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INTRODUCTION: THE WARTIME DIARY OF SIR EARLE PAGE AND HIS MISSION TO LONDON, 1941–1942

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 June 2021

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Introduction
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Royal Historical Society Camden Fifth Series , Volume 61: SIR EARLE PAGE'S BRITISH WAR CABINET DIARY, 1941–1942 , July 2021 , pp. 1 - 28
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Copyright © Royal Historical Society 2021

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References

1 Beaverbrook to Page, 10 February 1956, ‘Beaverbrook file’, MS1633/155/1819, Sir Earle Page papers, National Library of Australia (NLA). Beaverbrook wrote the foreword to Page's autobiography Truant Surgeon: The Inside Story of Forty Years of Political Life (Sydney, 1963).

2 Canberra Times, ‘Elder Statesman; Colourful Figure’, 21 December 1961.

3 Ibid. ‘Nation Mourns “Great Australian” ’, 21 December 1961.

4 Ibid.

5 Spender, Percy, Politics and a Man (London, 1972), 12Google Scholar.

6 Wilks, Stephen, ‘Now is the Psychological Moment’: Earle Page and the Imagining of Australia (Canberra, 2020)Google Scholar.

7 Davey, P., The Country Party Prime Ministers: Their Trials and Tribulations (Canberra, 2011), 8–9Google Scholar. The Country Party was established as a national party in 1920 out of three state-based parties from Western Australia, New South Wales, and Victoria. It held a populist appeal in the rural heartlands of Australia where graziers and small farmers supported low tariffs, low taxes, and low freight rates, as well as direct government intervention through price support schemes, commodity subsidization, and marketing pools to ensure the prosperity of all primary producers. Conservative in outlook, the Country Party detested the Australian Labor Party (ALP), was staunchly anti-foreign and anti-communist. Sir Earle Page became the second leader of the party in April 1920 and worked very closely with the National Party in a coalition government led by Stanley Bruce from 1922–1929, where Page acted as treasurer. See Graham, B.D., The Formation of the Australian Country Parties (Canberra, 1966)Google Scholar.

The UAP, formed in 1931, emerged after a split in the Australian Labor Party, when six dissident and financially conservative MPs, led by the Tasmanian J.A. Lyons, crossed the floor to eventually form a new party when it merged with a rump of Nationalist MPs led by W.M. Hughes. Its conservatism was similar to that of the Country Party, although its constituency was from the upper and middle class echelons of Australian society. Its success during the Great Depression was to advocate stringent, orthodox fiscal policies. Although winning power in 1931, in 1934 Lyons had to seek support from Page and the Country Party in another coalition government, which Lyons led with Page as second-in-command until 1939. Led by Menzies, the UAP-Country Party coalition was in power until August 1941. When the ALP under John Curtin took power, the UAP became the official opposition, and in 1945, was rebranded the Liberal Party of Australia headed by Menzies. Lee, David, ‘Politics and government’, in Beaumont, Joan (ed.), Australia's War: 1939–45 (Sydney, 1996), 82–106Google Scholar.

8 For an account of the discussion surrounding Lyons's successor and Page's desire that Australia's interests would be best served ‘by a national government led by someone that was acceptable to all three parties’, see Davey, Country Party Prime Ministers, 14–34. Page ideally wanted Bruce to return to the Australian political arena. See MS1633/71/861, Page papers, NLA, for a transcript of the radio-telephone conversation between Bruce, Page, and Casey, 19 April 1939, where Bruce confirmed that he was prepared to return to Australia, but only if he was the leader of a national government. Lee, David, Stanley Melbourne Bruce: Australian Internationalist (London, 2010), 130–131Google Scholar.

9 Bridge, Carl, ‘Page, Sir Earle Christmas Grafton’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Vol. 11 (Manchester, 1988), 118–122Google Scholar. See also Atkin, D., The Country Party in New South Wales: A Study of Organisation and Survival (Canberra, 1972)Google Scholar.

10 Hazelhurst, Cameron, Menzies Observed (Sydney, 1979), 157–166Google Scholar, which outlines the political drama in detail.

11 Radio transcript, 19 April 1939, MS1633/71/861, Page papers, NLA.

12 Transcript of proceedings of the House of Representatives, 20 April 1939, MS1633/71/862, Page papers, NLA.

13 Carl Bridge, ‘Earle Page: The Politician and the Man: A Lecture delivered at the Earle Page College, University of New England, 9 March 1993’, p. 14: https://www.page.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/EARLE-PAGE-LECTURE.pdf (accessed 15 July 2017).

