgh, 27 January 1927, cited in George Bennett (ed.), The Concept of Empire (London, 1953), pp. 398-402.

  52 'Constitutional Legislation Affecting Commonwealth Relations since 1931', Central Office of Information, London (March 1952), pp. 1-2.

  53 Darwin, 'The Dominion Idea in Imperial Politics' in OHBE4, pp. 66-7.

  54 Darwin, 'Imperialism in Decline? Tendencies in British Imperial Policy between the Wars', Historical Journal (Vol. 23, No. 3; 1980), pp. 661-6.

  55 Stacey, Canada and the Age of Conflict, p. 117.

  56 House of Commons debate cited in Mansergh, Problems of External Policy, p. 18.

  57 Martin Chanock, Unconsummated Union: Britain, Rhodesia and South Africa, 1900-1945 (London, 1977), p. 13; 'South Africa: The British', The National Review (No. 116; January 1941), pp. 23-4; G. H. Calpin, 'South Africa and the War', The Nineteenth Century (September 1940), p. 266.

  58 Stanley to Thomas, 11 October 1932, DO121/101.

  59 W. K. Hancock, Smuts, The Fields of Force, 1919-1950 (London, 1968), pp. 318-25; C. M. Van der Heever, General J.B.M. Hertzog (Johannesburg, 1946), pp. 278-83.

  60 W. H. Clark, 'Race Relations and Political Trends in the Union of South Africa, 1935-1940', April 1940, Clark Papers (University of Cape Town).

  61 Mansergh, Problems of External Policy, pp. 381-2.

  62 Angus Ross, 'Reluctant Dominion or Dutiful Daughter? New Zealand and the Commonwealth in the Inter-war Years', Journal of Commonwealth Political Studies (Vol. X; 1972), pp. 28-44.

  63 W. B. Sutch, 'New Zealand and World Affairs', International Affairs (Vol. 16, No. 5; September 1937), p. 721; this article was written by Walter Nash's secretary-economist.

  64 'Notes on Mr Amery's Tour in Australia and New Zealand', 8 February 1928, CAB24/192.

  65 Garner, Commonwealth, p. 49.

  66 'Comments by William Jordan at meeting of Dominion delegates at Geneva', 12 September 1938, DO114/94.

  67 Walter Phelps Hall, Empire to Commonwealth (New York, 1928), pp. 165-82; Edward Porrit, The Fiscal and Diplomatic Freedom of the British Overseas Dominions (London, 1922), pp. 141-8.

  68 D. K. Fieldhouse 'The Metropolitan Economics of Empire', in OHBE4, pp. 98-102.

  69 Correlli Barnett, The Collapse of British Power (London, 1972), pp. 117-20.

  70 P. J. Cain and A. G. Hopkins, British Imperialism: Crisis and Deconstruction, 1914-90 (London and New York, 1993), pp. 96-135; Judd and Slim, The Evolution of the Modern Commonwealth, pp. 73-78; L. E. Davis and R. A. Huttenback, Mammon and the Pursuit of Empire. The Political Economy of British Imperialism, 1860-1912 (Cambridge, 1986), pp. 160-3, 189-91, 303-6.

  71 Walter Nash, 'New Zealand and the Commonwealth', United Empire (Vol. 28, No. 1; January 1937), p. 31; McKinnon, Independence and Foreign Policy pp. 23-6.

  72 Keith Sinclair, Walter Nash (Auckland, 1977), p. 137.

  73 John O'Brien, 'Conditional Loyalties: Australia, Ireland and the Decline of the Dominions Office', Institute of Commonwealth Studies Seminar Paper (1990), p. 2.

  74 Keith Middlemas, 'The Effect of Dominion Opinion on British Foreign Policy, 1937-1938', Institute of Commonwealth Studies Seminar Paper (1971), p. 47.

  75 David Carlton, 'The Dominions and the Gathering Storm', Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (Vol. 6, No. 2; January 1978), pp. 172-5; Max Beloff, Dream of Commonwealth, 1921-42 (London, 1989), pp. 270-98; Ritchie Ovendale, 'Why the British Dominions Declared War' in Robert Boyce and Esmonde Robertson (eds), Paths to War: New Essays on the Origins of the Second World War (New York, 1989), pp. 276-96; Ovendale, Appeasement and the English Speaking World (Cardiff, 1975), pp. 38-63.

  Notes to Chapter 2: War Again

  1 John Hilliker, Canada's Department ofExternal Affairs, Vol. One (Montreal, 1990), pp. 111-213; R. G. Neale (ed.), Documents on Australian Foreign Policy, 1937-1949: Vol. II, 1939 (Canberra, 1976), pp. 13-14; Paul Hasluck, Diplomatic Witness: Australian Foreign Affairs 1941-1947 (Melbourne, 1980), pp. 3-16; Lorna Lloyd, 'Loosening the Apron Strings: The Dominions and Britain in the Inter-War Years', The Round Table (No. 369, 2003), pp. 279-303.

