1942: Australia

The most striking feature of Australian history in the year 1942 was the ever-present threat that Australian soil might be invaded and thus become an actual battleground of World War II. Prior to 1942 Australia had participated in many theaters of the war. Her airmen had served in Britain, in Libya, the Middle East, and Malaya. Her navy had been in action in the Mediterranean, the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Indian Oceans. Troops from Australia had seen service in both Europe and Africa. But not until the Japanese struck at Pearl Harbor did Australians awake to the full danger which faced them. The fall of Hongkong, Singapore, the Philippines and Java dispelled whatever complacency might have remained in Australian hearts. Australia was confronted by the cold, unwelcome fact that Japan controlled the eastern Indian, and the western Pacific Oceans; that she possessed one of the strongest naval bases in the world, and that Australia thus seemed all but isolated, together with New Zealand, from the United Nations.

Military Preparedness.

To meet this threat to her national existence, Australia was not totally unprepared. By December 1941 nearly 500,000 men were under arms both at home and abroad out of a total population of 7,000,000. By the early months of 1942 the Royal Australian Air Force had grown from 2,000 men (the figure for 1938) to more than 70,000 men, plus a reserve of 143,000 volunteers. Prior to Dec. 7, 1942, more than 250,000 men had volunteered for the military services. After Dec. 7, these figures rose sharply.

Australian War Production.

War Expenditure.

Gross war expenditure for the fiscal year 1941-42 amounted to £353,000,000 which at par represents some $1,600,000,000. The budget for 1942-43 introduced in September 1942 totalled $1,900,000,000 incorporating war expenditures of nearly $1,500,000,000. This is more than double the $705,000,000 war bill for 1941-42. The 1942-43 budget includes substantial sums for supplies, services, and accommodation for United States forces in Australia, provided by Australia under reciprocal lend-lease; but the total expenditure does not include war equipment obtained under lend-lease from the United States.

The unprecedented Australian budget is suggestive of the vast social, political, and economic changes effected by the war. In September too, the government announced a new $325,000,000 loan to inaugurate a national 'austerity campaign.' In December 1941, the Curtin government had already imposed new taxation aggregating £16,000,000. This proved inadequate, and, in announcing in September 1942, the 'austerity campaign,' Premier Curtin said: 'If we do not strip ourselves to save our country, the enemy will do it with ruthless efficiency and a maximum of misery.' Restrictions imposed by the 'austerity campaign' include: restriction of sporting events, increased taxation on all classes of entertainment, increased restrictions on the consumption of liquor, limitation of hotel meals to three courses, and legislation to curb black markets. In the broad view the Australian 'austerity campaign' is designed to increase the national morale, to finance the war as far as possible by taxation supplemented by public national loans, and to place the greatest possible emphasis on war production. Australia was thus hoping to expedite the transfer of manpower, materials, plants, current earnings, and savings to war purposes, the financial regimentation stopping short only of compulsory lending. In September it was announced that 183,000 men and women would be transferred to direct war activities before January 1943.

Allocation of Manpower.

In September 1942, out of a total population of 5,000,000 between the ages of 14 and 65, nearly 3,400,000 or 68 per cent were working fulltime, either in war production, the armed forces, or in substantially essential civil jobs. This is equivalent to approximately 60,000,000 persons in the United States. By December 1942, approximately 1,600,000 or 60 per cent of Australia's male population of 2,530,000 between 14 and 65 were on fulltime war work of all kinds. In 1942 alone more men and women were diverted to war work than during the entire four years of World War I.

Prior to the present war 540,000 Australian factory workers produced civilian goods. Today this number has been reduced to 200,000, while the total number of factory workers has risen to 700,000, of whom 500,000 are engaged in war production. Such drastic curtailment of civil production means that in 1942 civil goods and services were reduced by $406,250,000.

Women played an ever-increasing part in Australia's war effort during 1942. More than 200,000 new women workers had entered war industry by the end of the year. This is equivalent to 40 per cent of the pre-1939 total of all factory workers. There are also a number of auxiliary women's branches of the fighting services: WAAAF (Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force), which services cars, drives ambulances, performs administrative and clerical routine, etc.; AWAS (Australian Women's Army Service) numbering 6,000, some of whose members have been posted for duty in coastal batteries; WRANS (Women's Royal Australian Naval Service); WANS (Women's Australian National Service); and others.

Military and Naval Campaigns.