14 Transcript of conversation between Page and Bruce, 21 April 1939, MS1633/71/861, Page papers, NLA. According to Cecil Edwards, one of Bruce's biographers, the reference to Page's attack on Menzies was omitted from Page's autobiography. According to his second wife, Jean, her husband had become extremely dismayed by what he had said to Menzies, and that just prior to his death in 1961, he asked that it be omitted from the book with nothing more than a ‘glancing reference’. Cecil Edwards, Bruce of Melbourne: Man of Two Worlds (London, 1965), 269.

15 Sydney Morning Herald, ‘A Despicable Attack’, 21 April 1939.

16 Ibid. ‘Sir Earle Page's Attack: Country Party Press Critical’, 24 April 1939.

17 Menzies to Page, 6 September 1939, MS1633/71/864, Page papers, NLA.

18 Lowe, David, Australian Between Empires: The Life of Percy Spender (London, 2010), 51–73Google Scholar.

19 Grey, Jeffery, A Military History of Australia (Cambridge, 1990), 146–147Google Scholar.

20 Whiskard to Viscount Caldecote, secretary of state for dominion affairs, 22 July 1940, MSS NZ s.13, 7/5, fols 10–13, Sir Harold Batterbee papers, Rhodes House Library, Oxford.

21 Martin, A.W. and Hardy, Patsy (eds), Dark and Hurrying Days: Menzies’ 1941 Diary (Canberra, 1993), 10Google Scholar; Eric Andrews, The Australian Centenary History of Defence, Vol. 5: The Department of Defence (Oxford, 2001), 98.

22 Lawlor, Sheila, Churchill and the Politics of War, 1940–1941 (Cambridge, 1994), 104–111CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Lee, Bruce, 145–146.

23 A.T. Stirling to External Affairs, Canberra, 5 October 1940, in W.J. Hudson & H.J.W. Stokes (eds), Documents on Australian Foreign Policy [DAFP], 1937–49, Vol. 4: July 1940–June 1941 (Canberra, 1980), 206.

24 Menzies to Cranborne, 8 November 1940, DAFP, Vol. 4, 263.

25 Bruce to Menzies, 5 January 1941, ibid. 325–326.

26 Martin and Hardy (eds), Dark and Hurrying Days, Appendix II, ‘The trip to Ireland’, 151–158.

27 Menzies to prime ministers Jan Smuts (South Africa) and W.L. Mackenzie King (Canada), 3 July 1941, MS4936/581/21, R.G. Menzies papers, NLA. For more on dominion consultation see Kent Fedorowich, ‘Seeking a family consensus? Anglo-Dominion relations and the failed Imperial Conference of 1941’, in T.G. Otte (ed.), British World Policy and the Projection of Global Power, c.1830–1960 (Cambridge, 2019), 245–275.

28 Gowrie to King George VI, 5 September 1941, MS2852/5/13, A.G. Gowrie papers, NLA.

29 Cranborne to Paul Emrys-Evans MP, 31 August 1941, Add MSS 58240, fol. 46, Paul Emrys-Evans papers, British Library. See A.W. Martin, Robert Menzies: A Life, Vol. 1: 1894–1943 (Melbourne, 1996), 376–387 for the political machinations in July–August 1941 that led to Menzies's downfall.

30 Churchill to Fadden, 29 August 1941, MS1633/250/2786/4, Page papers, NLA.

31 Churchill to Fadden, 29 August 1941, CHAR 20/49, Churchill Archive Centre, Cambridge (CAC).

32 R.R. Garran, ‘Notes on Imperial Consultation and Co-operation with Special Reference to the Representation of the Dominions in the Imperial Cabinet’, 2 October 1941, MS1633/250/2786/4, Page papers, NLA.

33 Fadden to Churchill, 5 September 1941, MS1633/250/2786/4, Page papers, NLA.

34 Personal minute by Churchill, M873/1, 6 September 1941, referring to WP(41)208, ‘Dominion Representation in the United Kingdom’, 29 August 1941, WC8/13, DO 35/999/4, Dominions Office papers (DO), The National Archives, Kew (TNA).

35 For insights into Australian trade policy in the 1930s and Page's involvement see, Tim Rooth, ‘Ottawa and after’, in Carl Bridge and Bernard Attard (eds), Between Empire and Nation: Australia's External Relations from Federation to the Second World War (Melbourne, 2000), 133–157; Alan Fewster, Trusty and Well Beloved: A Life of Keith Officer, Australia's First Diplomat (Melbourne, 2009), 170–201.

36 Page, Truant Surgeon, 333.

37 The Evening News (London), 28 October 1941.

38 Melbourne Age, ‘Dramatic Event at Canberra. Sir Earle Page Makes Complete Retraction’, 31 May 1941.

39 Page to Fadden, 30 August and 1 September 1941, MS1633/250/2786/4, Page papers, NLA.

40 Page, ‘Draft Report to the Austr[alian] Gov[ernmen]t on Mission of Sir Earle Page to London’, September 1941, MS1633/52/619, Page papers, NLA.

