DOCSLIB.ORG

In Search of John Curtin

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
In Search of John Curtin Curtin University In search of John Curtin Public lecture by JCPML Visiting Scholar Dr John Edwards on 21 April 2001. COPYRIGHT: John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library. JCPML00611/1 In a conversation with poet and radio documentary maker John Thompson broadcast in July 1955, former Clerk of the House of Representatives Frank Green recalled walking home late one night in that extraordinary month of February 1942 and seeing Prime Minister John Curtin pacing through the grounds of the Lodge. It is perhaps the best remembered and most characteristic story of Curtin’s whole life. The Prime Minister’s home was then adjoined by open fields, so Green would probably have walked up from the old Parliament House on a path through the scrub which then covered Capital Hill. Ten minutes later he would be passing the Lodge. It was, as it is now, a quite modest home, but protected then only by a wire fence rather than the electrified cables, high walls and patrolling police which guard it today. It must have been a moonlit night because Darwin had already been bombed, and even as far south as Canberra a blackout would have been in force. Curtin’s driver Ray Tracey had dropped him a hint, Green said, that Curtin was not sleeping and suggested that as an old friend he stop by and encourage him to get some rest. Meeting Curtin in the Lodge gardens Green told him he needed to sleep. “Can’t sleep” Curtin replied, “How can I sleep while our transports are in the Indian Ocean, and while Japanese submarines are looking for them? ” Curtin was then 57, a man of slightly under six feet, and ten pounds over his normal weight. He had been Prime Minister for five months – the first time in his life in which he had held ministerial office. Those five months were surely the most momentous in Australian history. Eight weeks after he had become Prime Minister Japan attacked the US pacific fleet in Pearl Harbor, and Australia suddenly found itself living the Page 1 of 14 nightmare which had troubled it for half a century – a war with Japan. It was, Curtin claimed, “the gravest hour in our history” adding, in the solemn style which we can see in some of his earliest surviving letters, “I ask every Australian, man and woman, to go about their allotted tasks with full vigour and courage.” At the same time as it attacked Pearl Harbour Japan attacked the Philippines, Guam and Wake Island, and Malaya, and pressed south towards the Netherlands East Indies and Australia by land and sea. Two months later Japan completed the conquest of Malaya and invaded Singapore, forcing the surrender of the 17,000 surviving troops of the Australian Eighth Division – one quarter of Australia’s battle trained soldiers. Frank Green’s story of Curtin’s sleepless vigil as the transports carrying the 6th and 7th divisions of the AIF made their way across the Indian Ocean is surely the most memorable and touching episode in Curtin’s time as Prime Minister. It was a time of hazard for the country and stress for Curtin, which itself followed ten days of drama obscured from the public in which Curtin refused the most pressing requests of Winston Churchill, the leader of the mother country, and of Franklin Roosevelt, the leader of the world’s greatest democracy and Australia’s ally in the war against Japan. His insistence on the return of the 6th and 7th divisions of the AIF from the Middle East to Australia against the demand of Churchill and Roosevelt that they should be sent to Burma, forever altered our relationship with the UK and changed the way Australians think about themselves. This afternoon I want to ponder the way these events of Curtin’s first six months of office have defined his place in our thinking, perhaps at the expense of other and more important circumstances of his time as prime minister. I want to argue that with the passing of time and the opening up of new materials we can see that Curtin is actually far more significant for his impact on the institutional and economic character of post war Australia than for his resistance to the allied leaders, and to the Japanese. Specifically, I wish to claim that the Labor governments of Whitlam, Hawke and Keating, often portrayed as remote from the spirit of Curtin and sometimes as betrayers of his legacy, were in fact his direct and faithful inheritors in their engagement of Australia with the global economy. Page 2 of 14 Before moving on those points, however, I also want to argue that Curtin was a rounder and more interesting character than the Curtin of our national mythology, and one far closer to his successors than we usually think. Part of the Australian tradition of the events of February 1942 for example is that Curtin was an accidental hero, a reluctant Prime Minister, a man of modest attainments and limited experiences, the poorly educated son of an itinerant policeman and unsuccessful publican, by trade a printer’s estimator, a recovering alcoholic, an innocent and an idealist forced by the circumstances of war to compromise life long principles, a man who in the words quoted by David Black from a newspaper obituary “had greatness thrust upon him” and to which he “responded greatly”. He represents an Australian ideal of an ordinary man who rises to the occasion. Curtin himself sometimes liked to present himself in this way. By contrast we think of his great contemporary and rival for importance in our history, Robert Menzies, as an unusually gifted and urbane barrister, witty