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

by Andrew Stewart

  24 Greenway to Eden, 26 April 1944, FO371/42678.

  25 'Growing Unity of the Empire', Empire Review (June-August 1944), pp. 69-71; Cranborne to Churchill, 20 April 1944, DO121/10A; ibid., 'Notes for Debate on Motion Regarding Empire and Commonwealth Unity', n.d.

  26 'Empire and Commonwealth Unity', House of Commons Official Report (Vol. 399), 20/21 April 1944, pp. 390-486, 497-586.

  27 'Mother England', Time, 1 May 1944.

  28 'Note of Arrangements for Air Passages for Dominion Prime Ministers', 18 April 1944, DO35/1204.

  29 Ibid., 'List of Accommodation Reserved for Dominion Prime Ministers', n.d.; note to Colonel Sir Eric Crankshaw, 16 April 1944.

  30 'Arrangements for Meetings with Dominion Prime Ministers', Memorandum by the Prime Minister, 25 April 1944, CAB121/156.

  31 'Meeting of British Commonwealth Prime Ministers, May 1944—Notes on Administrative Arrangements', n.d., DO35/1480.

  32 Lascelles to Cranborne, 1 April 1944, DO35/1475; ibid., minute by Stephenson, 22 April 1944.

  33 'List of Social Engagements', n.d., DO35/1204; Cranborne to Churchill, 3 April 1944, DO121/ 10A.

  34 'Social Engagements—Meeting of British Commonwealth Prime Ministers, May 1944', n.d., DO35/1480.

  35 Cranborne to Churchill, 8 May 1944, DO121/10A.

  36 'Publicity Arrangements', Note by Joint Secretaries, 5 April 1944, FO371/42682; 'Publicity Engagements—Meeting of British Commonwealth Prime Ministers, May 1944', n.d., DO35/1480.

  37 'Commonwealth Faces the Future', The Times, 2 May 1944; 'Common Counsel', The Round Table (No. 134; March 1944), pp. 103-107; 'The Conference', The Round Table (No. 135; June 1944), pp. 195-8.

  38 Minute by Cadogan, 12 June 1944, FO371/42678.

  39 'Report of Speeches made at the Opening Meeting of the Prime Ministers', 1 May 1944, DO35/1854.

  40 A. L. Kennedy to Newton, 4 May 1944, FO371/42681.

  41 Minute by Greenway, 24 May 1944, FO371/42678.

  42 Duff to Cranborne, 5 June 1944, DO35/1204; Holmes to Machtig, 29 June 1944, DO35/1476.

  43 Minute by Newton, 17 May 1944, FO371/42682.

  44 Cranborne to Churchill, 11 May 1944, DO121/10A.

  45 McKinnon, Undiplomatic Dialogue, p. 77.

  46 Boyd-Shannon to Antrobus, 18 August 1944, DO35/1854; ibid., minute by Machtig, 18 May 1944; minute by Stephenson, 18 May 1944.

  47 Ibid., Churchill to Eden and Bridges, 21 May 1944; 'Future World Organisation—Meeting on 17 May 1944'; Eden to Churchill, 2 June 1944.

  48 Minute by Compton, 7 July 1944, FO371/42682.

  49 'Impressions of a New Zealand Official on his Return from the Australia-New Zealand Conference at Canberra, 31st January 1944', Note by F. E. Cuming-Bruce, 7 February 1944, DO35/1993; Cross to Cranborne, 13 April 1944, DO35/1476; ibid., Cross to Cranborne, 1 July 1944. Cross also took the opportunity to provide Whitehall with a detailed verbal picture of Curtin. This began with the comment 'If Mr Curtin were to put on a clerical collar and stock he would appear to be a typical middle-aged Church of England clergyman but offered a positive conclusion of a man who was committed to his country, filled with "right purpose" and, more significantly perhaps, convinced that Australia's future was "as a partner of the Commonwealth of Nations"'; 'Note by Cross', 2 April 1944, DO35/1476.

