Empire Lost: Britain, the Dominions and the Second World War
Page 33
57 Harvey (ed.), The Diplomatic Diaries of Oliver Harvey, 1941-1945, 12 August 1941.
58 Louis, Imperialism at Bay, p. 123.
59 WM(41)89, CAB65/19; 'House of Commons Statement by Mr. Churchill', The Times, 9 September 1941.
60 Viscount Samuel, 'Thoughts on the Atlantic Charter', Contemporary Review (No. 913, January 1942), pp. 1-2.
61 Rt Hon. George Peel, 'Atlantic Charter No. 2', Contemporary Review (No. 917, May 1942), p. 264; many of the Americans at the conference remained convinced that imperial trade preferences such as the Ottawa Agreement had contributed strongly to the economic and political malaise of the interwar years.
62 John Barnes and David Nicholson (eds), The Empire at Bay: The Leo Amery Diaries, 1929-1945 (London, 1987), p. 710.
63 Headlam, 14/15 August 1941, The Headlam Diaries, p. 270.
64 Machtig to Cranborne, 23 August 1941, DO35/1002/48/2; Garner to Martin, 29 August 1941, DO35/1002/48/3; Attlee to Churchill, 12 August 1941, CAB66/18/13.
65 Minute by Liesching, February 1941, DO35/1077/281/11.
66 Halifax to Amery, 1 May 1941, Amery Papers, AMEL2/1/33; ibid., Halifax to Amery, 20 May 1941.
67 The source was David Eccles, later Viscount Eccles; Dalton Diary, 25 August 1941, The Dalton Diaries, p. 272.
68 Ibid., Dalton Diary, 29 August 1941, p. 277.
69 Cited in Pearson, Through Diplomacy to Politics, p. 218.
70 Sir Ian Kershaw, 'Hitler Versus America', BBC History (Vol. 8, No. 6; June 2007), p. 20; see also Sir Nicholas Henderson, 'Hitler's Biggest Blunder', History Today (April 1993), pp. 35-43.
71 Wm. Roger Louis, 'Sir Keith Hancock and the British Empire: The Pax Britannica and the Pax Americana', English Historical Review (Vol. 120, No. 488; September 2005), pp. 932-62.
72 Writing about the Survey he cautioned the potential reader about its scope and size, 'I certainly shouldn't recommend it to anybody of feeble health and weak determination', W. K. Hancock, Argument of Empire (London, 1943), pp. 7, 9-10.
73 Hancock to Colin Badger, 9 March 1943, cited in Louis, 'Sir Keith Hancock and the British Empire', p. 956.
Notes to Chapter 8: Rupture?
1 Page to Curtin, 8 December 1941, DAFP V, pp. 289-93.
2 Brooke-Popham to Sir Arthur Street, 28 October 1941, Brooke-Popham Papers.
3 Cranborne to Churchill, 12 December 1941, PREM3/206/1-3; Curtin to Churchill, 13 December 1941, DO121/119; Page, Truant Surgeon, pp. 319-23; Cumpston, Lord Bruce of Melbourne, pp. 189-91.
4 WCM127(41), 12 December 1941, CAB65/20; Memorandum on 'Machinery of Consultation', Page Papers, Item No. 642 (1942); 'Note by Shedden', 17 March 1943 cited in Day, The Great Betrayal, p. 219.
5 'Australia is Right', 21 December 1941, Sunday Express; 'Blunt Words from Dominions', 23 December 1941, Daily Mail.
6 Attlee to Churchill, 23 December 1941, PREM3/63/3.
7 Dalton Diary, 19 December 1941, p. 337.
8 Attlee to Churchill, 23 December 1941, PREM3/63/3.
9 Edwards, Bruce of Melbourne, pp. 324-5; Coral Bell, Dependent Ally: A Study in Australian Foreign Policy (Melbourne, 1988), pp. 25-6; Eric Baume, 'Australia's Political Trend', The Fortnightly (No. 151; January-June 1942), pp. 97-106.
10 Menzies Radio Broadcast, 26 April 1939 in R. G. Neale (ed.), Documents on Australian Foreign Policy, 1937-1949: Vol. 2, 1939 (Canberra, 1976).