and commanding, who far from having greatness thrust upon him rather wanted for a challenge sufficient to his remarkable gifts – a challenge like, for example, being the dominions representative in the British War Cabinet, or perhaps Prime Minister of England. The more we discover about Curtin, however, the more we learn that he was both more and less than the accidental hero of our mythology. As previously closed records are opened and research is extended the more we see him as a sensible, talented and practical professional politician with a clear and instinctive grasp of the ways of power. In this respect the JCPML has I think been performing a great service to Australia by encouraging in this area the rediscovery and reinterpretation of our history. We’ve long known of his weakness for alcohol, for example, but from Curtin’s earliest surviving letters recently edited by David Black and published by the JCPML we now also know the restless quality of his intellect, the breadth of his reading, the way he stocked his mind with the poetry and novels of late nineteenth century England and with socialist texts. Even among politicians better read than today’s he was unusually well read and thoughtful. Just as Curtin’s personality was complicated, so too his views on the world. Though portrayed as an internationalist and idealist, he was also indisputably a racist. One Page 3 of 14 of his arguments against conscription for overseas service during the first world war was that it would so deplete the white population of Australia it would be necessary to bring in Asians and blacks. Even on the central issue of Curtin’s attitude to war there is much confusion. He does not seem ever to have been a pacifist, though this description of him is still frequent. He objected to conscription for overseas service in World War 1, but he did not object to volunteer enlistment for overseas service and he did not object to conscription for home defence. Curtin is generally credited with swinging Australia from alliance with the UK to alliance with the US, but there too I think his own role is more ambiguous. He was of course the author of the famous Melbourne Herald piece in which he wrote that Australia looked to America, free of any pangs as to the traditional links with the United Kingdom. But the legend of the Melbourne Herald piece obscures the central truth about the Pacific War, which was that it was an attack by Japan on the forces of the United States. They took Malaya for rubber and the Netherlands East Indies for oil, but the serious enemy was the United States – not Britain or the Netherlands colonial administration and certainly not Australia. In this sense Australia and the United States were natural, instant, automatic and inevitable allies – rather more so in fact than the United States and the UK, had it not been for the good fortune of Hitler’s prompt declaration of war on the United States. Curtin’s actual conduct thereafter towards the UK and the US was ambivalent. He pointedly told reporter Harold Cox that the British were making a very big contribution to the advance from Normandy though press reports made it appear the Americans did all the fighting. In speaking to conservative Adelaide voters during the 1943 election campaign, Don Rodgers recalled, Curtin wrapped himself in the Union Jack. When in London in 1944 he declared his belief in the British Empire, in the racial identity of Australians and Britons, and in Australia as a “British community in the South Seas”. One persistent theme in writing about Curtin is that he was not really a politician at all. His long time private secretary, himself a member of Moral Rearmament, Fred McLaughlin, saw Curtin only as a man of principle, someone who “never sought office”. McLaughlin portrays him as a saint; Rodgers as a human being.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Final Draft Questions.Indd
    2011 Question Booklet 50 Questions time allowed – 45 minutes Your teacher will explain how to fi ll in school and personal details on the answer sheet before starting. Instructions • You will be given this Question Booklet, a Source Sheet and an Answer Sheet. • Some of the questions will ask you to refer to sources on the Source Sheet. • Answer all questions on the Answer Sheet by selecting the best answer from the alternatives given. • Indicate your answer by putting a cross in the box for the alternative you have chosen. • Think carefully about your answer before making a choice, but if you wish to change an answer shade the box with the incorrect answer completely and then place a cross in the box for the new answer. • Before starting, your teacher will explain how to fi ll in your school and personal details on the Answer Sheet – it is important to do this accurately so that names will be spelt correctly on certifi cates. The 2011 Australian History Competition is created and run by the History Teachers’ Association of Australia and The Giant Classroom. It is sponsored by Circle – The Centre for Innovation, Research, Creativity and Leadership in Education and Cambridge University Press. www.australianhistorycompetition.com.au Questions 1-3 refer to Source A 1. Who is the person shown in Source A? A Queen Victoria B Queen Elizabeth II C Dame Enid Lyons D Elizabeth Macarthur 2. Why is she represented on the banknote? A To satisfy the demands of feminist historians B She was a signifi cant fi gure in Australia’s history C She was Australia’s Head of State when the banknote was in use D To highlight Australia’s position as a Dominion of the British Empire 3.
