44 Committee of Imperial Defence (Minutes of 355th Meeting), 2 May 1939, CAB2/8; Report of the Chiefs of Staff Sub-Committee (53rd Meeting), 20 June 1939, CAB27/625; 'Appreciation on the Far East', June 1939, CAB104/70; Raymond Callahan, 'The Illusion of Security, Singapore 1919-1942', Journal of Contemporary History (No. 9; April 1974), pp. 77-81; Ovendale, Appeasement and the English Speaking World, pp. 243-9; Lionel Wigmore, Australia in the War of1939-1945: Army Vol. 4, The Japanese Thrust (Canberra, 1957), pp. 6-12; S. Woodburn Kirby, The War Against Japan: Vol. 1, The Loss of Singapore (London, 1957), pp. 1-22.
45 Malcolm Murfett, 'Living in the Past: A Critical Re-examination of the Singapore Naval Strategy, 1918-1941',War and Society (Vol. 11, No. 1; May 1993), pp. 91-3.
46 DO to Dominion Prime Ministers, 13 June 1940, DO35/1003/2/11/1/1B.
47 Bruce to Menzies, 3 July 1940, Lord Bruce's War Files; Ismay to Bruce, 4 July 1940, DAFP IV, pp. 13-15; Dixon Memoirs, Batterbee Papers, Box 20/5.
48 'Singapore and the Empire', 1923, Chartwell Papers, CHAR8/338.
49 Churchill to Chamberlain, 25 March 1939, cited in A. J. Stockwell, 'Imperialism and Nationalism in South-East Asia' in Brown and Roger Louis (eds), OHBE4; Robert O'Neil, 'Churchill, Japan and British Security in the Pacific, 1904-1942' in Blake and Roger Louis (ed.), Churchill, pp. 279-86; ibid., Churchill to Chamberlain, 23 August 1939, cited in D. C. Watt, 'Churchill and Appeasement', p. 202.
50 Minutes of Meeting with Dominion Representatives, 20 November 1939, CAB99/1.
51 Murfett, 'Living in the Past', pp. 94-5; Callahan, 'The Illusion of Security', pp. 82-6.
52 War Cabinet submission by Curtin, 13 October 1941, DAFP V, pp. 133-6 .
53 Jeffrey Grey, The Military History of Australia (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 160-3.
54 Whiskard to Inskip, 19 June 1939, DO121/46; T. B. Millar, Australia in Peace and War (London, 1978), pp. 137, 140-1; Casey to Evatt, 25 October 1941, DAFP V.
55 Mackenzie King to Churchill, 25 October 1941, DO35/999/8/18.
56 Garner, The Commonwealth Office, p. 211.
57 Brooke-Popham to Ismay, 10 October 1941, Brooke-Popham Papers; the media in London meanwhile preferred to dwell on 'his hearty laugh, which he use[d] remarkably well as an evasive instrument when embarrassed by a touchy question', Evening News, 28 October 1941, DO35/999/8/18.
58 Page, Truant Surgeon, pp. 310-13; Diary, 5 November 1941, Cadogan Papers (Churchill College), ACAD1/10.
59 Diary, 3 December 1941, Massey Papers.
60 Memorandum on 'Machinery of Consultation', Sir Earle Page Papers (National Library of Australia, Canberra), Item No. 641.
61 Minute by Cranborne, 25 August 1941, DO35/1079/5; Churchill to Fadden, 31 August 1941, DAFP V, pp. 92-3; Advisory War Council Minute, 12 September 1941, DAFP V, pp. 106-108; ibid., Curtin to Cranborne, 16 October 1941, p. 149; Churchill to Curtin, 26 October 1941, pp. 153-4.
62 WCM(41)112, 12 November 1941, CAB65/24; John Pritchard, 'Winston Churchill, the Military and Imperial Defence in East Asia' in Saki Dockrill (ed.), From Pearl Harbor to Hiroshima (London, 1994), pp. 42-4; S. Hatano and S. Asada, 'The Japanese Decision to Move South' in Boyce and Robertson (eds), Paths to War, pp. 399-403; Thorne, Allies of a Kind, pp. 51-85; 'Note of a Meeting between Halifax and the Dominion High Commissioners', 31 July 1940, DO35/1000/1/124; Minute, 28 August 1941, DO35/1010/476/3/29.