  2 MacDonald to Halifax, 23 March 1938, DO35/576; Keith Sinclair, A History of New Zealand (London, 1959), p. 277; F. L .W. Wood, 'The Dominion of New Zealand at War' in Duncan Hall and William Elliot (eds), The British Commonwealth at War (New York, 1943), pp. 407-12; Mansergh, Problems of Wartime Cooperation, p. 16.

  3 Dixon to Batterbee, 14 December 1937, DO35/543/28/5; ibid., letter from Malkin to Bushe, 18 February 1937, DO35/543/28/2.

  4 Ann Trotter, 'The Dominions and Imperial Defence: Hankey's Tour in 1934', Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (Vol. 2; 1974), pp. 318-32.

  5 Bushe to Malkin, 8 February 1937, DO35/543/28/2.

  6 Ibid., Malkin to Bushe, 18 February 1937.

  7 Ibid., minute by Harding, 18 September 1937; Garner, The Commonwealth Office, p. 20.

  8 Dixon to Batterbee, 14 December 1937, DO35/543/28/5; ibid., 'Memorandum prepared by Batterbee', December 1937; Sir Charles Dixon, 'Memoirs on Service in the Colonial Office, the Commonwealth Relations Office and the Commonwealth Office from 1911 to the 1970s', (n.d.), Sir Harry Batterbee Papers (Rhodes House Library, Oxford), Box 20/5; Dixon to Malkin, 23 December 1937, DO35/543/28/4; Garner, The Commonwealth Office, pp. 91-3; in comparing his account of events with that contained within the DO's original correspondence files, Garner, who had no involvement in the preparation of these documents, seems to have become a little confused in his narrative, at least in the earlier stages.

  9 'Memorandum prepared by Batterbee', December 1937, DO35/543/28/5; ibid., 'Note prepared by Dixon—"Position of the Dominions o
n the Event of War"', December 1937 .

  10 Ibid., Batterbee to MacDonald, 7 January 1938.

  11 Ibid., minute by MacDonald, 21 January 1938; ibid., Malkin to Dixon, 11 January 1938; as part of the ongoing review process of internal files adopted by the DO, in 1957 the majority of files D28/6 to D28/20 contained within DO35/543, covering approximately one year of the memorandum's progress, were deemed to be of insufficient historical interest to merit not being destroyed; see Anne Thurston, Records of the Colonial Office, Dominions Office, Commonwealth Relations Office and Commonwealth Office (London, 1995), pp. 62-4.

  12 Garner, The Commonwealth Office, p. 94.

  13 John A. Cross, Whitehall and the Commonwealth: British Departmental Organisation for Commonwealth Relations, 1900-1966 (London, 1967), p. 52; G. M. Carter, British Commonwealth and International Security (Toronto, 1947), pp. 300-2; MacDonald to Halifax, 10 April 1938, CAB123/246; MacDonald, 'Interview to the Oxford Colonial Records Project' (Rhodes House Library), p. 3.

  14 R. A. C. Parker, Chamberlain and Appeasement: British Policy and the Coming of the Second World War (London, 1993), pp. 156-82; Keith Middlemas, The Diplomacy of Illusion (London, 1972), pp. 21-3; Duncan Hall, Commonwealth (London, 1971), pp. 753-62; Middlemas, 'The Effect of Dominion Opinion on British Foreign Policy', Collected Seminar Papers on the Dominions between the Wars (Institute of Commonwealth Studies; October 1970-March 1971), pp. 51-4; Barnett, The Collapse of British Power, pp. 228-9; Holland, The Commonwealth Alliance, pp. 200-2; Ovendale, Appeasement and the English Speaking World, pp. 210-11; Michael Graham Fry, 'Agents and Structures: The Dominions and the Czechoslovak Crisis, September 1938', Diplomacy and Statecraft, (Vol. 10, Nos. 2 and 3; 1999); 'The Influence of the Commonwealth on British Foreign Policy: The Case of the Munich Crisis' in D. C. Watt, Personalities and Policies (London, 1965), pp. 162-3; Duncan Hall and Elliot, The Commonwealth in War and Peace, p. 13; The Earl of Halifax, Fullness of Days (London, 1957), pp. 197-8; Robert J. Beck, 'Munich's Lessons Reconsidered', International Security (Vol. 14, No. 2; Autumn, 1989), pp. 161-91.

  15 Bridges to Machtig, 28 September 1944, DO35/1482; ibid., Machtig to Bridges, 30 October 1944; Bridges to Woodward, 17 November 1944.

