Table Of ContentAWARD-WINNING AUl HOR OF JOHN CURTIN: A LIFE AND CHIFLE~.
DAVID DAY
THE POLITICS
- - - O F - - -
DAVID DAY
• HarperCollinsPublishers
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First published in Australia in 2003
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Copyright © David Day 2003
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication data:
Day. David, 1949- .
[Reluctant nation 1
The politics of war: Australia at war 1939-45,
from Churchill to Macarthur.
Bibliography.
Includes index.
ISBN 0 7322 7333 I.
1. World War, 1939-1945 - Australia. 2. World War, 1939-1945 - Diplomatic history.
3. World War, 1939-1945 - Campaigns - Pacific Ocean. 4. Australia - Military relations
Great Britain. 5. Great Britain - Military relations - Australia.
I. Day, David, 1949-Great betrayal. II. Title.
940.540994
Front cover photo: AWM 139812
Back cover photo: AW M 072431
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To Alan and Judy Day
CONTENTS
PREFACE ix
ABBREVIATIONS xiii
MAP OF THE EASTERN MEDITERRA... ... B ..-. ..: xv
MAP OF GENERAL MACARTHUR'S SOUTH WEST PACIFIC AREA XVI
MAP OF AUSTRALIAN BATTLEFIELDS IS THE PACIFIC WAR xvu
ONE - 'not quite as clear as I should like to be' 1
TWO - 'press them strongly to 00 more' 16
THREE - 'a somewhat over-optimistic picture' 26
FOUR - 'the bitterness and privations of war' 38
FIVE - 'unprepared, muddled, and confused' 49
SIX - 'playing for time' 63
SEVEN - 'the only battle that counted' 74
EIGHT - 'a first class brawl' 82
NINE - 'for the sake of our kith and kin' 92
TEN - 'We will not let Singapore fall' 104
ELEVEN - 'too many unknown factors' 118
TWELVE - 'the sky will be the limit' 133
THIRTEEN - 'true children of magnificent Britain' 145
FOURTEEN - 'a political insurance policy' 158
FIFTEEN - 'the common Empire cause' 169
SIXTEEN - 'an endless, cockney monotone' 179
SEVENTEEN - 'a pawn in the game' 189
EIGHTEEN - 'up to the neck and in to the death' 201
NINETEEN - 'no one is more responsible than I' 218
TWENTY - 'hold out to the last' 231
TWENTY-ONE - 'dark days' 246
TWENTY-TWO - 'The laps have bombed Darwin!' 262
TWENTY-THREE - 'there are very hard forfeits to pay' 274
TWENTY-FOUR-'the saviour of Australia' 287
TWENTY-FIVE - 'prepare to take the offensive' 301
TWENTY-SIX - 'a thoroughly unpleasant type of individual' 317
TWENTY-SEVEN - 'entirely captured by Winston' 328
TWENTY-EIGHT - 'every ditch a last ditch' 339
TWENTY-NINE - 'the nastiest of the entire war' 355
THIRTY - 'the perils of a common cause' 370
THIRTY-ONE - 'while the enemy thunders at the gates' 384
THIRTY-TWO - 'great possibilities and great dangers' 398
THIRTY-THREE - 'determined to dominate the world' 415
THIRTY-FOUR-'one horrible gamble' 430
THIRTY-FIVE - 'what queer people' 448
THIRTY-SIX - 'Australia has failed us' 465
THIRTY-SEVEN - 'we cannot possibly give him any' 487
THIRTY-EIGHT - 'we mean business' 507
THIRTY-NINE - 'the maximum of which Australia is capable' 525
FORTY - 'the evil genius of this war' 547
FORTY-ONE - 'no commitments' 567
FORTY-TWO - 'America will scoop the World' 582
FORTY-THREE - 'we shall go on to the end' 603
FORTY-FOUR-'our powerful friends' 621
FORTY-FIVE - 'a luxury we cannot afford' 638
FORTY-SIX - 'the most frightful man in the world' 655
FORTY-SEVEN - 'enduring the unendurable' 676
CONCLUSION - 'the war has been fought in vain' 694
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 706
INDEX 723
PREFACE
This book has been more than twenty years in the making. It began life in
1981 as a PhD thesis that was intended to examine Australia's foreign and
defence policy from the beginning of the Second World War until the signing
of the ANZUS agreement in 1951. As with many theses, it was progressively
scaled back to a more manageable size until it e\-enrually examined the crisis
in Anglo-Australian relations caused by the loss of Singapore. This was
published by Angus & Robertson in 1988 as The Great Betrayal: Britain,
Australia and the Onset of the Pacific War 1939-41.