In January 1942, with the spread of war throughout southeastern Asia and the East Indies, Australian airmen joined with the RAF in upper Burma, while Australian troops held in reserve for five weeks in Singapore moved up to the front in an effort to halt the Japanese advance southward in Malaya. Later in January, following the Japanese invasion of New Guinea, Australians were at last convinced that their continent was to be attacked. Pleas for help went out to the allies. By Feb. 1, the Japanese were attacking in the Bismarck and Solomon Islands, northeast New Guinea and Papua. Australian airmen struck (Feb. 8) at Japanese bases in the Bismarck group. By mid-February the Japanese from Amboina and Timor were attacking Port Darwin on the northern Australian coast, a frontier outpost whose normal population was about 4,000. At the same time the Japanese bombed repeatedly Moresby on the southern coast of New Guinea.

In mid-March, General Douglas MacArthur arrived in Melbourne from the Philippines, while the Japanese commenced their advance across New Guinea to Port Moresby. There followed shortly the establishment of a unified command in Australia under General MacArthur, and a Pacific War Council in Washington to enable the United States, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, China, and Canada to consider at a common council table, problems of the Pacific theater. By May American troops were reaching Australia. In June Japanese submarines attacked Newcastle and Sydney causing little damage. On Aug. 2, American troops were reported to have reached Port Moresby.

A Complete Summary to August 1942 of Campaigns or Actions in Which Australians Have Fought.

NAVY

Mediterranean

Sydney bombards Bardia: June 1940.

Sydney sinks Bartolomeo Colleoni: June 19, 1940.

Battle of Taranto: Nov. 11, 1940.

Battle of Matapan: March 1941.

Loss of Nestor, June 1942.

Syria

Shelling of Syrian coast: Shortly after June 21, 1941.

Iran

Australian sloop captures Iran's 6-vessel navy: Aug. 29, 1941.

Indian Ocean

Loss of Sydney announced by Curtin: Nov. 30, 1941.

Straits of Malacca

Jan. 23, 1942.

Java Sea

Feb. 27, 1942.

Loss of Perth and Yarra: Mar. 4, 1942.

Bay of Bengal

Loss of Vampire: April 1942.

Coral Sea

Begins May 4, 1942.

Solomon Islands

Battle off Guadalcanal, Aug. 7-10, 1942, cruiser Canberra lost.

A.I.F.

1st Libyan Campaign

Begins: December 1940.

Capture of Benghazi: February 1941.

Siege of Tobruk

Tobruk first captured by Australian troops: Jan. 17, 1941.

Tobruk garrison cut off from Army of the Nile: Apr. 13, 1941.

194 days of siege.

Bulk of Australian garrison withdrawn: November 1941.

Balkans and Greece

Australians and New Zealanders begin fighting: Apr. 10, 1941.

By end of month, Anzac troops were being evacuated from Greece.

(Estimated that 43,000 of the 56,000 Australian troops which had been sent to Greece had been successfully evacuated, large numbers still hiding in Greece waging guerilla warfare.)

Crete

Fighting begins: May 20, 1941.

Evacuation of many of the Anzac troops had been accomplished by: June 4, 1941.

It was announced that 3,600 Australian and 2,800 New Zealand troops were unaccounted for.

Syria

Campaign begins: June 1941.

Australian troops attack Damascus: June 19, 1941.

British and Free French forces enter Damascus: June 21, 1941.

Syrian armistice signed: July 11, 1941.

In this campaign Australia's three fighting services co-operated for the first time.

2nd Libyan Campaign

Fighting begins: November 1941.

3rd Libyan Campaign

Australians go into action: July 10, 1942.

Malaya

Australian troops go into action: Jan. 16, 1942.

Fall of Singapore: Feb. 14, 1942, 18,500 Australians lost.

Java

Feb. 27-March 1942.

New Britain

Japanese first land: Jan. 23, 1942.

New Guinea

Commando raid: June 1942. Beginning of New Guinea campaign.

R.A.A.F.

Battle of Britain

August 1940 — June 1941

Libya, Syria, Malaya. See under A.I.F.

Action in Middle East — continuous.

Battle of Atlantic — continuous.

Bombing of Germany — continuous (R.A.A.F. men attached to R.A.F.).

Darwin, Battle of Australia

1st Japanese raid: Feb. 19, 1942.

New Guinea

Japanese land, Jan. 23, 1942.

New Britain

Japanese land, Jan. 23, 1942.

United Nations aerial counteroffensive continuous.

Australia, Britain, and the United States.

From December 1941 Australians have made it clear that plans for defense envisage major aid from the United States. On Dec. 27, 1941, Prime Minister Curtin said: 'Australia looks to America free from any pangs about our traditional links of friendships with Britain.... We shall exert our energy towards shaping a plan with the United States as its keystone.' This was a little too much for the conservative Australian of the Tory British stamp. To him it seemed to suggest disloyalty to the empire tradition. Consequently in February, Mr. Curtin felt it necessary to explain that there were no political implications in what he had said. In March he asked the Australian people for 'unity with our allies, and unity with Great Britain' as the guiding principles of the war.