  16 DO to British High Commissioners, 28 September 1938, DO35/543/28/8.

  17 Liesching to Batterbee, 28 July 1938, Batterbee Papers, Box 9/1.

  18 Minutes and correspondence regarding supply of papers to the UK High Commissioner in New Zealand, October/November 1938, DO35/548F.

  19 'Hankey, whose mother was Australian and who, unlike most of the British politicians who paid lip service to the idea, genuinely desired participation by the Dominions in Imperial policy making'; P. G. Edwards, 'The Rise and Fall of the High Commissioner: S. M. Bruce in London, 1933-45', in A. F. Madden and W. H. Morris (eds), Studies in Commonwealth Politics and History: Australia and Britain (London, 1986), p. 54; Batterbee to MacDonald, 7 January 1938, DO35/543/28/5.

  20 Batterbee to Clark, 4 January 1939, Clark Papers (London School of Economics); 'Note of a meeting on 5 January 1939', DO35/543/28/21; although it is not within the remit of this study, Harding's warning extended as far as to also keeping the information from the Irish authorities.

  21 Donald Lammers, 'From Whitehall After Munich: The Foreign Office and the Future Course of

  British Policy', The Historical Journal (Vol. 16, No. 4; 1973), p. 832; Malkin to Dixon, 10 January 1939, DO35/543/28/21.

  22 Ibid., minute by Stephenson, 26 January 1939; Bridges to Dixon, 24 January 1939.

  23 Harding to Campbell/Clark, 1 February 1939, DO35/543/28/21.

  24 Clark to Harding, 20 February 1939, DO35/543/28/23; Whiskard to Inskip, 16 March 1939, DO121/46; Campbell to Inskip, 24 March 1939, F0800/310.

  25 Bridges to Harding, 13 February 1939, DO35/543/28/21; Harding to Batterbee, 18 February 1939, Batterbee Papers, Box 6/4; Halifax to Inskip, 2 March 1939, FO372/3315.

  26 Bridges to Minister, 1 March 1939, CAB21/488.

  27 Dixon Memoirs, Batterbee Papers, Box 20/5; Parker, Chamberlain and Appeasement, pp. 201-2; P. M. H. Bell, The Origins of the Second World War (London, 1986), pp. 252-4.

  28 During the Munich crisis MacDonald had found himself obliged to agree to requests by the hitherto largely dormant London-based Dominion high commissioners for meetings, 'sometimes more than once a day', to brief them fully on developments. These daily gatherings were in addition to the overwhelming flow of messages and telegrams already being provided by the DO to the Dominion governments. And, requiring a good deal of advance preparation by a variety of officials, not to mention actual attendance by others, they accounted for much valuable time; Dixon Memoirs, Batterbee Papers; Malcolm MacDonald, Titans and Others (London, 1972), pp. 80-1.

  29 Minute by Harding, 2 May 1933, DO35/100.

  30 High Commissioner's Meeting (hereafter 'HCM'), 21 March 1939, DO121/5; Campbell to Inskip, 24 March 1939, FO800/310.

  31 HCM, 30 March 1939, DO121/5.

  32 Smuts to Duncan, 25 April 1939, Sir Patrick Duncan Papers (University of Cape Town); Smuts to Gullet, 6 April 1939, Jan Smuts Papers (National Archives, Pretoria); Mackenzie King Diary, 31 March 1939, Mackenzie King Papers (Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa), MG26, J13, Fiche 129-130; J. L. Granatstein and R. Bothwell, 'A Self-Evident National Duty: Canadian Foreign Policy, 1935-39', Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (Vol. 3, No. 2; January 1975), p. 228.

  33 Harding to Bridges, 6 April 1939, DO35/548D/1/57; Harding to Creedy (WO), 19 April 1939, CAB104/19; he would soon be hospitalised by an attack of piles which may well have been the cause of his apparent distraction, Harding to Batterbee, 6 August 1939, Batterbee Papers, Box 6/4.

  34 Op. cit., 'Memorandum', April 1939; Campbell to Stephenson, 19 April 1939, DO35/543/28/23; ibid., Clark to Harding, 20 February 1939; Clark to Harding, 28 April 1939, CAB104/19.

  35 Clark to Harding, 20 February1939, DO35/543/28/23; Clark to Harding, 13 March 1939, CAB104/19.

  36 Parker, Chamberlain and Appeasement, pp. 216-46; John Charmley, Chamberlain and the Lost Peace (London, 1989), pp. 180-5.

  37 HCM, 23 May 1939, DO121/5; 'Position of the Dominions in the Event of War', May 1939, DO35/543/28/32.

  38 Minute by Dixon, 24 May 1939, DO35/543/28/32; ibid., minute by Stephenson, 27 May 1939.

  39 Garner, The Commonwealth Office, pp. 88-9.

  40 Minute by Harding, 25 May 1939, DO35/543/28/32; ibid., minute by Inskip, 25 May 1939. Just a month earlier Harding had written to his brother-in-law in Wellington and referred to the Secretary of State as 'not having the knowledge or the temperament [for the job]', Harding to Batterbee, 16 April 1939, DO35/543/28/32.