    [Show full text]
  • Ben Chifley: the True Believer1
    1 Ben Chifley: the true believer John Hawkins2 Chifley was a ‘true believer’ in the Labor Party and in the role that government could play in stabilising the economy and keeping unemployment low. He was an active treasurer, initially working well with Prime Minister Curtin and then serving as both Prime Minister and Treasurer himself. He managed the war economy competently and achieved a smooth transition to a peacetime economy, although he allowed inflationary pressures to build up in the post-war years. Among his economic reforms were increased welfare payments, uniform income taxation and developing central banking powers (through direct controls rather than market mechanisms) for the Commonwealth Bank. Source: National Library of Australia.3 1 Arthur Fadden served almost a year as treasurer before Chifley, but as Chifley was Treasurer for most of the 1940s and Fadden for most of the 1950s, the essay on Chifley is being presented first in this series. 2 The author formerly worked in the Domestic Economy Division, the Australian Treasury. This article has benefited from comments provided by Selwyn Cornish, Robin McLachlan, Sam Malloy and Richard Grant. Thanks are also extended to the staff of the Chifley Home in Bathurst. The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the Australian Treasury. 103 Ben Chifley: the true believer Introduction The Right Honorable Joseph Benedict Chifley was a ‘true believer’ in the Labor cause.4 While an idealist, remembered for coining the term 'light on the hill' to capture
    [Show full text]
  • John Curtin's War
    backroom briefings John Curtin's war CLEM LLOYD & RICHARD HALL backroom briefings John Curtin's WAR edited by CLEM LLOYD & RICHARD HALL from original notes compiled by Frederick T. Smith National Library of Australia Canberra 1997 Front cover: Montage of photographs of John Curtin, Prime Minister of Australia, 1941-45, and of Old Parliament House, Canberra Photographs from the National Library's Pictorial Collection Back cover: Caricature of John Curtin by Dubois Bulletin, 8 October 1941 Published by the National Library of Australia Canberra ACT 2600 © National Library of Australia 1997 Introduction and annotations © Clem Lloyd and Richard Hall Every reasonable endeavour has been made to contact relevant copyright holders of illustrative material. Where this has not proved possible, the copyright holders are invited to contact the publisher. National Library Cataloguing-in-Publication data Backroom briefings: John Curtin's war. Includes index. ISBN 0 642 10688 6. 1. Curtin, John, 1885-1945. 2. World War, 1939-1945— Press coverage—Australia. 3. Journalism—Australia. I. Smith, FT. (Frederick T.). II. Lloyd, C.J. (Clement John), 1939- . III. Hall, Richard, 1937- . 940.5394 Editor: Julie Stokes Designer: Beverly Swifte Picture researcher/proofreader: Tony Twining Printed by Goanna Print, Canberra Published with the assistance of the Lloyd Ross Forum CONTENTS Fred Smith and the secret briefings 1 John Curtin's war 12 Acknowledgements 38 Highly confidential: press briefings, June 1942-January 1945 39 Introduction by F.T. Smith 40 Chronology of events; Briefings 42 Index 242 rederick Thomas Smith was born in Balmain, Sydney, Fon 18 December 1904, one of a family of two brothers and two sisters.