11 P. G. Edwards, 'R.G. Menzies' Appeals to the United States', Australian Outlook (No. 28; 1974), pp. 64-70.
12 DO to Whiskard, 21 June 1940, DO35/1003/11/3/7.
13 Gwendolen M. Carter, 'New Trends in British Commonwealth Relations', Pacific Affairs (Vol. 17, No. 1; March 1944), p. 71.
14 'Empire War Cabinet—Oral Answers', 18 December 1941, House of Commons Official Report (Vol. 376), pp. 2072-3; WCM (41)137, 29 December 1941, CAB65/20. A flurry of letters on the subject published by The Times had produced a number of broadly sympathetic responses, largely drawn from those most actively involved in the debate about the role of the Empire. Sir John Marriott was amongst those who strongly endorsed the 'most opportune and just plea' for a revival of an Empire War Cabinet' 'Empire War Cabinet—The Dominions and Strategy', The Times, 8 January 1942; 'Planning of War Strategy—Dangers in the Pacific' (Lord Denman), The Times, 10 January 1942.
15 Cited in Raymond Callahan, Worst Disaster: Fall of Singapore (Delaware, 1977), p. 234; Jacob to Ismay, 24 January 1959, Ismay Papers, ISMAYI/14/69a.
16 'Mr Curtin Explains', 29 December 1941, The Times; 'Dominions and Strategy' (Keith Murdoch), 29 December 1941, The Times; 'A Word to Mr Curtin', 30 December 1941, Daily Mail.
17 Cross to Cranborne, 3 November 1941, DO35/587/89/137; ibid., minute by Machtig, 29 December 1941; minute by Cranborne, 31 December 1941; John Gooch, 'The Politics of Strategy: Great Britain, Australia and the War against Japan, 1939-1945', War in History (Vol. 10, No. 4; 2003), pp. 436-8.
18 Cranborne to Churchill, 1 January 1942, DO35/1002/48/7A.
19 Memorandum on 'Machinery of Consultation' (1942), Page Papers, No. 642; 'Note of a Meeting between Lord Cranborne and Sir Earle Page', 31 December 1941, FO954/4.
20 'Lord Cranborne's comments on Sir Earle Page's proposals', 2 January 1942, FO954/4.
21 'Memorandum on Machinery of Consultation', Page Papers; Curtin to DO, 1 January 1942, DO35/1002/48/7A.
22 Cranborne to Eden, 7 January 1942, FO954/4.
23 Ibid., Note by Cavendish Bentinck, 12 January 1942.
24 Ibid., minute from unknown to Sir Orme Sargeant, 13 January 1942.
25 WCM137(41) and WCM138(41), 29 December 1941, CAB65/20; Gilbert, Road to Victory, pp. 32-3.
26 Batterbee to Attlee, 19 February 1942, CAB66/24.
27 Diary, 9 January 1942 cited in Lord Moran, Struggle for Survival (London, 1966), p. 21; there have been some doubts raised about the accuracy of some of the comments attributed by Churchill's surgeon.
28 Curtin to Churchill, 1 January 1942, DAFP V, pp. 396-8; ibid., Churchill to Curtin, 3 January 1942, p. 399; ibid., Curtin to Churchill, 6 January 1942, pp. 417-20; ibid., Churchill to Curtin, 8 January 1942, pp. 423-6; Evatt to Casey, 7 January 1942, pp. 420-1; Casey to Evatt, 8 January 1942, pp. 421-3.
29 COS(40)592, 15 August 1940, CAB80/15; Churchill to Ismay, 7 January 1941, PREM3/157/1; Churchill to Mrs Churchill, 21 December 1941 cited in Mary Soames (ed.), Speaking for Themselves: The Personal Letters of Winston and Clementine Churchill (London, 1998), p. 460; Christopher M. Bell, '"Our Most Exposed Outpost": Hong Kong and British Far Eastern Strategy, 1921-1941', The Journal of Military History (Vol. 60, January 1996), pp. 75-88.
30 Gilbert, Road to Victory, pp. 45-7; Churchill to Curtin, 14 January 1942, DO121/19; Curtin to Churchill, 17 January 1942, DAFP V, pp. 441-3; Churchill to Curtin, 19 January 1942, DO121/19.
WCM8(42), 17 January 1942, CAB65/25.
Churchill to Curtin, 19 January 1942, DAFP V, pp. 445-7; Cranborne to Churchill, 17 January 1942, PREM3/167/1; Churchill to Fraser, 17 January 1942, DO35/1010/476/124; Curtin to Churchill, 21 January 1942, DO35/1010/476/128.