63 Waterson to Smuts, 11 November 1941, Waterson Papers; ibid., Diary, 31 October 1941; Diary, 27 September 1941.
64 Duff Cooper to Churchill, 31 October 1941, PREM3/155; Glen St.J. Barclay, 'Singapore Strategy: The Role of the United States in Imperial Defense', Military Affairs (Vol. 39, No. 2; April 1975), p. 57.
65 Gowrie to DO, 10 October 1941, DO121/50.
66 Cranborne to Churchill, 24 November 1941, PREM3/155; ibid., note by Churchill, 25 November 1941.
67 Churchill to Eden, 23 November 1941, PREM3/156/6; Richard Grace, 'Whitehall and the Ghost of Appeasement: November 1941', Diplomatic History, (Vol. 3; 1979), pp. 173-91.
68 Cumpston, Lord Bruce of Melbourne, pp. 188-9; HCWM, 12 November 1941, DO121/11; WCM(41)109, 5 November 1941, CAB65/24; Cranborne to Fadden, 12 September 1941, DAFP V, pp. 109-11; ibid., Cranborne to Fadden, 19 September 1941, pp. 116-17.
69 HCWM, 24 November 1941, DO121/11.
70 Diary, 18 November 1941, Page Papers.
71 Attlee to Churchill, 20 November 1941, DO121/10B.
72 WCM(41)122, 1 December 1941, CAB65/24; de-cyphered Japanese document, 30 November 1941, HW1/288; Gilbert, Finest Hour, pp. 1259-67.
73 Brigadier Ivan Simson to Liddell Hart, 26 June 1968, Liddell Hart Papers, LH9/31/41a.
74 H. Martin and N. Orpen, South Africa at War, Vol. 7 (Cape Town, 1979), pp. 124-5, 132-3; J. C. Smuts, Jan Christian Smuts (London, 1952), pp. 415-16; A. M. Pollock, Pienaar of Alamein (Cape Town, 1943), pp. 75-86; Carel Birkby, Uncle George: The Boer Boyhood, Letters and Battles of Lieutenant-General George Edwin Brink (Johannesburg, 1987), pp. 242-4; Harlech to Churchill, 2 October 1941, PREM4/44/1; Harlech to DO, 28 January 1942, DO35/588/3.
75 Beloff, Dream of Commonwealth, pp. 348-60; Pickersgill, The Mackenzie King Record, pp. 268-95.
76 Day, The Great Betrayal, pp. 192-202; Horner, Inside the War Cabinet, pp. 75-7; Henry Probert, 'British Strategy and the Far East War, 1941-1945' in Nish (ed.), Anglo Japanese Alienation, 1919-1952 (London, 1982), p. 161; Mansergh, Problems of Wartime Cooperation, pp. 120-3.
77 Ross, John Curtin, pp. 236-9.
78 Curtin to Cranborne, 4 November 1941, DAFP V, pp. 162-3; Churchill to Curtin, 27 November 1941, DO121/119; Curtin to Churchill, 29 November 1941, DAFP V, pp. 237-8.
79 Brooke-Popham to Sir Arthur Street, 28 October 1941, Brooke-Popham Papers; Duff Cooper to Cranborne, 31 October 1941, Cranborne Papers; ibid., Duff Cooper to Churchill, 1 December 1941.
80 Horner, Defence Supremo: Sir Frederick Shedden and the Making of Australian Defence Policy (Sydney, 2000), pp. 95-6.
81 Churchill, The Grand Alliance, pp. 475-7; Ismay to Harry Hopkins, 12 January 1941; Diary, 7/21 December 1941, Waterson Papers.
82 Gilbert, Road to Victory: Winston S.Churchill, 1941-1945 (London, 1986), pp. 1-3; Charmley, Churchill: The End of Glory, pp. 475-9; Robertson, 'Australia and the "Beat Hitler First" Strategy', pp. 310-31.