Politics and Government.

The Commonwealth of Australia, a federation of the provinces, was created, with its constitution, by an Act of the British Parliament, and assented to by the Queen in July 1900. The first federal Parliament met May 9, 1901.

The Commonwealth consists of five continental states: Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Western Australia; the island state of Tasmania; the Northern Territory, and the Australian Capital Territory. Under the authority of the Commonwealth, at the outbreak of the present war, were: Papua (90,000 sq. mi.), the New Guinea Mandated Territory (100,000 sq. mi.), the Mandate over the Island of Nauru; Norfolk Island, and the Antarctic dependency (probably 2,000,000 sq. mi.).

The Australian constitution is, in many respects, similar to that of the United States. Powers of the Commonwealth Parliament cover: defense, external affairs, trade and commerce, customs, posts and telegraphs, currency, banking insurance, immigration and naturalization, etc. Since Australia is a member of the British Commonwealth, a governor-general represents the King but not the British government, which has no power in Australia. Parliamentary procedure in both Commonwealth and State legislatures follows British practice as does also the cabinet system.

In October a bill was introduced to amend the constitution by empowering Parliament to make laws for carrying into effect the war aims of Australia as one of the United Nations, including the attainment of economic security and social justice in the post-war world.

Political Parties.

There are three major political parties. The Labor Party (now the government) is based primarily on the interests of the working man. Specifically this party draws its power from the organized labor movement. The Labor Party, now more than fifty years old, entered politics in the nineties, backed by the strength of the great unions which by 1914 had given Australia 105 unionists per 1,000 population. Labor among other groups supported Federation and, with its realization, the Labor Party emerged as one of the great national parties. It has been in power seven times since 1900 always supporting the cause of social reform. It introduced the system of a national militia or citizens army defense system, in preference to the system of maintaining a small professional army. The Royal Australian Navy is also a creation of the Labor government. The Prime Minister, John Curtin, also carried on this tradition when in the general election of 1935 he based his defense policy on the creation of Australian air power. It is on this background and this record that the Australian Labor government, claiming a deeply national tradition, has been entrusted with leadership in the war on the Axis Powers. 'Labor,' says Prime Minister Curtin, 'is not a class movement. It belongs to the whole people.'

Of the remaining political parties, the Country Party is representative of the farming and ranching interests; the United Australia Party, heterogeneous in its make-up, claims to speak for the interests of Australia as a whole.

During 1942 the parties have not manifested any noticeable differences in policy. Both government and opposition have concentrated on finding the most effective methods of prosecuting the war effort, though the opposition has not ceased in its demands for a national government.

The Cabinet.

The Cabinet of Labor Prime Minister John Curtin which has conducted Australia's war effort during 1942 consists of the following:

Prime Minister and Minister for Defense Coordination, John Curtin

Minister for the Army, Francis M. Forde

Treasurer, Joseph B. Chifley

Attorney-general and Minister for External Affairs, Herbert V. Evans

Minister of Supply and Shipping, John A. Beasley

Minister of the Interior, Joseph S. Collings

Minister for the Navy and Minister for Munitions, Norman J. O. Makin

Minister for Social Services and Health, Edward J. Holloway

Trade and Customs, Vice-President of the Executive Council, R. V. Keane

Air and Civil Aviation, A. S. Drakeford

Commerce, W. J. Scully

Postmaster-general and Minister for Information, W. P. Ashley

Labor and National Service, E. J. Ward

Repatriation, C. W. Frost

War Organization of Industry, J. J. Dedman

External Territories, J. M. Fraser

Aircraft Production, Donald Cameron

Transport, George Lawson

Home Security, H. P. Lazzarini

Party and Opposition leaders include:

Senate: leader of the Opposition, George McLeay; deputy leader of the Opposition, P. A. M. McBride.

House: leader of the Opposition and leader of the Country Party, A. W. Fadden; deputy leader of the Opposition and leader of the United Australia Party, W. M. Hughes.

The Australian government maintains legations in the principal Pacific countries. The first was that established in the United States (1940). The present Australian Minister to Washington is the Hon. Sir Owen Dixon, K.C.M.G. Appointed Apr. 19, 1942, he arrived in Washington June 2, succeeding Minister Richard Gardiner Casey, D.S.O., M.C., who accepted appointment as British Minister of State in the Middle East.