  50 Cross to Cranborne, 10 June, DO35/111.

  51 Cross to Cranborne, 26 July 1944, DO35/1118.

  52 Pickersgill, The Mackenzie King Record, pp. 663-96.

  53 Ritchie Diary, 2 February 1944, Siren Years, pp. 163/164.

  54 Minute by Campbell, 31 May 1944, FO371/42682; ibid., minute by Campbell, 25 May 1944.

  55 Garner to Cranborne, 26 May 1944, DO35/1204.

  56 Minute for Prime Minister, 27 April 1944, CAB120/813; ibid., Colville to Brigadier Jacob, 1 May 1944.

  57 Smuts, Jan Christian Smuts, p. 452.

  58 Thorn, Peter Fraser, pp. 222-4; W. D. McIntyre, 'Peter Fraser's Commonwealth' in A. D. McIntosh et al., New Zealand in World Affairs, Vol. 1 (Wellington, 1972), pp. 47-8.

  59 'Meeting of the King's Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa', 16th May 1944, DO118/24.

  60 'Commonwealth Consultations', Commonwealth and Empire Review (March-May 1945), p. 38-9.

  61 'Prime Minister's Conference: A Milestone in History, Empire Review (June-August 1944), pp. 11-14.

  62 'Family Council', Time, 17 April 1944; 'The Brothers', Time, 22 May 1944.

  Notes to Chapter 12: Losing an Empire

  1 Ashley Jackson, The British Empire and the Second World War (London, 2006), pp. 21-40.

  2 'The Conference of 1944', The Round Table (No. 136; September 1944), pp. 311-12.

  3 Halifax to FO, 7 May 1944, FO371/42682; ibid., minute by Campbell, 8 May 1944; minute by Butler, 10 May 1944; minute by Butler, 30 May 1944; minute by Campbell, 16 June 1944.

  4 Ibid., minute by Mason, 19 May 1944.

  5 Memorandum (WP(43)115), 22 March 1943, DO35/1838; ibid., Archer to Maclennan, 20 April

  1943.

  6 Memorandum prepared by MacDonald, 'Methods of Achieving Imperial Unity', April 1944, DO35/1489.

  7 Minute by Cranborne, 12 November 1944, DO35/1204; ibid., minute by Emrys-Evans, 6 November 1944; Garner to Machtig, 15 April 1944.

  8 Professor H. L. Stewart, 'A Closer Empire Unity', Speech at the Empire Club of Canada, 27 April

  1944.

  9 Charles Luke, 'Plan for Commonwealth Unity', Empire Review (March-May 1944), p. 72.

  10 Minute by Campbell, 25 May 1944, FO371/42682; ibid., minute by Newton, 1 June 1944.

  11 Halifax to Eden, 14 April 1944, DO35/1204.

  12 Ibid., Circular from Eden, 3 October 1944; Machtig to Emrys-Evans, 24 July 1944; Garner to Costar, 4 February 1944; Batterbee to Machtig, 14 April 1944.

  13 'Civil Aviation', 1 June 1943, House of Commons Official Report (Vol. 390), pp. 90-143.

  14 WHCM, 9 June 1942, DO121/12; WHCM, 28 November 1944, DO121/14; Bissell, Imperial Canadian, p. 130; Orders, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and the Challenge of the United States, pp. 22-3.

  15 Minute by Machtig, 9 January 1945, DO35/1236; ibid., minute by Cranborne, 14 January 1945; Boyd-Shannon, 'British Commonwealth Delegations to Chicago Conference, November 1944', n.d. (December 1944).

  16 Minute by Boyd-Shannon, 2 April 1945, DO35/1891; 'After Chicago', The Round Table (No. 138; March 1945), pp. 130-6.

  17 E. J. Hughes, 'Winston Churchill and the Formation of the United Nations Organisation', Journal of Contemporary History (Vol. 9, No. 4; October 1974), p. 193.

  Adam Roberts, 'Britain and the Creation of the United Nations' in Roger Louis (ed.) Still More Adventures with Britannia (London, 2003), p. 231; Hughes, 'Winston Churchill and the Formation of the United Nations Organisation', p. 193; Memoirs of Lord Gladwyn (London, 1972), pp. 118, 121-2; 'Something for a Name', Time, 6 July 1942—the name was first used officially on January 1, 1942, when 26 states joined in the 'Declaration by the United Nations', pledging to continue their joint war effort and not to make peace separately.

  'Proposed Four-Power Declaration', Memorandum by the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs,

  WP(43)412, 22 September 1943, CAB66/41/12.