83 Mansergh, Problems of Wartime Cooperation, p. 128.
Notes to Chapter 7: The 'First' Dominion
1 Any study of this question begins with Roger Louis' Imperialism at Bay and Thorne's Allies of a Kind and it is difficult to surpass them so great and compelling are the two volumes. The first remains the definitive examination of American and British wartime planning for the future of the colonial world, it being rightly acclaimed shortly after its publication as 'one historical study that will not need to be done again'. Among the main themes it sought to explore, one of its foci was the examination of the interaction between Whitehall and the Dominion governments. It recognized at the beginning that Americans generally did not distinguish between the Empire and Commonwealth. But what it was not able to do—because the government documents were not available at the time—was to consider fully the opening questions posed by this chapter. Thorne, with his third chapter looking exclusively at the Anglo-American relationship prior to the Pearl Harbor attack, provides a 37-page synthesis of affairs leading up to 1941 before going forward to conclusively detail events as they happened in the Pacific theatre. To these there should be added Orde's The Eclipse of Great Britain. Written nearly 20 years later it traces the origins of the relationship and takes them forward to their nadir at Suez. The fifth chapter, however, provides an excellent and succinct encapsulation of the many themes and issues that affected the wartime relationship, neatly summarizing the two imposing works that had gone before her.
2 J. Ellis Barker, 'The British Empire and the United States', Current History (Vol. 15, No. 2; November 1921), pp. 258-62; Admiral Mark Kerr, 'Understanding and Friendship Between English-Speaking People', Empire Review (No. 463; Augu
st 1939), pp. 76-7.
3 This supplement, Current History, was the oldest United States publication devoted exclusively to world affairs and had been founded in 1914 in order to provide detailed coverage of what was then known as the Great War. It subsequently has proven to be one of the most distinguished of American journals.
4 Alastair Buchan, 'Mothers and Daughters (Of Greeks and Romans)', Foreign Affairs (Vol. 54, No. 4; July 1976), pp. 651-3; D. C. Watt, Personalities and Policies, pp. 37-8.
5 Peter Carlson, 'Raiding the Icebox: Behind Its Warm Front, the United States Made Cold Calculations to Subdue Canada', Washington Post, 30 December 2005; the Dominions were all shades of Red—Canada was Crimson, New Zealand was Garnet, Australia was Scarlet (India was included as Ruby).
6 Robert Stewart, 'Instruments of British Policy in the Sterling Area', Political Science Quarterly (Vol. 52, No. 2; June 1937), pp. 176-81. This of course was not a new idea, Leo Amery, one of the leading supporters of Imperial Preference, had noted before the meeting began that it would 'register either the final triumph or the failure of nearly fifty years of continuous effort to secure the practical acceptance of the principle that the unity and the strength of the Empire and the welfare of each part of it depend upon mutual economic cooperation'; L. S. Amery, 'The Imperial Economic Conference', International Affairs (Vol. 11, No. 5; September 1932), p. 678.
7 Most notable amongst these were Sweden, Denmark and Argentina; Andrew McFadyean, 'International Repercussions of the Ottawa Agreements', International Affairs (Vol. 12, No. 1; January 1933), pp. 37-59.
8 Lord Beloff, 'The End of the British Empire and the Assumption of Worldwide Commitments by the United States' in Roger Louis and Bull (eds), The 'Special Relationship', pp. 250-2.
9 H. G. Nicholas, The United States and Britain (London, 1975), p. 57.
10 'Howe y. England', Time, 5 December 1938; following the fall of France and the growing understanding that the Nazi threat would not necessarily skirt American shores, whilst recognizing the extremes of some his previous argument Time praised Howe for being a 'cultured, loquacious, birdlike Bostonian with a famous father (Pulitzer Prize Biographer Mark Antony De Wolfe Howe), a shrewd editorial sense, a mercurial mind'; 'Howe Behind the News', Time, 25 November 1940.
11 John Harvey (ed.), The Diplomatic Diaries of Oliver Harvey, 1937-1940 (London, 1970), pp. 67-86.
12 F. M. Leventhal, 'The Projection of Britain in America before the Second World War' in Wm. Roger Louis, Still More Adventures with Britannia (London, 2003), pp. 198-204.