1941: Australia

When the Japanese made their lightning attack on the western powers in the Pacific on Dec. 7 and rapidly drove southward down the Malay peninsula to Singapore and past the Philippines to the East Indies, they presented a serious threat to the safety and integrity of the Commonwealth of Australia. As the year 1941 ended, the nation was, for the first time in its history, in immediate danger of invasion. The Pacific crisis did not, however, find Australia unprepared, for the challenge of the Axis in Europe had already led to the mobilization for war of most of the Commonwealth's man power and wealth, and Japanese expansion put her on her guard.

Home Front.

All phases of public and private life in Australia during 1941 were dominated by the war, with increasing emphasis placed on the importance of Australia as a stronghold source of supplies for the United Nations in the western Pacific. The magnitude of the Australian contribution is indicated by the fact that war expenditure in the fiscal year 1941-42 was set at £A250,000,000 ($719,000,000), which is nearly as much as was spent altogether during the four years of the last war.

Most of Australia's 24,000 factories were converted to war production by the end of 1941, and new industries were inaugurated. In munitions, all types of weapons from rifles to field pieces and naval guns were produced. An anti-aircraft gun and an anti-tank weapon began to flow from newly-built plants. An optical glass works went into production, providing some of the necessary materials for the construction of periscopes, range finders, and 150 other types of instruments. Remodeled railway shops and other factories turned out Bren gun-carriers, armored cars protected with a special bullet-proof steel perfected in Australian laboratories, and new medium tanks. Arsenals, previously equipped to make only machine gun and rifle ammunition, produced shells of all types, as well as bombs, torpedoes, and mines. An armored division, including 600 tanks, would be entirely equipped by Commonwealth factories. Steel output, for example, was raised from 1,000,000 tons in 1939 to 1,800,000 in 1941.

Starting almost from scratch in 1939, Australia rapidly built up an aircraft industry which finished its thousandth plane in October, and reached a production rate of 200 to 300 planes monthly. Having mastered the construction of training planes, the industry turned to the manufacture of Beaufort bombers and long-distance pursuit planes, the Beaufighters. Sixty different firms produced component parts which were assembled to make the motors for these planes. A similar spectacular growth took place in shipbuilding. Over 50 naval vessels, including three cruisers, and destroyers and patrol boats, were planned or building in 1941, and a program for the construction of 60 merchant vessels was launched. Only one of the seven shipyards in operation existed before the war. War production required the services of increasing numbers of workers. About 150,000 were employed on war work, including some 50,000 operatives in government factories and arsenals. Since June, 18, 1941, it has been illegal for these workers to engage in strikes or be subjected to lock-outs. The implements of war turned out by Australian workers in the Commonwealth's factories have been used primarily to supply Australia's own fighting forces, but in some categories where surpluses were achieved, matériel was sent abroad to Allied troops in the Middle East, India, and Eastern Asia, as well as New Zealand.

While industry was booming throughout the Commonwealth, agricultural interests were hard hit by war developments, especially the shortage of shipping. Sale of wheat, meat, and dairy products to the United Kingdom fell off abruptly, when it was announced late in 1941 that the shipping space available for Australian foodstuffs would be only one-fifth of the amount provided in the first year of the war. The Commonwealth continued to send food to Allied forces in the Middle East and Malaya, however, and placed more emphasis on the preparation of canned meats, fruits, vegetables, and milk.

War Effort.

Approximately 500,000 men were enrolled in Australia's military forces, which represented 40 per cent of the available man power. During 1941 units of these forces engaged the enemy on widely scattered battlefronts from the British Isles to Singapore and the islands of the South Seas. Most active of the military services were the Anzacs of the Australian Imperial Force, which had an enlisted strength of 170,000, all of whom were volunteers for overseas service. About 120,000 of the A.I.F. were stationed in the Middle East during 1941 and took prominent parts in the campaigns. 'Diggers,' as the Australian soldiers call themselves, were in the vanguard of the Allied forces which twice drove the Axis troops back from the Egyptian border halfway across Libya. Australians held the beleaguered garrison of Tobruk during most of its 194-day siege. They were among the first Allied fighting men to advance into Syria against the Vichy French, and to land in Greece for the short campaign against the Nazis. The Australian forces suffered 12,950 casualties, including 1,571 dead, in all operations in the Middle East.

