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VI: PARLIAMENTARY MISSION TO AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND: 1944
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 May 2019
Extract
In the spring of 1944 I was asked to join an all party Parliamentary Delegation organised by the Empire Parliamentary Association to visit our opposite numbers in Australia and New Zealand. The object of the exercise was to strengthen Empire ties at the Parliamentary level. The delegation was to consist of British and Canadian Parliamentarians, who would be the guests of the Australian and New Zealand Parliaments. The British Delegation was led by a senior Conservative member of the House of Commons, Colonel Wickham, and, as I was the only representative from the Lords, I was asked to act as the Deputy Leader. This arrangement also helped to keep the balance between the parties.
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References
280 Edward Thomas Wickham (1890–1957), Conservative MP.
281 Sir Howard d'Egville (1879–1965), hon. secretary of the British-American Parliamentary Group and later secretary general of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.
282 David Lloyd George, later Earl Lloyd-George of Dwyfor (1863–1945), Liberal chancellor of the exchequer, 1908–1915 and prime minister, 1916–1922. Lloyd George delivered a speech in Limehouse, in the east end of London, on 30 July 1909, in which he castigated rich dukes like Northumberland and Westminster for their reluctance to improve the conditions of their numerous working-class tenants. He had Northumberland in mind when he increased the vigour of his rhetoric a few months later on 9 October in Newcastle where he famously quipped that ‘a fully equipped duke costs as much to keep as two dreadnoughts and they are just as great a terror – and they last longer.’
283 Senator Thomas Connally (1877–1963), US Democratic senator and chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, 1941–1947 and 1949–1953.
284 Gerald Spencer Summers (1902–1976), later Sir Gerald Spencer Summers, Conservative MP.
285 Herbert Butcher (1901–1966), later Sir Herbert Butcher, 1st baronet, National Liberal MP.
286 Edith Summerskill (1901–1980), later Baroness Summerskill, Labour MP who served as a minister in the Attlee administration.
287 Some people did not like his reputation as a Master of a pack of fox hounds, others his lack of small talk and refusal to travel around the country meeting people (whereas his predecessor, Lord Lothian, had been very popular for this very reason). Lord Halifax was ambassador to Washington, 1940–1946.
288 Cordell Hull (1871–1955), US secretary of state, 1933–1944.
289 Philip Kerr, 11th marquess of Lothian (1882–1940), diplomat and official; ambassador to Washington, 1939–40, died in office.
290 Sir Gerald Campbell (1879–1964), diplomat who had served as consul general in New York and from 1941 was minister in the British embassy in Washington.
291 Halifax's son Major Peter Wood died in active service in North Africa in 1942. His youngest son Richard Wood lost the use of both his legs the same year also during battle in the Western Desert.
292 Senator Harold Hitz Burton (1888–1964).
293 Walter Nash (1882–1968), later Sir Walter Nash, New Zealand Labour MP; New Zealand resident minister in Washington, 1942–1944, while remaining deputy prime minister and finance minister; prime minister, 1957–1960.
294 Peter Fraser (1884–1950), New Zealand Labour prime minister, 1940–1949.
295 Eventually established in 1965 as the Commonwealth Secretariat situated at Marlborough House.
296 William Temple (1881–1944), archbishop of York, 1929–1942.
297 Temple would, nonetheless, eventually be enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral in 1942 and thus reach the highest ecclesiastical post in the Church of England. York is second only in rank to the archbishopric of Canterbury.
298 Lady Gosford was a bridge playing friend of my mother married to a penniless Irish peer, not an unusual alliance in those days. Mildred Acheson, née Carter, Countess of Gosford (1888–1965).
299 Harley Granville-Barker (1877–1946), actor, critic and director.
300 Georges Clémenceau (1841–1929), prime minister of France, 1917–1920.
301 A private corporation and charity under a Royal Charter from Henry VIII charged with safeguarding seafarers and shipping. Elder Brethren of Trinity House form much of the Court of Trinity House and are often drawn from Royalty and Naval Officers. Churchill had been First Lord of the Admiralty twice.
302 ‘I have become the elder brother of the Trinity’, to which Clémenceau replied, ‘What a responsibility!’
303 Sir Stafford Cripps (1889–1952), Labour MP and later chancellor of the exchequer, 1947–1950. Cripps led a mission to India in 1942 and was part of the 1946 Cabinet mission there to respectively gain Indian co-operation in fighting the Second World War and to form a credible plan for British withdrawal from the subcontinent.
304 John Pierpont Morgan Jr (1867–1943), US ,Wall Street financier and banker.
305 Corlius Lamont died in 1995, after a life spent in advocating socialism.
306 Norman Thomas (1884–1968), Socialist Party of America candidate for the US presidency six times from 1928.
307 Roger Baldwin (1884–1981), one of the founders, later executive director, of the American Civil Liberties Union.
308 Barbara Tuchman (1912–1989), American historian and writer; won the Pulitzer Prize for her 1962 book The Guns of August.
309 Canadian political party Co-operative Commonwealth Federation.
310 Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834), poet and writer.
311 Sir Thomas Stewart Gordon (1882–1949), Australian businessman, chairman of the Allied Consultative Shipping Council from 1942.