    [Show full text]
  • Australia in the League of Nations: a Centenary View
    RESEARCH PAPER SERIES, 2018–19 21 DECEMBER 2018 Australia in the League of Nations: a centenary view James Cotton Emeritus Professor of Politics, University of New South Wales, ADFA, Canberra Contents The League and global politics beyond the Empire-Commonwealth . 2 The requirements of membership ...................................................... 3 The Australian experience as a League mandatory ............................ 4 Peace, disarmament, collective security ............................................. 6 The League and the management of international trade and economic policy ................................................................................ 10 The League’s social agenda ............................................................... 11 Geneva as a school for international affairs for some prominent Australians ......................................................................................... 12 The Australian League of Nations Union........................................... 13 The League idea in Australia ............................................................. 14 Discussion of the League in the parliament and the debate on foreign affairs .................................................................................... 16 Conclusions: Australia in the League ................................................ 19 ISSN 2203-5249 The League and global politics beyond the Empire-Commonwealth With the formation of the Australian Commonwealth, the new nation adopted a constitution that imparted to the
    [Show full text]
  • The Prime Ministers' Partners
    The Prime Ministers' Partners "A view is held, and sometimes expressed…that wives of Prime Ministers are more highly regarded and widely loved than Prime Ministers themselves, both during and after their terms of office." - Gough Whitlam "Tim Mathieson is the first bloke of Australia. We know this because he has a jacket to prove it." – Malcolm Farr, 2012 No. Prime Minister’s spouse Previous Partner of Children1 name 1. Jane (Jeanie) BARTON Ross Edmund BARTON 4 sons, 2 daughters 2. Elizabeth (Pattie) DEAKIN Browne Alfred DEAKIN 3 daughters 3. Ada WATSON Low Chris WATSON None 4. Florence (Flora) REID Brumby George REID 2 sons, 1 daughter 5. Margaret FISHER Irvine Andrew FISHER 5 sons, 1 daughter 6. Mary COOK Turner Joseph COOK 6 sons, 3 daughters 7. Mary HUGHES Campbell Billy HUGHES 1 daughter 8. Ethel BRUCE Anderson Stanley BRUCE None 9. Sarah SCULLIN McNamara Jim SCULLIN None 10. Enid LYONS Burnell Joseph LYONS 6 sons, 6 daughters 11. Ethel PAGE Blunt Earle PAGE 4 sons, 1 daughter 12. Pattie MENZIES Leckie Robert MENZIES 2 sons, 1 daughter 13. Ilma FADDEN Thornber Arthur FADDEN 2 sons, 2 daughters 14. Elsie CURTIN Needham John CURTIN 1 son, 1 daughter 15. Veronica (Vera) FORDE O’Reilley Frank FORDE 3 daughters, 1 son 16. Elizabeth CHIFLEY McKenzie Ben CHIFLEY None 17. (Dame) Zara HOLT Dickens Harold HOLT 3 sons 18. Bettina GORTON Brown John GORTON 2 sons, 1 daughter 19. Sonia McMAHON Hopkins William McMAHON 2 daughters, 1 son 20. Margaret WHITLAM Dovey Gough WHITLAM 3 sons, 1 daughter 21. Tamara (Tamie) FRASER Beggs Malcolm FRASER 2 sons, 2 daughters 22.
    [Show full text]
  • Policy Winter 04.Indd
    cover story Punching Above Our Weight If Australia wants to maintain its influence in the world, it needs to keep reforming its economy and increase its population, says Paul Kelly ustralia’s opinion makers love to old fashioned debates we once had about power discuss our identity. Paul Keating were infected with racism, imperialism and a left the Lodge eight years ago but the cultural cringe that could only dismay today’s identity debate, while devoid of its sophisticated and cosmopolitan Australians. Past A previous passion, still exerts its hold leaders such as Billy Hughes, Arthur Calwell over the quality media. This is no bad thing. Yet and ‘Black’ Jack McEwen were obsessed with its endurance highlights by omission the debate Australia’s power, or rather its lack of power, Australia refuses to have—over the nature and and the ideas they championed of nationalistic extent of its power in the world. imperialism, racial-based mass immigration and This is a subject not to be raised in polite an unforgiving protectionism are now out of sight company and rarely to be confronted in the and out of mind, interned as the aberrations of straightjacket of Canberra officialdom. There are political primitives. other debates that command attention—our ties with America, our engagement with Asia, our counter-terrorism strategies and our defence force Paul Kelly is Editor-at-Large at The Australian. structure. But as a nation we prefer to discuss He is the author of numerous books including the various parts of our existence rather than the The End of Certainty: The Story of the 1980s totality of our existence.