Although it inevitably caused some cootrol"er5Y, the book enjoyed critical
acclaim and some popular success in Australia and Britain, as well as in the
United States where it was p.ublished later by W. W. Norton & Co. A
subsequent study examined Anglo-Australian relations from the Battle of
Midway in June 1942 until the coming of peace to the Pacific in August
1945. It charted the ways in which Australia pursued independent initiatives
in its foreign and defence policy, only to end the war by re-embracing the
British option. This was published by Oxford University Press in 1992 as
Reluctant Nation: Australia and the Allied Defeat ofJ apan 1942-45.
Although The Great Betrayal was republished by Oxford University Press
at that time, both books have now been out of print for several years. Rather
than simply reprint them in their separate and original forms, I decided to
ix
DAVID DAY
rewrite them completely. New material that has since come to light has been
added and the judgments that I made in the 1980s have been reassessed.
Both books were then combined in a single study spanning the entire war. At
a time when Australia's relations with the outside world have returned to the
forefront of political debate, and when Australia's reliance on a powerful
protector is being questioned anew, the history of its experience during the
Second World War has particular and continuing relevance.
Over the years of researching and writing this book, I have incurred many
debts of gratitude to people and organisations. For their friendship or their
insights or their practical assistance, or for all three, I would like to thank
Correlli Barnett, Geoffrey Bolton, Judith Brett, Carl Bridge, David and
Sheila Fieldhouse, Alex Gray, Warren Kimball, David Lowe, John McCarthy,
Nan McNab, the late Tom Millar, David Reynolds, Peter Rose, Norman
Rowe, Richard Walsh, Jill Wayment, and Claude and Irene Wischik. There
are many more who will have to make do with a general thank you that is
no less sincere.
This book would also not have been possible without the resources of
many archives in Britain and Australia and the helpfulness and efficiency of
their staff. In Britain, I would particularly like to acknowledge the British
Library, the Cambridge University Library, the Churchill College Archives
Centre, the House of Lords Record Office, the Imperial War Museum, the
India Office Library, the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives at King's
College London, the London School of Economics, the National Maritime
Museum, the Public Record Office, the Reading University Library and the
Scottish Record Office. In Australia, my work was assisted by the Australian
War Memorial, the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library, the Flinders
University Library, the National Archives of Australia, the National Library
of Australia and the University of Melbourne Archives.
Over the years of this book's gestation, various bodies have generously
provided support for its research and writing. In Britain, the Nuffield
Foundation, the Smuts and Holland Rose Funds at Cambridge, together
with Churchill and Clare Colleges, provided funding or other assistance
during the initial research period. More recently, this book was written while
I was a senior research fellow funded by the Australian Research Council,
x
THE POLITICS OF WAR
the assistance of which is most gratefully acknowledged. Despite continuing
funding cutbacks, my colleagues in the History Program at La Trobe
University provided friendly and stimulating company during the completion
of this work. For permission to quote from the various private papers and
published works, I would like to thank the many copyright holders who
gave their permission and to apologise to those who were inadvertently
missed or proved impossible to contact.
Lastly, I have been fortunate in having a supportive publisher in
HarperCollins, where Shona Martyn, Helen Littleton and Jesse Fink have
guided this book through the press, while Neil Thomas has been, as always,
an efficient and consummate editor. On a more personal note, my wife Silvia
and children, Michael, Emily and Kelly, have sustained me with their love
and companionship over the years that this book has taken to prepare.
Indeed, Emily and Kelly, who were born during the early years of the
research, have recently assisted \\;th typing the manuscript. The
responsibility for what follows, though. is mine alone.
David Day
Aberdeen, Scotland, July 2002
xi