Cross to Cranborne, 21 January 1942, PREM4/50/7A; ibid., Cranborne to Churchill, 22 January 1942; Cross to DO, 14 January 1942, DO121/50; Cranborne to Emrys-Evans, 31 August 1941, Emrys-Evans Papers.
Cross to Cranborne, 9 August 1941, Cranborne Papers; ibid., Duff Cooper to Cranborne, 1 December 1941; Cross to Cranborne, 13 January 1944, DO121/11; 'Sir Ronald Cross Rebuked', Daily Mail, 18 July 1941.
Memoranda by Cranborne, WP(42)29 and WP(42)30, 21 January 1942, CAB66/21. Note by Bentinck, 12 January 1942, FO954/4. WCM8(42), 17 January 1942, CAB65/25.
Alexander Hardinge to Churchill, 22 January 1942, PREM3/167/1. Churchill to The King, 22 January 1942, PREM3/167/1. Ibid., Hardinge to Churchill, 26 January 1942.
Note by Cadogan, 23 January 1942, FO954/4; Newton to DO, 25 November 1942, DO35/1002/52/10. WHCM, 14 January 1942, DO121/12; ibid., WHCM, 15 January 1942; Waterson to Smuts, 15 January 1942, Waterson Papers. WHC, 26 January 1942, DO121/12.
Ibid., Peck to Garner, 26 January 1942; Churchill to Roosevelt, 27 January 1942, DO35/1010/476/128.
Baume, 'Australia's Political Trend', The Fortnightly, p. 98; R. G. Menzies, 'We Don't Turn From You', Daily Express, 6 January 1942.
Curtin to Churchill, 24 January 1942, Chartwell Papers, CHAR20/69. Gilbert, Road to Victory, pp. 48-9; Edwards, Bruce of Melbourne, p. 329. Churchill to Curtin, n.d. (Not sent), PREM3/150/3. Diary, 24/25 January 1942, Harvey Papers; ibid., 1 February 1942. Diary, 28 January 1942, Woolton Papers.
'Commonwealth Control', The Round Table (Vol. 32; December 1941-September 1942), p. 221; 'Editorial', The Times, 19 January 1942.
'Letter from Hubert Gough to Editor', The New Statesman and Nation (7 February 1942), p. 92. 'Is Australia Threatened?', The New Statesman and Nation (Vol. 23, No. 568; 10 January 1942), p. 20; under the editorship of the leading left-wing figure Kingsley Martin, this was one of the most popular weekly British journals.
DO to Australia, 28 January 1942, PREM4/43A/14; DO to Australia, 2 February 1942, Chartwell
Papers, CHAR20/69A.
Diary, 27 January 1942, Waterson Papers.
'Imperial War Cabinet', 14 February 1942, The New Statesman and Nation; ibid., Letter to the Editor from Hubert Gough, 21 February 1942.
J. A. R. Marriott, 'An Empire Cabinet', The Nineteenth Century (Vol. 131, No. 781; March 1942), p. 128.
'Situation in the South-West Pacific', 29 January 1942, House of Lords Official Report (Vol. 71), p. 569-78.
DO to Dominion governments, 28 January 1942, DO35/1010/476/141. 'Curtin is Blunt to Churchill', 27 January 1942, Daily Mail.
'Australians Stirred—Warm Praise for Mr Churchill', The Times, 30 January 1942; only two weeks later the same source for the story in The Times—the Melbourne Argus—was recommending that it
was no time for 'a one-man band' and urging Churchill to listen to his critics; '"Our Honeymoon is Finished"—Mr Curtin Warns Australia', The Times, 17 February 1942.
67 Garner, The Commonwealth Office, pp. 213-15; Diary, 9 February 1942 cited in Dilks, Diaries of Sir Alexander Cadogan, p. 432; Page, Truant Surgeon, pp. 328-9; Harvey, Consultation and Cooperation in the Commonwealth, pp. 96-7.
68 Diary, 16 January 1942, Page Papers.
69 'Situation in the South West Pacific', 28/29 January 1942, House of Lords Official Report (Vol. 71), pp. 497-510, 537-41, 551.
70 Headlam Diaries, 8 February 1942, p. 294.
71 'World View—Anxiety in Australia', Manchester Guardian, 17 February 1942; Harvey to Eden, 13 February 1942, Harvey Papers; Diary, 16 February 1942 cited in Pimlott, The Dalton War Diary, pp. 369-70.
