DOCSLIB.ORG

Brisbane Line"—A Study in Wartim E Politics

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Brisbane Line APPENDIX 4 THE "BRISBANE LINE"—A STUDY IN WARTIM E POLITICS N the course of an electioneering campaign in Victoria in October 1942 , I the Minister for Labour and National Service, Mr Ward, was reporte d to have stated that when the Curtin Government took office there was in existence a plan, formulated by its predecessors, for the abandonmen t of an important section of northern Australia without firing a single shot . ' Messrs Menzies, Fadden, Hughes, McEwen and McBride, all member s of the two previous Governments, made public statements denying th e allegation. On 12th November they also expressed their serious concer n in the Advisory War Council . Menzies referred to the special difficult y presented by the fact that the statement had been made by a responsibl e Minister and that it could be answered only by a complete expositio n of secret military plans—a disclosure that no one was in a position to make . At this meeting the Prime Minister, Mr Curtin, told the Council that h e had sent a telegram to Ward, that he would see him on the subject, an d that Ward should not have made the statement.2 It can only be assumed that Curtin was unable to discipline his Minister, for Ward kept on repeating the statement with minor variations and by May 1943 his allegation had taken the form of a statement tha t a line—the "Brisbane Line"—had been drawn north of Brisbane and that the Menzies and Fadden Governments had the "defeatist plan" o f withdrawing behind this line in the event of an invasion . During the public controversy which followed, the members of th e Opposition found a further cause for complaint in the fact that the Prim e Minister, who as a member of the Advisory War Council under th e previous administration would have been in a position to know what wa s or was not planned, still did not publicly disavow Ward's charges but , by his silence, seemed to give them credence . After repeated protests to him by the Leader of the Opposition (Fadden), Curtin did write to Fadden on 27th May saying : "On Japan coming into the war the Commander- in-Chief of the Home Forces submitted to the Minister for the Arm y proposals relating to the defence of Australia, the essence of which wa s concentration on the defence of the vital parts of Australia. This involve d holding what is known as the Brisbane Line ." Elsewhere in his letter , which was widely published in the metropolitan press of 28th May, Curtin mentioned that the Commander-in-Chief of the Home Forces had bee n appointed by the Menzies Government, and that his submission had bee n rejected by the Curtin Government which "took steps to defend the whole of the continent" . Argus, 27 Oct 1942 . 'Advisory War Council Minute 1102, 12 Nov 1942 . 712 THE " BRISBANE LINE " This absence of an outright disavowal of Ward's charge and the linkin g of the Menzies Government with the name of the general who had put up the plan was regarded by the Leader of the Opposition as "a cunnin g piece of evasion" . 3 During early June 1943 there was warm discussion of the subject in th e Advisory War Council and at one time it seemed as though the non - Government members might leave the Council in protest if the publi c discrediting of them by a Minister was not corrected . In response to a request made by Fadden in a letter of 28th May, and by Spender, a former Minister for the Army, at a meeting of the Council on 13th May 4 the Prime Minister produced War Cabinet and Advisory War Council records to a meeting of the Advisory War Council in Sydney on 3rd June . In the meantime, in the course of a broadcast from a commercial radio station on 1st June, Ward had said : "I do not withdraw one word of what I have said about the Brisbane Line", and "I lay two charges against the Menzies and Fadden Governments—first, I charge them with creatin g a position in this country which necessitated the contemplation of suc h a defeatist plan, and secondly, I charge them with becoming so pani c stricken as the threat of invasion increased, that they turned to a treacherous plan under which large portions of Australia were to be given away t o the enemy. In the course of the Council meeting on 3rd June, according to th e official minute, Curtin said that the only plan relating to the Brisban e Line of which he had knowledge was that submitted by the Commander- in-Chief of the Home Forces, Lieut-General Sir Ivcn Mackay, in Februar y 1942 ; that Ward had no access to the relevant documents ; and there had been no leakage of information from Ministers on the War Cabinet an d the Advisory War Council . Non-Government members stated that th e documents disproved Ward's allegations by showing that the plan whic h had been attributed by Ward to the Menzies and Fadden Government s was made in February 1942, four months after Curtin took office . The Prime Minister should make it clear that no such plan had existed durin g the term of office of the Menzies and Fadden Governments . During discussion in the Council reference was also made to the plans for the evacuation of the civil population and essential industr y from vulnerable areas, which had been discussed by the Advisory Wa r Council and the Premiers of the States in February 1942, and to evacuatio n plans which were consequently formulated in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia. These plans had also been mentioned in the public controversy arising from Ward's charges, but Council member s observed, first, that the plans related to civil evacuation of potential battl e areas (not to the military abandonment of a territory) and nothing ha d emanated from them which bore any relation to the strategic conceptio n a Argus, 28 May 1943 . 