The Royal Australian Air Force increased its personnel to over 60,000, with a backlog of 143,000 recruits. Flyers were trained in 32 air schools in Australia, and in addition some were sent to Canada for advanced work under the Empire Air Training scheme. Flying British- and American-made craft as well as Australian planes, units of the R.A.A.F. participated in the defense of the British Isles, the Middle Eastern campaigns, and patrolled the East Indies long before the Japanese struck. The Royal Australian Navy also expanded as rapidly as ships became available. Personnel stood at 20,000 at the end of 1941. H.M.A.S. Perth, accompanied by Australian destroyers, fought alongside British ships in the Battle of Matapan and participated in the evacuation of Greece and Crete. Another cruiser, H.M.A.S. Sydney, was lost in the South Pacific in November 1941, after a combat in which she destroyed the German raider Steiermark. All 645 officers and men were lost. Within Australia, a defense force of 250,000 was under arms or in training. Altogether over 500,000 men were under arms when 1941 ended, and in as much as Australia's population is only 7,000,000, it was considered that this constituted about the limit of Australia's man-power mobilization.

Politics.

While it could not be said that Australia's war effort was seriously impeded by the wavering political balance in the Commonwealth government it was apparent that a degree of uncertainty was interjected through the maneuverings of the political parties. After the election of September 1940, Robert G. Menzies continued as prime minister, with the support of the United Australia and Country parties. Together they had 37 votes in the House of Representatives, to the Labour Party's 36. One independent member remained unpledged to either side. Mr. Menzies was not popular with Labour or the people and did not command the whole-hearted support of some of his own followers, but he continued to maintain his precarious position by sheer will and brain power, until it became obvious that he could no longer lead successfully. The immediate issue which caused his downfall was the opposition raised by Labour to his proposed trip to London to represent Australia in the councils of the Empire. Labourites insisted that, if the Pacific situation was so desperate, the Prime Minister should remain at home. Feeling that his position was untenable, Mr. Menzies resigned in August in favor of Arthur William Fadden, leader of the Country Party. Fadden had a more appealing personality but could not hold the coalition together, and when one of his erstwhile supporters joined with the Labourites and with the lone independent in voting against a governmental budget proposal, his cabinet resigned on Oct. 3 after a life of 37 days.

A Labour government, the first since 1931, under John Curtin took office on Oct. 6 and has directed the Commonwealth's war effort ever since. Curtin, a former trades union official and newspaper reporter led his party in the 1936 elections with a campaign for an increased air force. He emphasized, during the debate that resulted in the coalition's defeat, that disagreement on the methods of conducting the war did not 'in any way affect the complete unity of the Australian people in their determination to prosecute the war to a victorious conclusion.' The budget proposals presented by the Labour cabinet on Oct. 29 provided for an increase in war expenditure over that suggested by the Fadden government, but differed in significant respects. Service men's pay was increased as well as allowances to wives and children. Invalid and old age pensions were raised, and conditions liberalized. Additional measures included restrictions on the production of luxury goods and increases in taxation on middle and high-bracket incomes. The gravity of Australia's situation since Dec. 7 resulted in a diminution of party struggles. In the circumstances, an all-party government might have been appropriate, except for the fact that Labour when in opposition had steadily refused to accept Mr. Menzies' invitations to join in such a cabinet. Before Mr. Menzies' resignation, he approached the Labour leaders with a proposal for a national cabinet, in which he was willing to subordinate himself to a Labourite. Mr. Curtin's refusal was based on his belief that his party could contribute more effectively to the war effort by constructive criticism of the government from outside.

External Relations.

Two currents of thought have characterized Australia's outlook on the world since the foundation of the commonwealth in 1901. One assumes that Australia's best interests lie in parallel action with the mother country and the maintenance of close ties with England. It was in that spirit that Australia sent her forces to Europe and the Middle East in the first World War and in the early part of this war. But Australians have grown increasingly aware of their position as a nation with primary interests in the Pacific area. With Britain fighting for her life in Europe, Australia was compelled to look closely to the defenses which could protect her from the expanding war in the Far East, an area which Australians were coming to call the 'Near North.' From Darwin, the only port of importance on the northern fringe of the Australian continent, separated by a great belt of arid, unproductive and unpopulated territory from the industrial and commercial centers in the south, it is only 2,300 miles by air to Singapore, and the Australian portion of the island of New Guinea lies even farther to the north.

Whereas Australia had in previous years condoned Japanese expansion in China and in that spirit had supported Britain in closing the Burma Road in July 1940, a marked change in outlook was manifested after Japan joined the Axis. Thenceforth Australia's opposition to Japanese policies was fixed. When Mr. Menzies, in March 1941, hinted in London that further temporizing with Tokyo might be tried, he was criticized severely by the press and public at home. Instead Australia began to develop closer relations with actual or potential allies in the Pacific. An exchange of diplomatic representatives was arranged with China, and frequent military and commercial conversations were held with the Netherlands Indies government at Batavia. Australia's resolute policy contributed directly to the close alignment of the so-called ABCD powers in the Pacific — America, Britain, China, and the Dutch. As the Japanese menace grew, representatives of these powers began planning military cooperation, and the exchange of war supplies and foodstuffs.