    [Show full text]
  • 3. Nation Building Or Cold War: Political Settings for the Arnhem Land Expedition
    3. Nation Building or Cold War: Political settings for the Arnhem Land Expedition Kim Beazley Frank M. Setzler, the Deputy Leader of the Arnhem Land Expedition and its senior American, described in his diary the Expedition’s chief Australian political patron, Arthur Calwell, after their first meeting: Met Mr Arthur Calwell, Minister of Immigration and Information, who is a most delightful politician with a sharp tongue, quick wit, and keen mind. He has red hair and talks out of the side of his mouth. He has cousins and has visited them here in the US (Pennsylvania).1 In a sentence, Setzler captured the attributes that would take Calwell to the leadership of the Australian Labor Party (ALP), but which also killed his political career when, a generation later, telegenic requirements either advanced or impaired a political career. Setzler was documenting a meeting with the minister on 25 February 1948 at the outset of their pre-expedition meetings in Canberra. Later he described a convivial Arthur Calwell at a cocktail party at the American Embassy, and the next day at an equally lubricated gathering hosted by the minister in Parliament, also attended by Opposition Leader, Robert Menzies.2 These functions were a peaceful social interlude at the beginning of two of the most bitter years in Australian politics, which were the prelude to the longest- serving government in Australia’s history, led at the outset by the man who introduced Setzler to sparkling Porphyry Pearl at the gathering mentioned above: R. G. Menzies. The Expedition—arguably the most dramatic manifestation of Australian– American scientific collaboration—was a quiet backdrop to an intense debate that went to the heart of Australian political culture at the onset of the Cold War.
    [Show full text]
  • Introducing John Joseph Curtin Australian Wartime Prime Minister
    Introducing John Joseph Curtin, Australian war time prime minister It is my pleasure and privilege today to introduce you to the life of John Joseph Curtin-known more fully as John Joseph Ambrose Curtin but more usually as simply John Curtin.1 From my perspective there has always been a fascination in the United States with the image of a person born in a log cabin and becoming president in the White House and many years ago I remember clearly writing a biography of Abraham Lincoln with just that image to help make the story meaningful even to Australian school children. Lincoln, I seem to recall, was born in a one room log cabin in Kentucky and moved first to Indiana and then to Illinois from where his political career spiralled. Curtin was not actually born in a single room log cabin but in a small but adequate weather board home with a shingles roof in a mining town {Creswick) in Victoria. If Lincoln will always be remembered for leading his country during the American Civil War Curtin will always be remembered for leading his country when for the first and only time in its history since European settlement in 1788 there were bombing raids from the air and sea and when the threat of invasion by a hostile force was very real. In my own home (I was six years old at the time) I s till recall the air raid shelters in our backyard and the blackout on our windows and, can I add, the party staged for us by the Americans in gratitude for the hospitality we showed their sailors and airmen while they were based in Perth, (also Curtin's home town by that time).
    [Show full text]
  • LIBRARY LECTURE: Becoming John Curtin and James Scullin—Their Early Political Careers and the Making of the Modern Labor Party
    LIBRARY LECTURE: Becoming John Curtin and James Scullin—their early political careers and the making of the modern Labor party Presented by Liam Byrne, Parliament House, Canberra on 17 March 2021 As Prime Ministers, John Curtin and James Scullin have defining—and tragic—places in our national story. Scullin’s political consciousness was awoken in the Great Depression of the 1890s. He witnessed working people bearing the cost of an economic cataclysm that they did not create. He dedicated his political life to ensure this wouldn’t happen again. Throughout the 1920s Scullin argued Australia was over-exposed economically and risked being drawn into another disaster. Labor returned to office, with Scullin as prime minister, just weeks before we were dragged into the Great Depression. Scullin’s time in office will be forever remembered as a time when workers suffered for an economic cataclysm they had not created. That is his tragedy. John Curtin also came of age during the Depression of the 1890s. His early working life was marked by a series of short-term jobs, and the frustration of never having the security to help provide for his family. As a young socialist, he warned that capitalism as a system was plunging toward war. When the First World War did come, Curtin was also drawn to national attention, predominantly through his role in opposing conscription, but also as a strong advocate for socialism—as he understood it. Curtin, famously, came to office somewhat reluctantly in October 1941. He died in office on 5th July 1945, widely seen as a war casualty.