13 Arnold Toynbee and Frank T. Ashton-Gwatkin (eds), Survey of International Affairs: The World in March 1939 (London, 1952), p. 1; from 1925 Toynbee had served as Director of Studies at Chatham House—and would do so for 30 years—plus he worked within the FO during the war, attended the post-war peace talks and still found time to produce a monumental twelve volume study of the rise and fall of civilizations ('A Study of History').
14 Douglas Fairbanks Jr to Eden, 18 October 1939 (University of Birmingham Special Collections) AP20/7/81; he spent part of his childhood in London, as a result of which he became a passionate Anglophile who was well connected in British society. During the war, as a lieutenant commander in the US Navy, Fairbanks had participated in several combined Anglo-American operations. Having witnessed (and participated in) British training and cross-channel harassment operations emphasizing the military art of deception, he attained a depth of understanding and appreciation of military deception then unheard of in the United States Navy (his experiences were recalled in his memoirs, A Hell of a War) and in 1949 he was made an Honorary Knight of the British Empire; Obituary, The Guardian, 8 May 2000.
15 Lothian to Halifax, 14 December 1939, F0800/397; Vansittart to Halifax, 31 December 1939, FO800/324.
16 'Memorandum', CP161(38), September 1938, CAB24/277, pp. 1-7; he would later go on to help edit the Royal Institute for International Affairs' Survey of International Affairs for 1939.
17 Trevor Reese, Australia, New Zealand and the United States: A Survey of International Relations, 1941-1968 (London, 1969), pp. 7-9, 10-31; P. G. A. Orders, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and the Challenge of the United States, 1939-1946: A Study in International History (London, 2003), pp. 17-27.
18 Neville Chamberlain to Ida Chamberlain, 27 January 1940, Neville Chamberlain Papers, NC18/1/1140.
19 John Simon Rofe, 'Prescription and Remedy: Lord Lothian's Influence upon the Tensions in Anglo-American Relations in Early 1940, The Round Table (Vol. 96, No. 389; April 2007), pp. 162-70.
20 David Reynolds, The Creation of the Anglo-American Alliance 1937-1941 (London, 1981), pp. 63-102.
21 R. A. C. Parker, 'The American Treasury and British Preparations for War, 1938-1939', English Historical Review (Vol. 98, No. 387; April 1983), pp. 261-79; Alan Milward, The Economic Effects of the Two World Wars on Britain (London, 1972), pp. 66-70.
22 S. Pollard, The Development ofthe British Economy, 1914-1990 (London, 1992), pp. 157-8; Ritchie Overy, 'Cyclops' in Reynolds et al., Allies at War (New York, 1994), pp. 114-15.
23 'Memorandum on Financial Situation', Treasury document, 9 July 1939, CAB24/287.
24 'Memorandum of Conversation with Churchill', 12 March 1940, Welles Report (1940), Part II (Roosevelt Library), PSF 6; Constance Howard, 'The United States of America and the European War, September 1939 to December 1941' in Toynbee and Toynbee (eds), The Initial Triumph of the Axis, pp. 454-6; Christopher D. O'Sullivan, Sumner Welles, Post-War Planning and the Quest for a New World Order, 1937-1943, (Columbia, 2007) 'Record of conversation between Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs and Mr Sumner Welles, 13 March 1940', DO35/1000/3/58.
25 Reynolds, The Creation of the Anglo-American Alliance, pp. 122-3.
26 Lothian to Halifax, 27 February 1940, DO35/998/7/1; ibid. Halifax to Eden, 15 March 1940; ibid., Stephenson to Parkinson and Machtig, 18 March 1940; ibid., Machtig to Parkinson and Eden, 19 March 1940.
27 Martin Gilbert, In Search of Churchill (London, 1994), pp. 276, 263; he had first visited the United States in 1895, his last visit would come 65 years later. There was even some suggestion that the British wartime leader might have been 1/16th Native American Indian.
28 Colville, The Fringes of Power: Vol. 2, Oct 1941-April 1955 (London, 1987), 2 May 1948, p. 624.
29 Warren F. Kimball (ed.), Churchill and Roosevelt: The Complete Correspondence (Princeton, 1984), p. 23.
30 In December 1940 Churchill had prepared a draft message for Roosevelt complaining about the defects in these destroyers but was persuaded by the FO that it should not be sent. While it is certainly true that most of the newly acquired vessels served only about three years of active service with the Royal Navy and the Royal Canadian Navy, it is not true that they made no militarily important contribution, either in terms of what their presence in the North Atlantic made possible, or in the direct effect of their escort duties on the merchant convoys plying those waters; Charmley, End of Glory, p. 439.