Australia's concrete contributions to the Allied preparations were manifold. Darwin was rapidly reinforced, and harbor facilities were expanded to provide a naval station which could serve as a base for the defense of the Indies. In February 1941, a motor road through the 'dead heart' of Australia was completed, thereby affording a continuous land communication between Darwin and the southern coast. Garrisons on New Guinea and Nauru were strengthened. Contingents of the A.I.F. were sent to Singapore, and took up positions in the Malayan jungles.

The Japanese attack on Dec. 7 and the rapid succession of invasions which carried the Mikado's troops to Manila, Singapore, and Java, created consternation in Australia as in other United Nations. Buckling down to the defense of their nation, Australians were appalled at the apparent intention of Britain and the United States to consider the Japanese threat as secondary in importance to that of the Nazis. Prime Minister Curtin gave expression to these fears on Dec. 27, stating that 'we refuse to accept the dictum that the Pacific struggle is a subordinate segment of the general conflict.' Coupled with pleas of the Dutch, the pronouncement led directly to the formation of a unified command in the southwest Pacific on Jan. 3, 1942. Military organization and promises of aid from the west were not sufficient, however, to check the Japanese invaders. On Jan. 26, 1942, they landed for the first time on Australian territory when they seized the town of Rabaul, in the Bismarck archipelago, off New Guinea. From that point, they spread eastward through the Bismarck and Solomon Islands and westward onto New Guinea itself. With the fall of Singapore on Feb. 15, Australia's supreme test appeared to be rapidly approaching. See also JAPAN; WORLD WAR II.

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.

1939: Australia

Defense Policy.

To an extent not generally appreciated in the rest of the world, war and preparation for war dominated Australian life in 1939. In December 1938 a three-year defense program adopted six months previously was expanded to provide for an expenditure of 63,000,000 Australian pounds. This figure soon went by the board as the pace of preparedness was accelerated. Early in the year the voluntary militia exceeded the projected strength of 70,000, but more applicants were nevertheless accepted. The Government tentatively approved a plan to establish a permanent, professional military force of 7,500, to be recruited in five equal annual instalments — an enterprise later abandoned because of its cost. Over the opposition of the Labor party, compulsory registration of the country's man power of military age was effected as a prelude to conscription if and when necessary.

For the first time, many Australians were seriously concerned with their plight in case of a world-wide war, when Britain might not be able to supply the armed forces necessary for Australian home defense. This consideration impelled the Government to speed up the development of domestic Australian industries to the utmost, with special attention to war needs. A Department of Supply and Development was established to plan and supervise the new industrial enterprises. While rapid expansion was hindered by a serious shortage of factory space and skilled labor, great progress was made during the year, particularly in the munitions industry proper. Aircraft parts are now being manufactured and assembled in the Commonwealth, and local production represents a valuable supplement to large purchases of American planes. The air objective was fixed at 19 squadrons of 212 first-line aircraft. Government and industry, moreover, have cooperated to manufacture most of the equipment used by the land forces. As for the navy, new light vessels are being constructed, and the northerly harbor of Port Darwin is being developed as a naval base.

Climaxing its strong diplomatic support of the British Government since the Munich crisis, the Cabinet of Prime Minister R. G. Menzies not only considered the United Kingdom's declaration of war as binding upon Australia, but immediately began strenuous efforts to make its participation effective. Under a constitutional provision, compulsory service overseas is forbidden. Despite a sharp parliamentary protest by the Labor opposition, however, Mr. Menzies went forward with plans to send 20,000 volunteers to Europe as soon as they had completed their training. Additional instruction for the entire militia force — now totaling 78,000 — was begun. On Oct. 20 the Government announced that compulsory military service for domestic defense, which had been abolished in 1929, would be restored in 1940.

Defense expenditures for the fiscal year 1939-1940 were raised from £26,250,000 to £59,500,000, as compared with an outlay of £19,600,000 in the first year of the World War. The nineteen-squadron airplane program is being rushed to completion by June 1940. Although senior Australian air officers apparently sought to preserve the distinct identity of a Commonwealth air force in Europe, the Government is participating wholeheartedly in the Empire air training plan. A quota of 26,000 men will receive instruction in Australia and Canada before their incorporation in the amalgamated Empire force.

Economic Situation.