  Woodward, British Foreign Policy in the Second World War, pp. 135-72.

  Op. cit., Woodward, pp. 282-300.

  Holmes to Stephenson, 2 April 1945, DO35/1891.

  Cranborne to Churchill, 7 December 1944, DO121/10A.

  Ibid., Cranborne to Churchill, 2 April 1945.

  Ibid., minute by Cranborne, 23 March 1945.

  'British Commonwealth Meeting', 4 April 1945, DO35/1213; 'British Commonwealth Meeting

  April 1945—Minutes of Meetings and Memoranda', CAB133/325.

  Dilks, The Diaries of Sir Alexander Cadogan, 4 and 9 April 1945, pp. 726-7.

  Colonel Oliver Stanley, 'International Aspects of Colonial Policy', 21 December 1944, DO35/1900;

  this document was produced by the CO with the DO b
eing allowed to see drafts at various stages

  but not being invited to comment.

  Ibid., Churchill to Eden, 31 December 1944; Eden to Churchill, 8 January 1945. Roger Louis, Imperialism at Bay, pp. 455-8; describing this intervention Louis opined that 'rhetorically it must rank high in the annals of British imperialism as an extemporaneous and uninhibited defence of the Empire'.

  'International Aspects of Colonial Policy', Memorandum by Secretary of State for the Colonies, 19 March 1945, CAB66/63/55.

  'International Aspects of Colonial Policy', Memorandum by the Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs (as Chairman of the British Commonwealth Meetings on World Organisation), 10 April 1945, CAB66/64/28.

  'Note on Trusteeship for Mr Bottomley by Mr Boyd-Shannon', 15 October 1946, DO35/1912. William Hardy McNeill, Survey of International Affairs: America, Britain and Russia—Their Cooperation and Conflict, 1941-1946 (London, 1953), pp. 592-4.

  Minute by Butler, 31 August 1944, FO371/38721; 'Note of conditions of appointment of Mr B. Cockram on attachment to HM's United Kingdom Embassy, Washington', 3 November 1944. Minute by Machtig, 12 July 1945, DO35/1884. Ibid., Cockram to Machtig, 28 April 1945. Ibid., Cockram to Stephenson, 15 May 1945.

  'International Aspects of Colonial Policy', Memorandum by the Secretary of State for the Colonies, WP(45)300, 14 May 1945, CAB66/65/50.

  Cockram to Stephenson, 15 May 1945, DO35/1884. He was not alone in this view, Cadogan

  agreed, Evatt was 'the most frightful man in the world; he makes long and tiresome speeches on

  every conceivable subject, always advocating the wrong things and generally with a view to being

  inconvenient and offensive to us, and boosting himself. However, everyone by now hates Evatt

  so much that his stock has gone down a bit and he matters less'; Dilks (ed.), The Diaries of Sir

  Alexander Cadogan, 21 May 1945, p. 745.

  Smuts, Jan Christian Smuts, pp. 474-5, 482-3.

  Cockram to Stephenson, 2 June 1945, DO35/1884.

  Ibid., Cockram to Stephenson, 16 June 1945.

  Cockram to Gladwyn Jebb, 20 March 1945, DO35/1891.

  Paul Hasluck, 'Australia and the Formation of the United Nations', Royal Australian Historical Society Journal and Proceedings (Vol. 40, No. 3; 1954), p. 167.

  David Tothill, 'Evatt and Smuts in San Francisco', The Round Table (Vol. 96, No. 389; April 2007), pp. 178/9, 181, 183, 187-9.

  47 Cockram to Stephenson, 23 June 1945, DO35/1884; this was an example of a wider malaise largely resulting from the statements made during the signing of the Anzac Pact. The American military had decided it did not need any help from the Dominions during the final phases of the Pacific war and the result was that British Commonwealth forces played only a peripheral role. In reality the United States appeared to have grown weary of Australian-led demands for a greater say in post-war planning for the Pacific region; Orders, Britain, Australia, New Zealand and the Challenge of the United States, pp. 129-30; Bell, Unequal Allies, pp. 159-203.