  41 Australia, it was felt, would not be far behind with a similar request for help. Carl Bridge, 'Poland to Pearl Harbor' in Carl Bridge (ed.), Munich to Vietnam: Australia's Relations with Britain and the United States since the 1930's (Melbourne, 1991), pp. 39-41; Lloyd Ross, John Curtin (Melbourne, 1977), p. 41; Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism, pp. 511-14; Minute by Machtig, 25 February 1939, DO35/548A; Sinclair, Walter Nash, p. 177; T. K. Bewley, 'Memorandum on New Zealand', n.d., CAB21/489.

  42 Beloff, Dream of Commonwealth, pp. 284-5.

  43 Hancock, Smuts: The Fields of Force, pp. 318-25; Van Der Heever, General J.B.M.Hertzog, pp. 278-83.

  44 The DID virtually ceased to exist 'in the stress of war' and by mid-1940 it no longer provided any real coverage of events; minute by Sir Basil Newton, 25 November 1942, DO35/1002/52/10; handwritten comment, 'Foreign Affairs', 17 July 1942, DO35/998/7/48.

  45 Minute by Hadow, 19 April 1939, FO372/3314; ibid., minute by F. H. Cleobury, 26 January 1939, FO372/3314; minute by Cleobury, 6 April 1939.

  46 Ibid., minute by Hadow, 24 May 1939; minute by Cadogan, 31 May 1939, FO800/310; Ovendale, Appeasement and the English Speaking World, p. 275.

  47 Batterbee to DO, 23 May 1939, CAB104/19; Fairburn to Earl de la Warr, 9 May 1939, DO121/46.

  48 'Index of HC Meetings', DO121/5.

  49 'Minutes o
f a meeting to discuss security', 5 August 1939, DO35/548D/3/126.

  50 Inskip to Lord Chatfield, 23 August 1939, CAB21/2464.

  51 HCM, 22 August 1939, DO121/5; Dairy, 23 August 1939, Lord Hankey Papers (Churchill College) HNKY1/7; Diary, 25 August 1939, Sir Thomas Inskip Papers (Churchill College) INKP; 'Index of HC Meetings', DO121/5; 'Germany and Great Britain, Settlement', note by Massey, 31 August

  1939, Massey Family Papers (Library and Archives Canada).

  52 Clark to Harding, 24 August 1939, DO114/98; minute by Hadow, 9 August 1939, FO371/23964.

  53 Andrew Crozier, Appeasement and Germany's Last Bid for Colonies (London, 1988); D. C. Watt, 'South African Attempts to Mediate Between Britain and Germany, 1935-1938' in Bourne and Watt (eds), Studies in International History (London, 1967); Albert Grundlingh, 'The King's Afrikaners? Enlistment and Ethnic Identity in the Union of South Africa's Defence Force During the Second World War, 1939-45', Journal of African History (Vol. 40; 1999), pp. 353-4; Van der Heever, Hertzog, pp. 278-3.

  54 Minute by Scott, 31 August 1939, FO371/23965.

  55 Deneys Reitz, No Outspan (London, 1943), p. 237.

  56 A document discovered in Berlin in 1945 by Allied investigators revealed that Hertzog had considered accepting German offers to negotiate about the future of South West Africa in 1937/38. Although he had kept the DO informed, the post-war department was worried about what effect the news might have on imperial relations and suppressed the information; DO35/1517/211/1.

  57 Chamberlain to Clark (Telegram), 3 September 1939, FO371/23964.

  58 Smuts to Gillett, 28 September 1939, cited in Hancock, Smuts, p. 314.

  59 High Commission (Pretoria) to DO, 29 August 1939, FO371/23964.

  60 Thornton, The Imperial Idea and its Enemies (London, 1959), p. 323.

  61 Andrew Stewart, 'The South African Neutrality Crisis', English Historical Review (Vol. CXXIII, No. 503; August 2008); Duncan was left distraught at what had happened and what it would mean for his country. Smuts had prevailed but the Dominion was now split on racial and political lines. When the Governor-General died only a few year's later, tributes from all sides of the political spectrum were sincere and fulsome, but for some months after the crisis he had been publicly reviled by the worst elements within the Nationalist ranks. This was because as the King's agent he remained firmly loyal to the Crown he represented despite his previous political career and natural allegiances. Duncan to Lady Duncan, 4 September 1939, Duncan Papers; The Round Table (No. 117, December 1939), pp. 200-14; Harlech to DO, 20 July 1943, DO35/1120.

 

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