The general economic situation in the Commonwealth was by no means auspicious for the expanded defense program. Severe drought and the continuance of low prices for such vital Australian exports as wheat, wool and meat adversely affected the country's financial position. Expanding home industries kept unemployment at a low level, but fiscal difficulties nevertheless arose. It was necessary for the Commonwealth Bank (Australia's central bank) to subscribe £6,000,000 to assure success of a £71,700,000 cash and conversion loan on Dec. 15, 1938; and the Commonwealth failed to secure more than 56 per cent of the £8,500,000 sought in a public works loan in February. In August a conference of Federal and state Premiers considered a scheme for additional assistance to wheat growers protesting low prices, in return for restriction of production.

With the outbreak of the war some of these difficulties were mitigated. On Sept. 5 Prime Minister Menzies announced that the United Kingdom would purchase the entire Australian wool clip for the duration of the conflict at a pre-arranged price. Britain has also increased its quota for Australian sugar and agreed to absorb the surplus of meat, butter, fruits and other foods. In addition it is making large purchases of Australian wheat. Australia's primary industries will thus be assured a certain measure of stability which will assist in counteracting the effects of heavy taxation on manufacturing enterprises other than munitions works. The Government has also taken strenuous measures to preserve equilibrium and avoid inflation. A Price Control Commission is functioning under the famous economist, D. B. Copland; the disposition of gold and foreign securities is controlled by the Treasury; and a special Economic Cabinet of leading officials is seeking as far as possible to preserve a 'pay as you go' policy and to avoid excessive foreign borrowing.

The New Cabinet.

Perhaps fortunately for Australia, a youthful and vigorous Government was in office to parry the shock of war. With the death of Prime Minister Joseph A. Lyons on April 7, the country lost an experienced and beloved leader who had guided it from the unprecedented economic crisis of 1931-32 to a high level of prosperity. In the maneuvering for the succession to power, the coalition of the United Australia and Country parties which had governed the Commonwealth for fifteen of the last seventeen years fell apart, over personal as much as political disputes. After a brief interregnum, a new Cabinet drawn exclusively from the United Australia group was sworn in on April 26, with Robert G. Menzies as Prime Minister. The new Premier, who is less than forty-five years old, had a difficult time in managing the House of Representatives, where the Government party held only 26 seats, the Country party 17 and Labor 29. Since it feared a loss of strength if an election were held, however, the Country party refrained from combining with Labor to vote the Menzies cabinet out of office.

Legislation.

Prime Minister Menzies had risen rapidly in Australian politics and had greatly increased his popularity with the electorate by his protest resignation from the Lyons cabinet in March. The occasion for this act was a Government announcement that the contributory pensions provision of the national insurance scheme adopted in July 1938 would be abandoned and replaced by a system of health insurance at lower cost. But the heavy burden of defense expenditures made Government contributions impossible, even on a limited scale, and the entire scheme has been shelved for the time being. Instead, during his term of office Mr. Menzies has stressed external policy. The Commonwealth's preoccupation with defense has been motivated as much by dangers arising from Japanese activity in the Pacific as by conditions in Europe. The Prime Minister therefore announced on April 27 that Australian legations would be established in Washington and Tokyo; and at the end of the year it was authoritatively stated that R. G. Casey, Treasurer and Minister of Development in the Menzies Government, would go to the United States as the Commonwealth's first diplomatic representative there. Thus Australia assumes a position in the East commensurate with its strategic and economic importance.

1938: Australia

Political Situation; Legislation.

Although it continued to enjoy favorable economic conditions through much of the year. Australia, in 1938, had definitely passed the peak of prosperity and was facing the need for corrective measures if future difficulties were to be avoided. The downward movement had not, however, progressed sufficiently far to disturb the country's political equilibrium. State elections in the spring resulted in no very significant changes. In the national political arena the government of Prime Minister Joseph A. Lyons was able to beat off the attacks of the Labor opposition and a dissident group inside the cabinet without undue exertion. His most outstanding achievement was the passage of a Federal Health and Pensions Insurance Act which was scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1, 1939. It is estimated that 52 per cent of the people of Australia — workers and their wives and children — will receive medical and disability benefits, and will be entitled to old-age pensions and aid to widows and orphans under this new, contributory scheme.

Britain's Foreign Policy.