  48 UK Delegation San Francisco to FO, 23 June 1945, DO35/1884; ibid., Cockram to Stephenson, 18 June 1945.

  49 Telegram from DO Section, San Francisco Conference to DO, 26 June 1945, DO35/1883; ibid., 'Summary of Reports on Dr Evatt's Press Conference for the United Kingdom Press, Friday 22 June', 23 June 1945.

  50 Telegram from Australia HC to DO, 29 June 1945, DO35/1883; ibid, 4 July 1945; Eggleston, who had been a member of the Australian delegation and was not noted for his admiration for Evatt, thought that there was something in the Australian complaint. Whilst he agreed it was difficult to accuse Halifax of being 'disingenuous', his claims that the British had effectively been responsible for the chapter on trusteeship that developed were unfair on Evatt and did not reflect the work he had had put in on the issue, not just at San Francisco but in the years before, Frederic Eggleston to Stanley Bruce, 9 July 1945 (National Archives, Canberra) M100, July 1945.

  51 Cranborne to Evatt, 25 June 1945, DO35/1883; ibid., Evatt to Cranborne, 26 June 1945; ibid., Cranborne to Evatt, 26 June 1945.

  52 Minute by Charles Welsley (FO), 24 August 1945, FO371/50371.

  53 Cockram to Stephenson, 2 July 1945, DO35/1883; ibid., minute by Cockram, 2 July 1945.

  54 'Debate on the Address', House of Commons Official .Report (Vol. 406), 1 December 1944, pp. 211-12.

  55 Batterbee to Cranborne, 20 July 1945, DO35/1119.

  56 Cranborne to Emrys-Evans, July 1945, Emrys-Evans Papers; Emrys-Evans lost his Derbyshire South seat at the 1945 general election—he was in good company as so did 31 other ministers or junior ministers in one of the largest ever changes of elected government.

  Notes to Conclusion: Brave New World

  1 R. G. Casey, Double or Quit (Melbourne, 1949), p. 104.

  2 Ritchie Diary, 25 December 1940, Siren Years, p. 81.

  3 Speech given at luncheon, 23 February 1942, Attlee Papers, MS.Attlee dep. 4, fol.209-20.

  4 Diary, Lt. Colonel C. A. de Candole Papers (Imperial War Museum), 98/35/1.

  5 Porter, 'What Did They Know of Empire?', p. 47; Denis Judd, 'Britain: Land Beyond Hope and Glory', p. 20.

  6 John O'Sullivan, 'The History of Empire Can Reunite This Divided Nation', Daily Telegraph, 1 September 2007.

  7 Cited in H. Duncan Hall, 'The British Commonwealth as a Great Power', Foreign Affairs, July 1945; comments by Heathcote-Smith, 21 August 1945, FO371/50371; McIntyre, 'Clio and Britannia's Lost Dream: Historians and the British Commonwealth of Nations in the First Half of the 20th Century', The Round Table (Vol. 93, No. 376; September 2004), pp. 521-2.

  8 Diary, 14 December 1940, Hugh Dalton, pp. 121-2; Bell (ed.), TheHeadlam Diaries, 24 September 1942, p. 334.

  9 'Situation in the South-West Pacific', House of Lords Official Report (Vol. 71), 29 January 1942, p. 578.

  10 B. J. C. McKercher, 'The Foreign Office, 1930-39: Strategy, Permanent Interests and National Security', Contemporary British History (Vol. 18, No. 3; Autumn 2004), pp. 95, 87.

  11 Garner to Costar, 4 February 1944, DO35/1024/75/23.

  12 Campbell to Batterbee, 20 May 1940, Batterbee Papers, Box 6/2.

  13 Holland, Britain and the Commonwealth Alliance, p. 172.

  14 Amery to Cranborne, 4 February 1944, DO35/1485; Amery to Cranborne, 28 January 1942, Amery Papers, AMEL2/1/34.

  15 Churchill (ed.), Never Give In!, pp. 299-301.

  16 Eden to Whiskard, 4 February 1940, DO35/1003/3/43; Churchill to Curtin, 21 March 1942, PREM3/206/1-3; ibid., Curtin to Churchill, 22 March 1942; 'Australia and the Empire', The Times, 24 March 1942; minute by Machtig, 19 February 1943, DO35/1896/213/3; A. J. Stockwell, 'The Audit of War', History Today (March 2006), pp. 52-3; Arnold L. Haskell, The Dominions -Partnership or Rift (London, 1943), pp. 5-32; Jeffrey Grey, 'Australia and Allied Relations in the Post-War Period, 1945-1972', Revue Internationale d'Histoire Militaire (No. 72, 1990), p. 168.