312 I found Mr Chiffley, at that time Commonwealth Treasurer, the most congenial of the Australian Ministers. Ben Chifley (1885–1951), Australian Labor MP, treasurer, 1941–1949 and prime minister, 1945–1949.
313 Sir Ronald Cross, 1st baronet (1896–1968), Conservative MP who later became British high commissioner to Canberra, 1941–1945 and governor of Tasmania, 1951–1958.
314 William ‘Billy’ Hughes (1862–1952), prime minister of Australia, 1915–1923; subsequently served in several ministerial posts; died while still a member of the House of Representatives in 1952 aged 90.
315 Robert Menzies (1894–1978), later Sir Robert Menzies, Liberal prime minister of Australia, 1939–1941 and 1949–1966.
316 Arthur Fadden (1894–1973), later Sir Arthur Fadden, Country Party prime minister 1941 and treasurer, 1940–1941 and 1949–1958.
317 United Australia Party.
318 Albert Dunstan (1882–1950), later Sir Albert Dunstan, Country Party premier of Victoria, 1935–1943 and 1943–1945.
319 Sir Isaac Isaacs (1855–1948), Australian politician and judge, governor general of Australia, 1931–1936. Not only first Australian-born person to hold the post of governor general, Isaacs was also the first appointment as the sovereign's representative in a dominion who was not personally known to the monarch.
320 Admiral Sir Guy Royle (1885–1954), first naval member of the Australian Commonwealth Naval Board (chief of the Royal Australian Navy), 1941–1945.
321 General Douglas McArthur (1880–1964), US general and supreme Allied commander of the South-West Pacific Area from 1942.
322 Admiral Chester Nimitz (1885–1966), US admiral and commander-in-chief of the United States Pacific Fleet from 1941.
323 General Sir Thomas Blamey (1884–1951), later Field Marshal, Australian officer and commander; held many positions during the War; commander of the Allied land forces tasked with defending Australia and responsible to MacArthur.
324 John Curtin (1885–1945), Labor prime minister of Australia, 1941–1945.
325 This led to the establishment of the Australia, New Zealand United States Security Treaty of 1951 (ANZUS).
326 Frank Cooper (1872–1949), Labor premier of Queensland, 1942–1946.
327 Cornelius O'Leary (1897–1971), director of Native Affairs in Queensland, 1942–1963.
328 Questionable opinion to say the least. Queensland was a conspicuous laggard in terms of Aboriginal rights. It was the last state in Australia to recognize and provide voting rights for Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islanders in 1965. Several other legislative and cultural forms of discrimination against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island people persisted well into the late 20th century. Queensland refused to recognise Aboriginal land rights and this was famously challenged in the court case Mabo v. Queensland. The Queensland government view was rejected by the Australian High Court in judicial decisions in 1988 and 1992.
329 William Dobell, (1899–1970), later Sir William Dobell, Australian artist.
330 Slade School of Fine Art, London.
331 Henry Tonks (1862–1937), Slade Professor of Fine Art, 1918–1930.
332 Francisco Goya (1746–1828) and Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–69).
333 William Dyson (1880–1938), Australian painter and cartoonist.
334 Possibly this is referring to the great political cartoonist David Low (born in New Zealand), whose work was prominent in the British press during these years.
335 George Russell Drysdale (1912–1981), later Sir George Russell Drysdale, Australian artist.
336 Probably referring to the Australian artist Tom Roberts.
337 Arthur Streeton (1867–1943), later Sir Arthur Streeton, Australian artist.
338 Albert Namatjira (1902–1959), indigenous Australian artist.
339 Sidney Holland (1893–1961), later Sir Sidney Holland, New Zealand National Party leader and later prime minister of New Zealand, 1949–1957.
340 Frederick Bennett (1871–1950), bishop of Aotearoa (head of the Maori Anglican Church), 1928–1950.
341 William Parry (1878–1952). New Zealand Labour minister of internal affairs, 1935–1949.
342 Field Marshal Erwin Rommel (1891–1944), German commander in North Africa.
343 Second Lieutenant Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa Ngarimu (1918–1943).
344 Motto of the Victoria Cross, highest award for gallantry in Britain and, formerly, in the Commonwealth.
345 Later Captain Matarehua Wikiriwhi (1918–1988).
346 Lance Sergeant Haane Manahi (1913–1986).
347 Distinguished Service Order.
348 Distinguished Conduct Medal.
349 Maori term for New Zealanders of European heritage.
350 Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Viscount Cranborne, known as ‘Bobbety’ (1893–1972), later 5th marquess of Salisbury, Conservative peer and minister who was leader of the House of Lords, 1942–1945 and 1951–1957, and also served as colonial and dominion secretary during the War.
351 Admiral Ernest King (1878–1956), US admiral and commander-in-chief of the United States Fleet and chief of Naval Operations.
352 Walter Guinness, 1st Baron Moyne (1880–1944), Conservative MP and peer, colonial secretary and leader of the House of Lords, 1941–1942. Assassinated in 1944.
353 Max Aitken, 1st Baron Beaverbrook (1879–1964), ‘press baron’ and wartime minister; lord privy seal, 1943–1945.