1940: Australia

War Activities.

Although Australia entered the war within an hour of Great Britain, it was not until after the Blitzkrieg of May and June 1940 that the impact of the conflict was fully experienced in the Commonwealth. From that time onward all aspects of the national life were increasingly subordinated to the military effort. Australia's war expenditure in 1914-18 amounted to £270,000,000; the Commonwealth budget for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1941, alone allots almost £200,000,000 out of a total of £276,000,000 to prosecution of the struggle. The number of men enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force, most of which was stationed in North Africa and the Middle East, increased steadily to five divisions and auxiliary troops, totalling 120,000. Besides these volunteers, a force of 250,000 men is being raised by compulsory service for home defense. Single men between 19 and 33 years of age have been registered for short periods of training; 80,000 completed their service in 1940. By the end of the year, moreover, the Empire Air Training Plan was in full swing. Out of over 135,000 volunteers, more than 12,000 air crew personnel had been accepted by December 1940, with about 4,000 currently in training, while almost 20,000 of 24,600 members of ground crews were receiving instruction. Some 20 training schools had been formed, and the first advanced students had been graduated from Canadian schools preparatory to service in England. About 16,000 men were enrolled in the naval forces. Taken as a whole, these figures, for a nation of 7,000,000, are comparable to an enrollment of approximately 4,750,000 in a country the size of the United States.

At the same time, munitions industries have been expanded remarkably in the light of the Commonwealth's limited resources. Airplanes, light armament, and motor equipment are being manufactured not only for domestic needs but also for other British Far Eastern territories. Work has been begun on three destroyers and fifty minesweepers and escort vessels. A drydock capable of berthing the largest British and American capital ships is under construction at Sydney. By strenuous efforts, a 450-mile motor road across the rough interior has been completed, bridging a gap between railroads and linking the potentially important naval base of Port Darwin in the North with the populous areas of the country. The actions of Nazi sea raiders in the Western Pacific have brought the war home to Australia. An American vessel, the City of Rayville, was sunk on Nov. 8 off the Australian coast, with a loss of one life, apparently by a German mine; and other ships have also been damaged and destroyed.

Politics.

These developments have been accompanied by a continuing trend toward national unity on the political front. The United Australia Party and the Country Party, the two moderate groups which have been in control for several years, settled the personal feuds of their leaders and formed a coalition in March 1940, thus assuring a Parliamentary majority for Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies. The events of May and June in Europe hastened the modification of opinion in all but an uninfluential wing of the Labor Party opposition, which at one stage had opposed the sending of an expeditionary force abroad. At an important party conference in June, Labor aligned itself behind the government's war policies.

The position of the Cabinet was endangered, however, by a tragic airplane accident on Aug. 12, in which four of the most popular government officials lost their lives. It became still more precarious as a result of the triennial Federal election held on Sept. 21, which resulted in gains for Labor sufficient to imperil Premier Menzies' control of the House of Representatives. But John Curtin, leader of the Labor Party, refused to join a National Union Cabinet, arguing that democratic procedure demanded a check on the government through Opposition criticism. There was substantial agreement, however, on the essentials of the war effort. This was reflected in the establishment on Oct. 23 of an all-party Advisory War Council designed to ensure government stability and the utilization of all efforts in carrying on the war.

Foreign Relations.

As British energies were almost wholly absorbed in the European struggle, Australians realized that their country must play a more independent role in Pacific affairs — and world affairs. While the country demanded creation of an Imperial War Cabinet in London, where the Dominions would have a voice, Richard G. Casey presented his credentials in Washington on March 5 as the first Australian Minister to the United States. On Aug. 18 Sir John Greig Latham, Chief Justice of the Commonwealth High Court, was appointed Australia's first minister to Tokyo. The Commonwealth's concern with Japan's drive toward Southeast Asia, which tends to make that country a near neighbor, was indicated by Australian participation in Anglo-American conversations during the month of October on the political and military situation in that region. Because of war conditions Australia, on Aug. 1, extended its defense system to include its mandated territory of New Guinea and Papua. Although the Axis press condemned this move as virtual annexation in violation of the terms of the League of Nations mandate, Australian officials cited provisions authorizing measures necessary to protect the territory. A few days later the government revealed that it was furnishing assistance to the French colony of New Caledonia, which had broken away from the Vichy government and placed itself under the authority of General de Gaulle.

Domestic Affairs.

In domestic affairs the country is striving to preserve democratic safeguards despite the need for unified war controls. Communist activities were sharply restricted in the spring of 1940, but the furor aroused by an unsuccessful government attempt, in June, to control the press and radio through the Department of Information indicated that the public still cherished highly its freedom of discussion. Reforms to solve the central constitutional problem of Australia — the need for greater Federal powers over the states and individuals to meet modern conditions — have been shelved until peace is restored. Temporarily, however, some of the same objectives have been attained under an extension of the wartime National Security Act, passed on June 21. The new law, modelled after the British Emergency Powers Act, gives the government almost unlimited power over persons, property and labor, except as regards the imposition of conscription for military service overseas. The government may now intervene to prevent recurrence of such incidents as the nationwide coal strike which halted production for two months in the spring of 1940. On Dec. 21 it overrode constitutional stipulations by assuming control over intrastate industrial disputes, and extended the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth Arbitration Court. A strike over seniority provisions in the New South Wales coal mines was promptly settled by a special government board. Acting under the same authority, the government has begun to supervise the movements of all coastal shipping. It has also been able to impose a wheat stabilization scheme notwithstanding the opposition of the states, under which prices are guaranteed to growers in return for restrictions on production.

The war effort has been aided by the generally prosperous state of the country. The diversification of industry and the munitions program have created an actual scarcity of labor in many factories. Wool and meat producers have enjoyed the benefits of guaranteed purchases by Britain at good prices. On Dec. 9 an arrangement was announced for the shipment of 250,000,000 pounds of wool to the United States for a strategic reserve. To avert an inflationary boom, the government has established stringent price, rent and profit controls. Foreign exchange is being conserved by drastic import embargoes on non-essentials purchased in foreign countries, and by the rationing of gasoline and other products. The burden of taxation, particularly in the middle income brackets, has been greatly increased, but is still lighter than that in Britain. A series of war loans has been successfully floated. In short, with general economic and political stability assured for the moment, Australia at the close of 1940 cheered its victorious forces advancing into Italian North Africa and faced the new year with confidence.