A Comparative Analysis of Mass Conservative Mobilisation in Australia and New Zealand During the Great Depression
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THE REACTIONARY AND THE RADICAL: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF MASS CONSERVATIVE MOBILISATION IN AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION by Matthew Cunningham A thesis submitted to Victoria University of Wellington in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History Victoria University of Wellington 2015 ii Figure 1: New Zealand Legion cartoon lamenting the lack of unity between political parties. Source: National Opinion 1:4 (21 September 1933): 4. iii iv ABSTRACT The Great Depression witnessed an unparalleled explosion of mass conservative mobilisation across Australia and New Zealand. Large populist movements sprang into being virtually overnight and amassed a collective membership numbering in the hundreds of thousands. At the height of their influence they posed a direct challenge to the electoral base of mainstream conservative parties. They soon faded away from the political scene and, indeed, from the collective memory of Australian and New Zealand society. This thesis is concerned with four of these movements: the Citizens’ League of South Australia, the Australian Citizens’ League of Victoria, the All for Australia League of New South Wales, and the New Zealand Legion. The former three arose in Australia in 1931, whilst the latter appeared in New Zealand in 1933. These movements combined a populist and idealist rhetorical and organisational style with standard conservative social and economic ideas. They simultaneously sought new and radical alternatives to party politics and class conflict whilst expressing nostalgia for an illusory nineteenth century colonial society epitomised by classlessness, limited government, independent politicians, and the self-sufficient pioneer. This thesis suggests that, in order to truly understand these movements, this inherent contradiction between looking forwards and backwards for political inspiration must be embraced rather than ironed out in favour of narrative consistency. It argues that the citizens’ movements were a contradictory blend of the reactionary and the radical, and that their history, from their origins to their rapid demise, can be best interpreted through the lens of this thematic contradiction. v vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Once upon a time, I thought writing the acknowledgements would be the easiest part of a thesis. Now, here I am, five years after starting my thesis – two full time, three part time – and I’m struggling to think of what to write. Not because I don’t have people to thank – on the contrary, there are so many people to whom I am so deeply indebted that I worry about not giving them all their proper due. At the same time, I don’t want my acknowledgements to become an exercise in empty flatteries and self-congratulatory gushing. This isn’t the Oscars, after all. But there ARE so many people to whom I am deeply indebted. And the first and foremost place must be reserved for Helen – my wife, my rock, my lifelong confidante. Helen, you supported me when I decided I wanted to abandon my cushy but unfulfilling life as a software engineer and retrain as a historian. For two and a half years you put up with me working and studying as I slogged my way through undergrad and honours, and I feel that, sadly, I let you come second best all too often in that swirling morass of assignments, lectures, seminars and tutorials. But now I am here, near the end of my journey, and I can say with all seriousness that it would not have happened without you. We’ve grown so much in that time too – we moved in together, we got married, and we had our first child Abigail (well, second if you include our fur-baby Sooty). As always, John Lennon was right – life does not wait on our plans. vii Thank you also to my parents and family. Mum, you made me who I am today. You always encouraged my curiosity, despite how hard it must have been to keep track of my constantly changing interests (space one day, dinosaurs the next). And Dad, you encouraged me to push further and achieve the best in everything that I do. Thanks also to those family members who offered (or were cajoled) into proof-reading drafts of my thesis – Mum, Poppa and Grandma Johnston, Uncle Barry, and anyone else unfortunate enough to have had a chapter or two land on their laps at some point in time. And to my friends, who have at various points discussed my thesis with me and provided valuable ideas and insights, thankyou. Particular thanks must go to Malcolm McKinnon, who is infinitely generous with both his time and his advice, and to Christopher Burke, whose notion that historical complexity cannot be reduced to a consistent narrative spurred me to come up with my core thesis argument. Thank you also to all of those in Australia who let me stay with you during my three month research trip in 2011 – Mum, Dad, Doug, Sonja, Rachael and Mary in particular. You made the time away from Helen bearable. Thank you to my supervisors as well, who always knew just the right balance between giving me free rein and checking in on me. Jim, Giacomo, Kate – you have each guided me at various points throughout my thesis and have challenged me to think about things in new ways. To Jim in particular, my primary supervisor, I am eternally amazed and grateful for your encyclopedic knowledge of New Zealand and Australian history and your extensive familiarity with the historiography. Any time I had a question about secondary literature, you could instantly point me to the foremost experts. Thank you also to Victoria University of Wellington and the History programme itself, which provided me with the resources to viii complete this thesis. If it hadn’t been for the PhD scholarship, I never would have been able to undertake this journey. I am indebted to the archivists at the various libraries that I visited in Australia and New Zealand. You made my research trips that much more productive. I am also indebted to the descendants of prominent figures in this thesis who gave me permission – and often invited me into their homes – to view the papers left behind by their tupuna. To Fiona and Joan Begg, Pamela Durrant, Jim Barclay, Bruce Meachen, Jen and Johnny Ormond, Paul Harper, Susan Lucina, Sandy Bathgate, Helen and Angus De Salis, David Treloar, Rosemary Farrow, Mark Alford, Marion Smith, Max Ellis, and Helen Sutch – thankyou for placing your trust in me. I hope that this end product lives up to your expectations. And finally, thank you to Sooty (our cat) for constantly reminding me that, if I can’t eat it, play with it, or sleep on it, it’s probably not that important. ix x TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ...................................................................................................................................... v Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................. vii List of Figures ........................................................................................................................ xiii List of Tables and Graphs ........................................................................................................ xv Abbreviations ......................................................................................................................... xvii Introduction .............................................................................................................................. 1 Chapter One Constructing the Citizen: The Evolution of Conservatism and ‘Non-Party’ Organisation in Australia and New Zealand, 1880-1929 .................................................................................. 29 Chapter Two From Reactionary to Radical: The Great Depression and the Origins of the Citizens’ Movements ............................................................................................................................... 72 Chapter Three A Call to Arms: The Populist Culture of Mass Conservative Mobilisation .......................... 114 Chapter Four Mobilising the Masses: The Ideology of the Citizens’ Movements ...................................... 168 Chapter Five Flirting with Party Politics: The Australian Citizens’ Movements and the United Australia Party ....................................................................................................................................... 207 Chapter Six ‘New Deals’ and ‘Funny Money’: The New Zealand Legion and Monetary Reform ........... 246 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................ 267 Appendix A: Geographical Data ............................................................................................ 276 Appendix B: Membership Data ............................................................................................. 279 Bibliography .......................................................................................................................... 281 xi xii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: New Zealand Legion cartoon lamenting the lack of unity between political parties iii Figure 2: The conjoining of ‘Bolshevist savagery’ with ‘German kultur’ .............................. 58 Figure 3: A ‘starvation debenture’ lampooning Jack Lang’s ‘repudiationist’ policies ........... 78 Figure 4: Anti-Lang cartoon .................................................................................................... 91 Figure 5: The Citizens’ League of South Australia’s ‘membership thermometer’ ..............