41 Menzies, ‘Memorandum for Sir Earle Page’, 18 September 1941, MS4936/581/26, Menzies papers, NLA.

42 Ibid.

43 Menzies, ‘Memorandum for Sir Earle Page’, 18 September 1941, MS4936/581/26, Menzies papers, NLA.

44 For regional coverage of his departure see the Melbourne Argus, 23 September 1941; Sydney Morning Herald, 23 September 1941; Brisbane Courier-Mail, 23 September 1941; and West Australian, 23 September 1941.

45 David Horner, Defence Supremo: Sir Frederick Shedden and the Making of Australian Defence Policy (Sydney, 2000), 74–75.

46 Lee, ‘Politics and Government’, 87.

47 Hobart Mercury, ‘Sir Earle Page's Mission. Defence Advisers’, 16 September 1941; West Australian, ‘London Mission. Minister's Advisers’, 16 September 1941.

48 Shedden to Page, 16 September 1941, item 475/1, Commonwealth Record Series (CRS) A5954, ‘Shedden Collection’, National Archives of Australia (NAA); War Cabinet Agendum, 9 October 1941, ‘Sir Earle Page's Mission Abroad – Far Eastern Defence’, item 324/1941, CRS A2671, NAA.

49 Curtin to Churchill, 8 October 1941, CHAR 20/43/108, CAC.

50 Sydney Morning Herald, ‘Sir Earle Page May Be Recalled from Abroad’, 4 October 1941.

51 Alfred Stirling, Lord Bruce: The London Years (Melbourne, 1974), 209.

52 Melbourne Argus, ‘Federal Uncertainty Near Climax’, 8 September 1941.

53 David Day, John Curtin: A Life (Sydney, 1999), 420–421.

54 Stuart MacIntyre, Australia's Boldest Experiment: War and Reconstruction in the 1940s (Sydney, 2015), 86.

55 Lee, ‘Politics and Government’, 92; Day, Curtin, 420.

56 Page diary, 7 October 1941.

57 Ibid.

58 Ibid.

59 Mackenzie King diary, 21 October 1941, MG 26-J13, W.L. Mackenzie King diaries, Library, and Archives Canada, Ottawa.

60 Page diary, 24 October 1941. ‘Dope’ is slang for news or confidential information.

61 WM(41)107 conclusions, minute 1, 30 October 1941, CAB 65/19/43, TNA.

62 WM(41)112 conclusions, minute 1, confidential annex, 12 November 1941, CAB 65/24/4, TNA.

63 WM(41)109 conclusions, minute 2, 5 November 1941, CAB 65/24/2, TNA.

64 Page diary, 18 November 1941.

65 Ibid. 13 November 1941.

66 Ibid. 17 November 1941.

67 Ibid.

68 Kent Fedorowich and Carl Bridge, ‘Family matters? The Dominion High Commissioners in wartime Britain, 1938–42’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 40:1 (2012), 10–13.

69 Cranborne to Eden, ‘Note of talk with Page’, 31 December 1941, Dom/42/2, folios 349–355, FO 954/4B/349, Earl of Avon papers, TNA.

70 Page diary, 15 January 1942.

71 Page diary, 15 January 1942.

72 Ibid. 12 February 1942.

73 WM(42)11 conclusions, minute 5, 26 January 1942, CAB 65/25/11, TNA.

74 John Robertson, Australia at War: 1939–1945 (Melbourne, 1981), 77.

75 David Day, The Great Betrayal: Britain, Australia and the Onset of the Pacific War, 1939–1942 (Oxford, 1988), chs 10–13.

76 John Robertson, ‘Australia and the “Beat Hitler First Strategy”, 1941–1942: A problem in wartime consultation’, Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, 11:3 (1983), 300–321; David Day, ‘H.V. Evatt and the “beat Hitler first” strategy: Scheming politician or innocent abroad?’, Australian Historical Studies, 22:89 (1987), 587–603; Carl Bridge, ‘Poland to Pearl Harbor’, in Carl Bridge (ed.), Munich to Vietnam: Australia's Relations with Britain and the United States since the 1930s (Melbourne, 1991), 38–51.

77 Churchill to Attlee, 13 January 1942, in Martin Gilbert (ed.), The Churchill Documents, Vol. 17: Testing Times, 1942 (Hillsdale MI, 2014), 74–75.

