• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 910 0

Cranborne's paper at the next Ministerial Committee meeting, Amery was critical of this proposed permanent secretariat, 'an Empire post office' whose role would merely be to exchange and collate information and prepare the agenda for more formal meetings. He could not see anything wrong with Curtin's proposal. The FO's representative also stressed that the Australian leader's ideas should not be dismissed as impracticable. While Mackenzie King might be opposed to the idea he judged that the other Dominions were not and with 'the benevolent neutrality of His Majesty's Government' it was possible that Canada might drop some or all of its objections.16 Within the FO there was also little real support for any possibly higher profile for the London-based Dominion representatives who, it was considered, would be unlikely to 'add any weight to the Councils of the Empire'.17 J. D. Greenway who, pre-war, had served in the British Embassy in Moscow, giving him something of an established diplomatic pedigree, was prominent with his criticism. He thought that progress was 'disappointing and somewhat timid' and was certain some form of machinery could be devised that would not be hamstrung by Canada choosing not to join. Curtin's proposed permanent secretariat did not seem such a bad idea.

If this was the most important issue to be addressed before the Dominion leaders arrived in London, the question of military cooperation was not far behind. From the Committee's earliest meeting the DO's argument was that it would be best to try and secure some form of approval for continued joint planning at the staff level in the hope that this might lead eventually to planning on the political or ministerial level. As Eric Machtig put it, 'we would be wise, particularly in view of Canadian idiosyncrasies, not to fly too high'. Proposals put forward by Bevin were, therefore, considerably more than had been envisaged. A letter from him to the Chairman recommended that the Empire be split into zones: Australia and New Zealand would be the Pacific Area; South Africa would be the nucleus of an area stretching as far north as Kenya; Canada would take responsibility with America for the Pacific and the Atlantic; Britain would accept responsibility for the defence of the Commonwealth in relation to Europe. Such a scheme, he argued, would also see benefits in terms of promoting trade and intra-Imperial immigration. The FO saw various potential issues with the suggested Canadian role—specifically how the US might respond and the danger that the government in Ottawa might choose not to be involved—but they appreciated its 'big' nature. The DO deemed this to be going much too far when it would be difficult enough simply to secure a continuance of the existing liaison machinery that had developed during the war. Amery also had written to Cranborne stressing that future defence collaboration needed to be considered as a matter of priority but many of his ideas were also a little too enthusiastic.18

The determining answers would come from the experts and Cranborne had approached the chiefs of staff asking that they prepare papers on the main issues involved by the end of March. It was proposed that the immediate military situation, the war against Japan, the military aspect of the post-war settlement and the coordination of defence within the post-war British Commonwealth would all be raised during the conference. As the meeting would be short they could only be tackled in a general fashion without any detailed arrangements, and the committee was anxious to avoid placing any 'cut-and-dried proposals' before the visitors.19 With papers submitted by the chiefs on 'Policing of Europe' and 'United Nations' Bases in Relation to General Security Organisation',20 the main memorandum reviewed the system of Imperial Defence and examined how it had worked before 1939 and the changes that had taken place as a result of the war. On the whole, the comments it had to make about future collaboration on defence were positive. Australia and New Zealand were felt to have recognized