72 Diary, 16 February 1942 cited in Eden, The Reckoning, p. 321.
73 Minute, 17 February 1942, Bruce Papers.
74 Diary, 23 January 1942, Waterson Papers; Bruce to Curtin, 17 February 1942, DAFP V, pp. 530-1; see Day, Menzies and Churchill at War, p. 241.
75 Diary, 19 February 1942, Waterson Papers; 'Debate in the House of Commons (War Situation, Ministerial Changes)', comments by Prime Minister, 24 February 1942.
76 Machtig to Bridges, 12 February 1942, DO35/1010/476/141; Diary, 19 February 1942 cited in Dilks, Diaries of Sir Alexander Cadogan, p. 435.
77 'Speech at United Warden's luncheon of the City of London', 23 February 1942, Attlee Papers (Department of Western Manuscripts, Bodleian Library), dep. 4, fol.209-220; Dixon Memoirs, Batterbee Papers, Box 20/5.
78 Diary, 26 July 1943, Massey, What's Past is Prologue.
79 Diary, 19 May 1942, Ritchie, Siren Years; Diary, 3 March 1942, Waterson Papers, ibid., Diary, 28 April 1942. It is perhaps almost ironic therefore that it would be Attlee, now as prime minister, who in October 1948 promulgated the demise of the terms 'Dominion' and 'Dominion governments' to be superseded by 'Commonwealth country' or 'member of the Commonwealth'; 'Dominion Status' was dropped in favour of 'fully independent Member of the Commonwealth'; see McIntyre, 'Commonwealth Legacy' in OHBE4, p. 696; the department had already been renamed in July 1947 as the 'Commonwealth Relations Office' (CRO).
80 Waterson Diary, 5 June 1942; ibid., 25 June 1942.
81 'Imperial War Cabinet', The New Statesman and Nation (14 and 21 February 1942).
82 Churchill to Curtin (Telegram), 20 February 1942, DO121/10B; ibid., Cross to DO, 21 February 1942; Cross to DO, 14 July 1943, DO121/10B; 'Draft of Message from Prime Minister to Mr Curtin', n.d. This incident returned to haunt both governments the following year. During the 'No Confidence' debate precipitated by the Opposition at the end of June 1943, various references were made to Burma and to the earlier decision to withdraw troops from the Western Desert. The DO was so concerned that a telegram was sent in Churchill's name urging Curtin to try 'to prevent embarrassing and possibly dangerous disclosures' in order to avoid 'public political controversy'.
83 Diary, 30 March 1942, Diaries of Harold Nicolson, p. 219.
84 'Evidence as to Behaviour of Australian Troops in Malaya', n.d., DO35/1010; minute by Boyd-Shannon, 20 May 1942; Richard Wilkinson, 'Ashes to Ashes', History Today (February 2002), pp. 39-41.
85 Headlam Diaries, 10 March 1942/pp. 302-3.
86 Minute by Machtig, 31 August 1942, DO35/1010; ibid., Attlee to Churchill, 2 September 1942; Churchill to Attlee, 6 September 1942.
87 Robert Menzies, 'This is What Australians are Thinking', Daily Express, 7 April 1942.
88 Cross to Attlee, 16 September 1942, DO35/1010.
89 G. M. Brown, 'Attitudes to an Invasion of Australia in 1942', RUSI Journal (Vol. 122, No. 1; March 1977), pp. 27-31; Air Commodore A. D. Garrisson, 'Darwin 1942', Australian Defence Force Journal (No. 122; January/February 1997), pp. 41-77. Overall 64 Japanese air attacks were
conducted against Darwin, the last of these in mid-November 1943 but it is the first which is most remembered.
90 'South Australia Bans Horse-Racing', The Times, 26 February 1942. In South Africa also petrol rationing, trial blackouts and the curtailment of long distance rail services were all seen as responses to Japanese penetration into the Indian Ocean; 'Defence Measures in South Africa', The Times, 13 March 1942.
91 Noel Annan, 'How Wrong Was Churchill?', The New York Review of Books, 8 April 1993 (Vol. 40, No. 7); Gilbert, Road to Victory, p. 128; Andrew Stewart, '"The Klopper Affair": Anglo-South African Relations and the Surrender of the Tobruk Garrison', Twentieth Century British History (Vol. 17 No. 4, 2006), pp. 516-54.