4 Advisory War Council Minute 1198, 13 May 1943 . The full text of the broadcast is in the Century, 4 Jun 1943, p . 7 . THE " BRISBANE LINE " 713 of the "Brisbane Line" to which Ward referred; second, these plans, too, belonged to the period of February 1942, and not to the term of office of the Menzies and Fadden Governments . Non-Government members referred to the difficulty they had in refutin g the charges of Ward in regard to the state of the forces during the ter m of office of the Fadden Government without revealing information o f value to the enemy. When the question was raised of tabling the papers relating to the "Brisbane Line" the Prime Minister objected that it wa s important in wartime to keep faith with the military leaders, that the secrecy of the information in the papers would preclude the tabling o f the documents and that it would be unfair to the Chiefs of Staff, as the Government's military advisers, to publish the advice they had tendered .° During a no-confidence debate in the House of Representatives on 22n d June, Fadden again called on the Prime Minister to repudiate th e "slanderous campaign" conducted by Ward, but Curtin replied with a general description of the situation that had confronted his own Govern- ment when Japan attacked . Menzies pressed the point harder : "I put this to the Prime Minister : Every record of the Department of the Army and every relative record of the Advisory War Council have been searched, and there is no such plan before February 1942 . That is a fact." Curtin answered by interjection: "I said that. I stated that the plan was put to my Government ."' Later in the debate, Ward, while "not contradicting or denying tha t the available records disclose that the first plan was dated 4th Februar y 1942", added that he was "most reliably informed that one importan t report is now missing from the official files" .8 After receiving a certificate from the departmental officers concerne d and an assurance from the Minister for the Army (Forde), the Prime Minister stated in the House on 24th June that all the records of th e War Cabinet, the Advisory War Council, Army Department and Defenc e Department were complete and no unauthorised person had ever ha d access to them . He added : "The information given to the Minister fo r Labour and National Service is therefore incorrect . The Minister for the Army and I have discussed the matter with [Mr Ward], who withdraws the statement, which he made in the belief that it was made on reliabl e information." The "withdrawal" by Ward, however, was equivocal . He said: "Last night I conferred with the Prime Minister and the Minister for the Army . In the course of the talk I received an assurance from [Mr Curtin] tha t no document is missing from the files . I unreservedly accept that assuranc e and I am satisfied that the document to which I was referring on Tuesday night is still in existence . My references to the document have been seized upon by members of the Opposition as a device for disguising the rea l e Advisory War Council Minute 1202, 3 Jun 1943 . ',Commonwealth Debates, Vol 175, p . 38 . s Commonwealth Debates, Vol 175, pp. 574 . 714 THE " BRISBANE LINE " issue. The real issue is whether my charges against the former Prime Ministers are or are not true .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 03 Chapters 4-7 Burns
    76 CHAPTER 4 THE REALITY BEHIND THE BRISBANE LINE ALLEGATIONS Curtin lacked expertise in defence matters. He did not understand the duties or responsibilities of military commanders and never attended Chiefs of Staff meetings, choosing to rely chiefly on the Governments public service advisers. Thus Shedden established himself as Curtins chief defence adviser. Under Curtin his influence was far greater than 1 it had ever been in Menzies day. Curtins lack of understanding of the role of military commanders, shared by Forde, created misunderstandings and brought about refusal to give political direction. These factors contributed to events that underlay the Brisbane Line controversy. Necessarily, Curtin had as his main purpose the fighting and the winning of the war. Some Labor politicians however saw no reason why the conduct of the war should prevent Labor introducing social reforms. Many, because of their anti-conscriptionist beliefs, were unsympathetic 2 to military needs. Conversely, the Army Staff Corps were mistrustful of their new masters. The most influential of their critics was Eddie Ward, the new Minister for Labour and National Service. His hatred of Menzies, distrust of the conservative parties, and suspicion of the military impelled him towards endangering national security during the course of the Brisbane Line controversy. But this lay in the future in the early days of the Curtin Government. Not a great deal changed immediately under Curtin. A report to Forde by Mackay on 27 October indicated that appreciations and planning for local defence in Queensland and New South Wales were based on the assumption that the vital area of Newcastle-Sydney-Port Kembla had priority in defence.