    [Show full text]
  • Traits and Trends of Australia's Prime Ministers, 1901 to 2015: a Quick Guide
    RESEARCH PAPER SERIES, 2015–16 19 JANUARY 2016 Traits and trends of Australia’s prime ministers, 1901 to 2015: a quick guide Dr Joy McCann Politics and Public Administration Section Introduction • This Quick Guide presents information about the backgrounds and service of Australia’s 29 prime ministers, from Edmund Barton to Malcolm Turnbull. It includes information about of their backgrounds (age, place of birth, gender and occupational background), period in office, experience in other parliaments, parties, electorates and military service. • The majority of Australia’s prime ministers have been Australian-born, middle-aged, tertiary-educated men with experience in law or politics, representing electorates in either Victoria or New South Wales. Only one woman has served as Prime Minister since Federation. • Australia’s prime ministers have ranged in age at the time of first taking office from 39 years to 67 years. The average age is 52 years, which reflects the age profile of Australian parliamentarians more generally (51 years). • Three-quarters of Australia’s 29 prime ministers (22) were born in Australia. Of those born overseas, all but one came from the United Kingdom (England, Scotland or Wales). The only non-British overseas-born Prime Minister was Chris Watson, who was born in Chile and raised in New Zealand. Of those born in Australia, the majority were born in either Victoria (nine) or New South Wales (eight). • Thirteen prime ministers have represented electorates in New South Wales, 11 in Victoria, four in Queensland and one each in Western Australia and Tasmania. There have been no prime ministers representing electorates in South Australia, the Northern Territory, or the Australian Capital Territory.
    [Show full text]
  • Reactions to Political Opinion Polls in Australia 1941-1943
    Reactions to Political Opinion Polls – Simon King ‘Australia Speaks’: Reactions to Political Opinion Polls in Australia 1941-1943 Simon King Abstract Political opinion polls came to Australia in the first years of World War Two. Their entry into the political arena caused much discussion about the role of the polls and about their creators. Despite the best efforts of the pollsters the early reaction was one of suspicion and outright aggression. This paper investigates the critical first two years and the debates that took place between the pollsters and the government. This paper has been peer reviewed On October 4 1941 under the headline ‘Pay Equity for Women favoured: Result of Australia’s First Gallup Poll’ political polling was born in Australia. The general tone surrounding the poll’s release was that it was something new and revolutionary and that these exercises in gauging the mood of the public would provide the government with something that they had never had before, they would immediately deliver specific information about reaction to announcements, future plans, and in the context of the Second World War, government performance. The pollsters also strongly emphasised their democratic value with the Adelaide Advertiser claiming, ‘the power of the polls are inviolable, they represent a real advance in democratic representation.’1 Not everyone however shared these ideas. As this paper will seek to demonstrate from the beginning of polling in Australia there were those who attacked the value of polling and their originators methodology arguing that 118 FJHP – Volume 28 – 2012 polls were ill advised and an impediment to the very democratic principles that they espoused.
    [Show full text]
  • Earle Page and the Imagining of Australia
    ‘NOW IS THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT’ EARLE PAGE AND THE IMAGINING OF AUSTRALIA ‘NOW IS THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MOMENT’ EARLE PAGE AND THE IMAGINING OF AUSTRALIA STEPHEN WILKS Ah, but a man’s reach should exceed his grasp, Or what’s a heaven for? Robert Browning, ‘Andrea del Sarto’ The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything. Edward John Phelps Earle Page as seen by L.F. Reynolds in Table Talk, 21 October 1926. Published by ANU Press The Australian National University Acton ACT 2601, Australia Email: [email protected] Available to download for free at press.anu.edu.au ISBN (print): 9781760463670 ISBN (online): 9781760463687 WorldCat (print): 1198529303 WorldCat (online): 1198529152 DOI: 10.22459/NPM.2020 This title is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial- NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). The full licence terms are available at creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/legalcode This publication was awarded a College of Arts and Social Sciences PhD Publication Prize in 2018. The prize contributes to the cost of professional copyediting. Cover design and layout by ANU Press. Cover photograph: Earle Page strikes a pose in early Canberra. Mildenhall Collection, NAA, A3560, 6053, undated. This edition © 2020 ANU Press CONTENTS Illustrations . ix Acknowledgements . xi Abbreviations . xiii Prologue: ‘How Many Germans Did You Kill, Doc?’ . xv Introduction: ‘A Dreamer of Dreams’ . 1 1 . Family, Community and Methodism: The Forging of Page’s World View . .. 17 2 . ‘We Were Determined to Use Our Opportunities to the Full’: Page’s Rise to National Prominence .
    [Show full text]