During the entire year the shadow of world events fell like a pall over the Australian scene. On the one hand, Japan — momentarily victorious in China — was considered as an ever-increasing menace to the stability of the Southern Pacific. On the other hand, Britain more than once appeared to be on the verge of war in Europe. Australians wondered whether they could or should maintain their neutrality if Britain were involved in conflict. Above all, a vociferous faction condemned the Government for its apparent passive acquiescence in shifts in British policy without the prior consultation of the Dominions as demanded at the Imperial Conference in 1937. A wave of discontent over Premier Lyons' inactivity, led by John Curtin, leader of the Labor party, spread through the country when Anthony Eden resigned as British Foreign Secretary in February. In August, W. M. Hughes, Australian Minister of External Affairs, sharply criticized the Dominions Office at London as an impediment to direct consultative communication from the British Foreign Office or Prime Minister. After the Czechoslovak crisis, there was considerable dissatisfaction because the Canberra government had seemed disposed to follow blindly in the wake of the British without setting forth its own views.

As if in answer to these doubts and fears, which could not but threaten British imperial solidarity, the British Government, on Oct. 25, announced the appointment of the Duke of Kent as Governor-General of the Commonwealth. Australians regarded this selection of a member of the royal family as an indication that Britain, however pressed by war in Europe, would not abandon Australia to its own fate in the face of attack by Japan. Their own determination to defend their territory had already been made plain on Oct. 14, when it was announced that Australia would never return its mandated territory of New Guinea to Germany, its former ruler.

Defense Program.

Differences over foreign policy crystallized most sharply on the issue of defense. Here the old conflict between the Government — which advocates cooperation with Great Britain to maintain strong naval forces in Pacific water — and the Labor party — which wants the army and air force built up to implement an isolationist Australian defense policy — has in part been resolved. Criticism of the unpreparedness of Australia's fighting forces, revealed during the Czechoslovak crisis, led to a reorganization of the Lyons Cabinet on Nov. 7. This was followed by intensive planning for a balanced defense program involving increases for the navy, army and air force alike. The three-year program scheduled for completion by mid-1941 has now been greatly expanded; its total cost has been raised from 43,000,000 to 63,000,000 Australian pounds (almost $250,000,000). New destroyers are to be built in Australia; harbors are to be protected against attack; and facilities will be prepared for a capital ship, to be obtained in 1943. To meet the danger of invasion, the Government will attempt to increase the strength of the volunteer militia from 35,000 to 70,000 — with the threat of conscription if, as seems likely, the effort is unsuccessful. First-line air strength will be set at 212 rather than 198 planes, and 50 bombers have been ordered from the United States.

The Australian Government has also determined that the pace of industrialization in the Commonwealth must be speeded up, not only in order to lay the foundation for meeting defense requirements, but also to decrease the Commonwealth's dependence on imports of manufactures. One phase of the program envisages standardization of the various railway gauges in the country — a matter long recognized as vitally important for efficiency in defense and industrial communications. This project is likely to be undertaken within the next few years. Another step in the program was the imposition of an embargo on the export of Australia's dwindling supply of iron ore, imposed on July 1. Proof that this embargo, which affects Japan, was imposed for domestic and not international reasons is furnished by the fact that the Australian government almost simultaneously persuaded Australian dock workers to resume the loading of scrap iron and other cargo for Japan, which had been held up for several months by labor organizations.

But in the larger sense the Australian Government has not yet been successful in securing full cooperation for the defense program from the states. At a session of the Loan Council (which allocates money raised by borrowing) in October, the prime ministers of all the states rejected Mr. Lyons' proposal for unified control over public works expenditures in order to give priority to defense projects. The states regard such control as an infringement on states' rights which might rob some areas of their normal share of public funds. Thus, as in previous years, the states have once again hindered the development of a strong and integrated central government in Australia. Thereupon, on Nov. 22, the Federal Government announced that it would call a special session of Parliament early in 1939 to formulate amendments to the Commonwealth's constitution. If enacted, these will undoubtedly result in an increase in Federal Authority.

Population Policy.

On another front both national and state governments have cooperated to strengthen Australia. Realizing that the population of 7,000,000 will begin to decline in twenty years unless it is supplemented by immigration, the Government declared in April that it would lend financial assistance to immigrants from Great Britain. Since prosperous Britain is also faced with a potential decrease in population, however, there is little hope of resuming large-scale settlement of British stock in the Commonwealth, which was halted after 1929. At the Evian conference on refugees, in July 1938, Australia was outspokenly reluctant to reduce the British proportion of its population below the present figure of 98 per cent. But the need for a larger population for adequate defense purposes, for an additional industrial and agricultural labor supply, and for technical specialists in new industries, has led to a modification of this policy. On Dec. 1, the Government announced that it would admit 15,000 European refugees within the next three years; and despite opposition from labor sources, it appears probable that new currents of immigration from Italy, Greece, Jugoslavia and Poland will be permitted. This marks a modification of the original 'White Australia' policy, but one which will enhance the security and prosperity of the Commonwealth.