    [Show full text]
  • 04 Chapters 8-Bibliography Burns
    159 CHAPTER 8 THE BRISBANE LINE CONTROVERSY Near the end of March 1943 nineteen members of the UAP demanded Billy Hughes call a party meeting. Hughes had maintained his hold over the party membership by the expedient of refusing to call members 1a together. For months he had then been able to avoid any leadership challenge. Hughes at last conceded to party pressure, and on 25 March, faced a leadership spill, which he believed was inspired by Menzies. 16 He retained the leadership by twenty-four votes to fifteen. The failure to elect a younger and more aggressive leader - Menzies - resulted in early April in the formation by the dissenters of the National Service Group, which was a splinter organisation, not a separate party. Menzies, and Senators Leckie and Spicer from Victoria, Cameron, Duncan, Price, Shcey and Senators McLeary, McBride, the McLachlans, Uphill and Wilson from South Australia, Beck and Senator Sampson from Tasmania, Harrison from New South Wales and Senator Collett from Western Australia comprised the group. Spender stood aloof. 1 This disturbed Ward. As a potential leader of the UAP Menzies was likely to be more of an electoral threat to the ALP, than Hughes, well past his prime, and in the eyes of the public a spent political force. Still, he was content to wait for the appropriate moment to discredit his old foe, confident he had the ammunition in his Brisbane Line claims. The Brisbane Line Controversy Ward managed to verify that a plan existed which had intended to abandon all of Australia north of a line north of Brisbane and following a diagonal course to a point north of Adelaide to be abandoned to the enemy, - the Maryborough Plan.
    [Show full text]
  • Sir Earle Christmas Grafton PAGE, PC, GCMG, CH Prime Minister 7 April to 26 April 1939
    11 Sir Earle Christmas Grafton PAGE, PC, GCMG, CH Prime Minister 7 April to 26 April 1939 Earle Page became the 11th prime minister following the death of Joseph Lyons. Page was deputy prime minister in the Lyons Government and Australia’s first ‘caretaker’ prime minister. Member of the Farmers and Settlers Association and New State League 1915-25. Member of the Country Party of Australia 1920-61. Member of House of Representatives representing Cowper (NSW) 1920-61; Treasurer 1923-29; Minister for Commerce 1934-39, 1940-41; Health 1937-38, 1949-56. Page ceased to be prime minister when the new United Australia Party leader, Robert Menzies, was elected to replace him. The UAP was the majority party in the coalition. Main achievements (1921-1956) Founder of the Country Party in 1920 and parliamentary leader of the party 1921-39. Entered agreement with ruling Nationalist Party to form Australia’s first coalition government 1923-29, and served as deputy prime minister in that government 1923-29. As Treasurer, Page initiated subsidies for rural exports, abolished Federal land tax and set up a rural credits department within the Commonwealth Bank. With Bruce, he created the Loan Council in 1924, which became statutory in 1929. Also served as deputy prime minister in coalition government with United Australia Party headed by Joseph Lyons in 1934. He founded the Australian Agricultural Council and led two trade delegations to London, 1936 and 1938. Served on Australian War Cabinet 1941 and Advisory War Council 1942-43, 1944-45, and the Pacific War Council in London 1942.
    [Show full text]
  • John Curtin a Tribute: Strengthening the Rule of Law and Australian Democracy
    Curtin University John Curtin a tribute: strengthening the rule of law and Australian democracy JCPML Anniversary Lecture presented by the Rt Hon Malcolm Fraser on 12 June 2008. It is now over 60 years since John Curtin died. The circumstances of his own upbringing in Victoria, the family’s move to Western Australia, his work within the union movement, his repeated attempts to enter Parliament, his opposition to conscription in the First War, his unification of the Labor Party in 1935, his wartime leadership, are all well documented. There is little that can be added that is fresh or new. He was persistent. He had a high sense of public duty. The office of Prime Minister cost his life. His health was never good. He worried about important decisions in a manner that was much to his credit. When, with a great sense of Australian purpose, he defied both Churchill and Roosevelt to bring Australian troops home for the defence of Australia, he agonised over the decision. He knew he was putting those troops at risk until they were safely in Australian ports. The long journey across the Indian Ocean was unprotected and subject to Japanese attack. He often walked in the evening or at night to allay his concerns, or at least to make it possible to live with them. Worry or concern about the consequences of major decisions did not deter him from taking those decisions. It all stands greatly to his credit, to his determination and his moral strength. It needs to be understood that, up to the time of the Second World War, Australia had no independent foreign policy.