31 The heavy cruiser Louisville (CA-28) departed Simonstown for New York on 6 January 1941, having taken on board $148,342,212.55 in British gold for deposit in American banks; Reynolds, The Creation of the Anglo-American Alliance, p. 154; minute by Pitblado, 29 December 1940, DO35/1028/7; ibid., Clutterbuck, 30 December 1940.
32 Cranborne to Mrs Evans, 8 November 1940, Cranborne Papers.
33 WHC, 11 February 1941, DO121/9.
34 Minute, 30 January 1940, FO371/24252; see Fred Pollock, 'Roosevelt, the Ogdensburg Agreement and the British Fleet: All Done with Mirrors', Diplomatic History, (Vol. 5; 1981), pp. 203-5.
35 Minute by Hadow, 17 September 1939, FO371/23963.
36 Harding to DO, 27 May 1940, DO35/1003/2/11/1/1B; Menzies to DO, 16 June 1940, DO35/1003/11/3/3; Batterbee to DO, 18 June 1940, DO35/1003/11/4/4; WHC, 6 February 1941, DO121/11.
37 Cited in Ponting, Churchill, p. 212.
38 Charmley, Churchill: The End of Glory, p. 18.
39 Cited in Gilbert, In Search of Chu
rchill, p. 688.
40 Warren F. Kimball, 'Lend-Lease and the Open Door: The Temptation of British Opulence, 1937-1942', Political Science Quarterly (Vol. 86, No. 2; June 1971), p. 242.
41 Minute by Liesching, 2 August 1941, DO35/1075/3.
42 Stuart Ball (ed.), Parliament and Politics in the Age of Churchill and Attlee: The Headlam Diaries, 1935-1941 (London, 1999), p. 234, 31 December 1940.
43 John Robertson, 'Australia and the "Beat Hitler First" Strategy 1941-1942', Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (Vol. XI, No. 3; 1983), pp. 301-8.
44 Minute by Pitblado, 25 March 1941, DO35/1075/279/67; minute by Pitblado, 30 May 1941, DO35/1075/279/91.
45 Comment by Pitblado at Treasury meeting, 11 December 1941, DO35/1076/1; WHC, 28 October 1941.
46 Machtig to Cranborne, 8 December 1941, DO35/1014/5; ibid., Cranborne to Machtig, 8 December 1941.
47 Minute, February 1941, DO35/1074/279/47; notes by Ashton-Gwatkin (FO) for R. A. Butler, April 1941, Conservative Research Department Papers (Bodleian Library, Oxford), CRD2/28/2; Casey to Department of External Affairs, 11 October 1941, DAFP V, pp. 131-2.
48 Cranborne to Kingsley Wood, 12 August 1941, DO35/1075/3.
49 Orde, The Eclipse of Great Britain, pp. 129-59; conversation between Churchill and Roosevelt, August 1941 cited in R. Palme Dutt, Britain's Crisis of Empire (London, 1949), p. 44.
50 Minute by Liesching, 19 August 1941, DO35/1075/3.
51 Minute by Liesching, 22 September 1941, DO35/1075/4.
52 'Discussion with Mr Winthrop Brown at the 10 o'clock meeting at the Treasury on December 11th (1941)', DO35/1076/1.
53 V. S. Swaminathan, 'America's Aid to Britain', Empire Review (No. 481; February 1941), p. 63.
54 Ritchie Diary, 21 April 1941, Siren Years, p. 100.
55 Reynolds, The Creation of the Anglo-American Alliance, pp. 140-6.
56 Churchill told the British public in a radio broadcast following his return, that the declaration was in fact 'a simple, rough and ready statement of the goal towards which the British Commonwealth and the United States meant to make their way*; 'Mr. Churchill on a Symbolic Meeting', The Times, 25 August 1941.
Empire Lost: Britain, the Dominions and the Second World War Page 32