78 Curtin to Churchill, 22 January 1942, CHAR 20/68B/143, CAC.

79 Page diary, 21 and 26 January 1942.

80 Curtin to Dominions Office, 15 February 1942, CHAR 20/70/43-45, CAC.

81 See David Horner, Inside the War Cabinet: Directing Australia's War Effort, 1939–1945 (Sydney 1996), 102–108, for the best insight so far into the Australian machinations over the Burma deployment.

82 Page diary, 16 February 1942.

83 Ibid.

84 WM(42)21 conclusions, minute 2, 16 February 1942, CAB 65/25/21, TNA.

85 Churchill to Roosevelt, 16 February 1942, in Gilbert (ed.), Churchill Documents, Vol. 17, 263.

86 Wavell to Churchill, 16 February 1942, CHAR 20/70/59-60, CAC.

87 Curtin to Churchill, 17 February 1942, CHAR 20/70/60, CAC.

88 PWC(42)3rd meeting, 17 February 1942, CAB 99/26, TNA; Bruce to Curtin, 18 February 1942, DAFP, Vol. 5, 539–540.

89 PWC(42)3rd meeting, 17 February 1942, CAB 99/26, TNA.

90 Maj.-Gen. Hastings Ismay (1887–1965), 1st Baron Ismay: Churchill's chief of staff and deputy military secretary of the British war cabinet. Page diary, 17 February 1942.

91 Churchill to Curtin, 20 February 1942, CHAR 20/70/93-94, CAC.

92 Ibid.

93 Page diary, 22 February 1942.

94 Roosevelt to Churchill reciting text of his cable to Curtin, 21 February 1942, CHAR 20/70/104-105, CAC.

95 Curtin to Page, 18 February 1942, in DAFP, Vol. 5: July 1941–June 1942 (Canberra, 1982), 539.

96 Page diary, 18 February 1942.

97 See Page to Curtin, 19 February 1942, DAFP, Vol. 5, 542; Curtin to Page, 20 February 1942, ibid. 543; and Page diary, 20 February 1942.

98 Day, Great Betrayal, 267.

99 Curtin to Churchill, 23 February 1942, CHAR 20/70/115, CAC.

100 Churchill to Curtin, 23 February 1942, CHAR 20/70/117, CAC.

101 Bruce to Curtin, 23 February 1942, monthly war files, CRS M100/1, S.M. Bruce papers, NAA.

102 War Cabinet. Chiefs of Staff Committee, 20 February 1942, COS(42)(O)6th meeting, Prime Minister's Office papers, PREM 3/63/4, TNA.

103 Page diary, 23 February 1942. In his six-volume history of the Second World War, Churchill makes but a glancing reference to Page and the reinforcement of Burma. Winston S. Churchill, The Second World War, Vol. 4: The Hinge of Fate, 4th edn, 2nd imprint (London, 1968), 16 and 50. David Reynolds makes some interesting observations about Churchill's ‘version’: In Command of History: Churchill Writing and Fighting the Second World War (London, 2004), 297–300.

104 John Barnes and David Nicholson (eds), The Empire at Bay: The Leo Amery Diaries, Vol. 1: 1929–1945 (London, 1998), 778.

105 Page to Curtin, 10 March 1942, item 475/2, CRS A5954, NAA.

106 Page diary, 8 April 1942; Page to Curtin, 24 April 1942, item 475/2, CRS A5954, NAA.

107 Curtin to Page, 19 March 1942, and Curtin to Evatt, 24 March 1942, item 475/2, CRS A5954, NAA; Bruce to Curtin, 2 June 1942 and Curtin's reply, 3 June 1942, DAFP, Vol. 5, 828–830.

108 Page to Curtin, 12 June 1942, MS1633/251/2788, part 2, Page papers, NLA.

109 Page diary, 24 June 1942.

110 Sydney Morning Herald, ‘Big Offensive Soon – Sir Earle Page's View’, 17 August 1942.

111 Page diary, 20 July 1942.

112 Macleay Chronicle (Kempsey, NSW), ‘Sir Earle Page’, 19 August 1942.

113 Page to Curtin, 19 August 1942, ‘Report to the Australian Government on Mission of Sir Earle Page to London, September 1941–August 1942’, item 1043, CRS A2694, NAA.

114 Undated, confidential memorandum on supply, in Page to Curtin, 19 August 1942, ‘Report to the Australian Government on Mission of Sir Earle Page to London, September 1941–August 1942’, item 1043, CRS A2694, NAA, folio 5.

115 Macleay Argus (Kempsey, NSW), ‘Sir Earle Page Back at Grafton’, 25 August 1942; Daily Examiner, ‘Sir Earle Page. Visit To District’, 22 August 1942; ibid. ‘War Council. Seat for Sir Earle Page?’, 24 August 1942.