• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 920 0

been 'handled marvellously' and in such a way as to command 'the strongest possible admiration'. All this seemed very different to some of the stinging comments that had been received on the DO's deciphering systems during the course of the war. While brief reference was made to the other meetings—monetary and commercial, colonial policy, shipping and migration—special mention was also given to the two full meetings that had been devoted to the post-war settlement. Even in the flowery diplomatic prose of the Foreign Service, it was clear that there had been some tensions during these discussions despite these having been confined to 'broad principles'. Mackenzie King had made it clear that there could not be a single Commonwealth spokesman at any future discussions; each would speak with their own voice. He was willing to offer British representatives the 'fortification' that the Dominions would be 'of one mind with them', and the knowledge that this was 'a body of nations that normally acted in concert'. But such balm would only be given if adequate consultation had taken place beforehand.

The issue identified beforehand as being potentially the most contentious, future Commonwealth cooperation, was saved for the penultimate meeting. Curtin began by announcing he no longer intended to pursue his proposals of the previous year which he now recognized were clearly unacceptable to Canada and also possibly to South Africa. This, in the end, was not entirely unexpected. Curtin had given a press conference soon after his arrival in which he extolled some of his thinking about a permanent secretariat. It was reported back to the FO by somebody who had been present that at this the Australian leader was 'very frank throughout' and had said that he would be prepared to take what he could get and explained that 'if three would agree, why then, let's have a secretariat for three'.40 Discussion had followed among the Dominions about the idea, the result of which seemed to be that he was now prepared to confine himself to ideas for improvement based on generally informal means such as periodic meetings of ministers and expansion of liaison staffs; not a permanent executive group as had been contemplated in the text of the Anzac agreement. His final proposal was very similar to that which the FO had argued for, that a small technical committee might be formed including representatives from Britain and the Dominions to consider the whole question of cooperation.41 He would later confide that he had been disappointed that his plans for closer unity did not receive more of a hearing and it was noted that neither Churchill nor Smuts had attended the meeting that discussed the proposals.42 He was though prepared to accept the inevitable and the conclusion following the meeting was that the prime ministers seemed most satisfied with the existing methods of consultation.43

The conclusion of the FO's long review of the Conference sent to the overseas diplomatic corps was that it had been 'successful beyond our hopes'. The atmosphere had been 'strikingly friendly' and discussions had been completely frank. There had, however, been one striking exception to this and, unsurprisingly, it had come from Churchill. With their enthusiastic support for the League of Nations, the New Zealanders were especially interested in ideas regarding any future world organization and it had been the British leader who had submitted the relevant paper. His ideas for Regional Leagues under a World Council had been politely dismissed even by Cranborne who, having seen them at the draft phase and in his attempt to dissuade the prime minister from introducing them to the Conference, had pointed to his knowledge of how the League of Nations had failed. He had spent a long period at Geneva while serving in the pre-war FO and had seen first-hand how it had worked, but this did little to improve the merits of his observations.44 Churchill was pressing for a United States of Europe with a Council in which Britain, the United States and the Soviets would all be members.