    [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]
  • Thursday, 10 March 2011
    PROOF ISSN 1322-0330 RECORD OF PROCEEDINGS Hansard Home Page: http://www.parliament.qld.gov.au/hansard/ E-mail: [email protected] Phone: (07) 3406 7314 Fax: (07) 3210 0182 Subject FIRST SESSION OF THE FIFTY-THIRD PARLIAMENT Page Thursday, 10 March 2011 SPEAKER’S STATEMENTS ............................................................................................................................................................ 517 Colour for a Cure .................................................................................................................................................................. 517 Parliamentary Behaviour ...................................................................................................................................................... 517 PRIVILEGE ....................................................................................................................................................................................... 517 Speaker’s Ruling, Alleged Deliberate Misleading of the House by a Minister ...................................................................... 517 SPEAKER’S STATEMENT .............................................................................................................................................................. 518 Broadcast of Parliament, Archive Facility ............................................................................................................................. 518 PETITION .........................................................................................................................................................................................
    [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]
  • World War Ii: Wolston House, Wacol
    WORLD WAR II: WOLSTON HOUSE, WACOL A Year 10 study on the impact of World War II in Brisbane, with a focus on the Grindle family of Wolston House at Wacol near Brisbane. The National Trust of Australia (Queensland) [NTA(Q)] http://www.nationaltrust.org.au/qld For the Student: Imagine one million military personnel from different nations passing through your town bringing with them new products and ideas and a faster pace of life. This happened to Brisbane, population 340,000, between 1939 and 1945. This study is designed to introduce you to how life changed for Australians as a result of World War II. For those at home, this meant restrictions. The Australian Government controlled the news you read or heard on the radio and the types and quantities of food you could buy. If you were not in military service, the Government could designate where you worked, for the duration of the war. In this study you are asked to read a variety of online source documents and answer questions about what you have read. For the Teacher: This study can form a component of a in-depth study of World War II. Students will research the impact of World War II on the Australian home front by looking at the Grindle family, occupants of Brisbane’s Wolston House from 1906 to 1956. A mix of primary and secondary online resources is presented. Students are asked to draw conclusions about the information and the sources used. Focus: Brisbane was arguably the Australian capital city most affected by the entry of the United States into World War II.
    [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]
  • Ten Journeys to Cameron's Farm
    Ten Journeys to Cameron’s Farm An Australian Tragedy Ten Journeys to Cameron’s Farm An Australian Tragedy Cameron Hazlehurst Published by ANU Press The Australian National University Acton ACT 2601, Australia Email: [email protected] This title is also available online at http://press.anu.edu.au National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Author: Hazlehurst, Cameron, 1941- author. Title: Ten Journeys to Cameron’s Farm / Cameron Hazlehurst. ISBN: 9781925021004 (paperback) 9781925021011 (ebook) Subjects: Menzies, Robert, Sir, 1894-1978. Aircraft accidents--Australian Capital Territory--Canberra. World War, 1939-1945--Australia--History. Australia--Politics and government--1901-1945. Australia--Biography. Australia--History--1901-1945. Dewey Number: 320.994 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Cover design and layout by ANU Press Printed by Griffin Press © Flaxton Mill House Pty Ltd 2013 and 2015 Cover design and layout © 2013 ANU E Press Cover design and layout © 2015 ANU Press Contents Part 1 Prologue 13 August 1940 . ix 1 . Augury . 1 2 . Leadership, politics, and war . 3 Part 2 The Journeys 3 . A crew assembles: Charlie Crosdale and Jack Palmer . 29 4 . Second seat: Dick Wiesener . 53 5 . His father’s son: Bob Hitchcock . 71 6 . ‘A very sound pilot’?: Bob Hitchcock (II) . 99 7 . Passenger complement . 131 8 . The General: Brudenell White (I) . 139 9 . Call and recall: Brudenell White (II) . 161 10 . The Brigadier: Geoff Street . 187 11 .
    [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]