  17 Ritchie Diary, 18 March 1941, Siren Years, p. 96; 'We Remain in Commonwealth after War', Daily Chronicle, 23 June 1942 .

  18 'South Africa: Notes for Lecturers', War Office, 25 February 1942, FO371/34088.

  19 'Empire and the War', November 1939, DO35/99/24/3; Harlech to Attlee, 20 July 1942, FO954/4B; Gann, 'South Africa and the Third Reich', p. 518; Smuts to Theron, 21 July 1942, Smuts Papers; Grundlingh, The King's Afrikaners, p. 354; Annette Seegers, The Military in the Making of Modern South Africa (London, 1996), pp. 58-9.

  20 Batterbee to Machtig, 21 December 1941, DO121/116; Cranborne to Churchill, 2 February 1942, PREM3/150/2; 'Notes on New Zealand's War Effort and Future Participation in Pacific War', 5 May 1944, DO35/1631; by the 28 November 1945 final casualty figures stood at 9,334 dead and 27,413 wounded. This compares with 16,302 dead and 41,702 wounded during the Great War—'British Empire War Casualties', CAB106/305.

  21 'Recall Without Repining', W. G. Stevens Papers, p. 217.

  22 Arnold Toynbee, 'The British Commonwealth' in Toynbee and Ashton-Gwatkin (eds), Survey of International Affairs
1939-1946, pp. 28-9.

  23 Lawrence James, 'Nailing the Lie of the Evil Empire', The Sunday Times, 18 June 2006; a provocative account of the British response to the Mau Mau uprising in Kenya in the 1950s was condemned by the renowned reviewer who described its author as an 'heir of the war of independence and schooled to believe that all empires are intrinsically evil'.

  24 Nicholas Mansergh (ed.), The Constitutional Relations between Britain and India: The Transfer of Power, 1942-1947 (London, 1971), p. 253.

  25 'Sub-Committee 1 on American Opinion, Preliminary Report', 27 January 1943, FO371/34086; minute by Attlee to Churchill, 16 June 1942, DO121/10B; Mansergh, The Commonwealth and the Nations, pp. 66-75.

  26 A. Duff Cooper, 'The Future Development of the British Empire' (12 January 1943), United Empire (Vol. 34, No. 2), p. 33; Howe, Have We Bonds, p. 245.

  27 For an excellent review see Niall Ferguson, 'Hegemony or Empire?', Foreign Affairs (September/ October 2003), pp. 154-61.

  28 Heinlein, British Government Policy and Decolonisation, p. 11-12; 'A Record of Great Achievement', The Commonwealth and Empire Review (Vol. 79, No. 513; June-August 1945), p. 20; Ovendale, English Speaking Alliance, pp. 17-18; David Sanders, Losing an Empire, Finding a Role: British Foreign Policy Since 1945 (London, 1990), pp. 47-9.

  29 'British Empire War Casualties', Cohen to Brigadier General Edmonds, 7 June 1945, CAB106/305; Glen St J. Barclay, The Empire is Marching (London, 1976), pp. 214, 217.

  30 Francine McKenzie, 'In the National Interest: Dominions' Support for Britain and the Commonwealth after the Second World War', The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (Vol. 34, No. 4; December 2006), pp. 553-76; John Gallagher, The Decline, Revival and Fall of the British Empire, pp. 143-8; Ritchie Ovendale, The English-Speaking Alliance: Britain, the United States, the Dominions and the Cold War 1945-1951, pp. 17-25; D. K. Fieldhouse, 'The Labour Governments and the Empire-Commonwealth, 1945-1951' in Ritchie Ovendale, The Foreign Policy of the British Labour Governments, 1945-1951 (Leicester, 1984), pp. 83-120; Heinlein, British Government Policy and Decolonisation, pp. 8, 64-7, 72-3; Eugene P. Chase, 'Government by Consultation in the British Commonwealth', The Journal of Politics (Vol. 9,