92 Auchinleck to Alanbrooke, 25 July 1942, Alanbrooke Papers (Liddell Hart Archives), 6/D/4f/E; 'Notes on Freyberg and Auchinleck', n.d. (July 1955?), Liddell Hart Papers, LH1/242/417.
93 'Notes on Alanbrooke, Churchill and Tobruk', 3 April 1957, LH1/242/429; Dorman-Smith described Dominions troops as 'semi-independent expeditionary forces ... whose commanders had a definite responsibility to remote Dominion governments'; Dorman-Smith to Liddell Hart, 15 April ??, LH1/242/370.
Notes to Chapter 9: Holding the Imperial Line
1 John Deane Potter, Fiasco: The Break-out of the German Battleships (New York, 1970).
2 'The Dieppe Raid', The Times, 20 August 1942; 'Dieppe and Cherbourg—Experience Gained from Landings', The Times, 5 August 1944; General Denis Whitaker and Shelagh Whitaker, Dieppe: Tragedy to Triumph (London, 1992), pp. 23-8; C. G. Roland, 'On The Beach and In The Bag: The Fate of the Dieppe Casualties Left Behind', Canadian Military History (Vol. 9, No. 4), pp. 6-25; C. P. Stacy, The Canadian Army, 1939-1945 (Ottawa, 1948), p. 80.
3 Cited in Roger Louis, Imperialism at Bay, p. 200 and Gilbert, Churchill: A Life (London, 1992), p. 734; according to John Charmley such rejoinders were, by this stage, pointless as 'the Empire was already on the way to liquidation, with the Americans taking the role of receiver to the bankrupt concern',
Charmley, End of Glory, p. 431.
4 'Debate on the Address', 12/18 November 1942 and 2/3 December 1942, House of Commons Official Report (Vol. 385), pp. 134-8, 201-2, 265-7, 293-4, 398-9.
5 'Dominion Prime Ministers (Cooperation)-Oral Answers', 11 June 1941, House of Commons Official Report (Vol. 372), pp. 187-9; the exchange included one of Churchill's more celebrated rejoinders. When assured by Granville that he was trying to hinder the prime minister in the conduct of the war but was 'merely following the writings and precepts of Winston Churchill', the prime minister responded, 'I am afraid that at times that gentleman was very annoying'.
6 'Dominion High Commissioners (War Meetings)-Oral Answers', 24 June 1941, House of Commons Official Report (Vol. 372), pp. 936-7; 'Empire and United States-Oral Answers', 22 July 1941, House of Commons Official Report (Vol. 373), pp. 761-2; 'Empire War Collaboration-Oral Answers', 9 September 1941, House of Commons Official Report (Vol. 374), pp. 28-9; Churchill was still being asked much the same questions by these two as late as February 1944.
7 'War Situation', 20 May 1942, House of Commons Official Report (Vol. 380), pp. 290-2.
8 Graham Stewart, His Finest Hours: The War Speeches of Winston Churchill (London, 2007), pp. 299-301.
9 'Ol' Man River', Time, 2 September 1940.
10 Claude Bissell, The Imperial Canadian: VincentMassey (Toronto, 1986), p. 126.
11 Diary, 12 and 19 October 1942, Massey Papers.
12 John Colville, The Fringes of Power: Vol. 1, p. 148.
13 Miller, 'Special Relationship', p. 380.
14 Robert Rhodes James, 'The Politician' in A. J. P. Taylor et al., Four Faces and the Man (London, 1969), p. 94.
15 Malcolm MacDonald Papers, pp. 122/123.
16 'The Empire', 21 July 1942, House of Lords Official Report (Vol. 123), pp. 933-77.
17 Cranborne to MacDonald, 6 June 1942, MacDonald Papers, 14/5/29.
18 Cranborne to Emrys-Evans, 18 March 1943, Emrys-Evans Papers.
19 Hector Bolitho, 'This Empire of Ours', Empire Review (No. 304, January 1943), pp. 10-11; born in New Zealand, the prolific writer served as a wartime intelligence officer in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. He was also said to be well connected with the royal family as a result of a popular account he wrote of the H.R.H. Duke of York's 1927 tour of New Zealand; I. G. Wilkinson, Journalese (Wellington, 1934), p. 47.