Empire Lost - Andrew Stewart [133]
26 Bridges to Minister, 1 March 1939, CAB21/488.
27 Dixon Memoirs, Batterbee Papers, Box 20/5; Parker, Chamberlain and Appeasement, pp. 201-2; P. M. H. Bell, The Origins of the Second World War (London, 1986), pp. 252-4.
28 During the Munich crisis MacDonald had found himself obliged to agree to requests by the hitherto largely dormant London-based Dominion high commissioners for meetings, 'sometimes more than once a day', to brief them fully on developments. These daily gatherings were in addition to the overwhelming flow of messages and telegrams already being provided by the DO to the Dominion governments. And, requiring a good deal of advance preparation by a variety of officials, not to mention actual attendance by others, they accounted for much valuable time; Dixon Memoirs, Batterbee Papers; Malcolm MacDonald, Titans and Others (London, 1972), pp. 80-1.
29 Minute by Harding, 2 May 1933, DO35/100.
30 High Commissioner's Meeting (hereafter 'HCM'), 21 March 1939, DO121/5; Campbell to Inskip, 24 March 1939, FO800/310.
31 HCM, 30 March 1939, DO121/5.
32 Smuts to Duncan, 25 April 1939, Sir Patrick Duncan Papers (University of Cape Town); Smuts to Gullet, 6 April 1939, Jan Smuts Papers (National Archives, Pretoria); Mackenzie King Diary, 31 March 1939, Mackenzie King Papers (Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa), MG26, J13, Fiche 129-130; J. L. Granatstein and R. Bothwell, 'A Self-Evident National Duty: Canadian Foreign Policy, 1935-39', Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History (Vol. 3, No. 2; January 1975), p. 228.
33 Harding to Bridges, 6 April 1939, DO35/548D/1/57; Harding to Creedy (WO), 19 April 1939, CAB104/19; he would soon be hospitalised by an attack of piles which may well have been the cause of his apparent distraction, Harding to Batterbee, 6 August 1939, Batterbee Papers, Box 6/4.
34 Op. cit., 'Memorandum', April 1939; Campbell to Stephenson, 19 April 1939, DO35/543/28/23; ibid., Clark to Harding, 20 February 1939; Clark to Harding, 28 April 1939, CAB104/19.
35 Clark to Harding, 20 February1939, DO35/543/28/23; Clark to Harding, 13 March 1939, CAB104/19.
36 Parker, Chamberlain and Appeasement, pp. 216-46; John Charmley, Chamberlain and the Lost Peace (London, 1989), pp. 180-5.
37 HCM, 23 May 1939, DO121/5; 'Position of the Dominions in the Event of War', May 1939, DO35/543/28/32.
38 Minute by Dixon, 24 May 1939, DO35/543/28/32; ibid., minute by Stephenson, 27 May 1939.
39 Garner, The Commonwealth Office, pp. 88-9.
40 Minute by Harding, 25 May 1939, DO35/543/28/32; ibid., minute by Inskip, 25 May 1939. Just a month earlier Harding had written to his brother-in-law in Wellington and referred to the Secretary of State as 'not having the knowledge or the temperament [for the job]', Harding to Batterbee, 16 April 1939, DO35/543/28/32.
41 Australia, it was felt, would not be far behind with a similar request for help. Carl Bridge, 'Poland to Pearl Harbor' in Carl Bridge (ed.), Munich to Vietnam: Australia's Relations with Britain and the United States since the 1930's (Melbourne, 1991), pp. 39-41; Lloyd Ross, John Curtin (Melbourne, 1977), p. 41; Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism, pp. 511-14; Minute by Machtig, 25 February 1939, DO35/548A; Sinclair, Walter Nash, p. 177; T. K. Bewley, 'Memorandum on New Zealand', n.d., CAB21/489.
42 Beloff, Dream of Commonwealth, pp. 284-5.
43 Hancock, Smuts: The Fields of Force, pp. 318-25; Van Der Heever, General J.B.M.Hertzog, pp. 278-83.
44 The DID virtually ceased to exist 'in the stress of war' and by mid-1940 it no longer provided any real coverage of events; minute by Sir Basil Newton, 25 November 1942, DO35/1002/52/10; handwritten comment, 'Foreign Affairs', 17 July 1942, DO35/998/7/48.
45 Minute by Hadow, 19 April 1939, FO372/3314; ibid., minute by F. H. Cleobury, 26 January 1939, FO372/3314; minute by Cleobury, 6 April 1939.
46 Ibid., minute by Hadow, 24 May 1939; minute by Cadogan, 31 May 1939, FO800/310; Ovendale, Appeasement and the English Speaking World, p. 275.
47 Batterbee to DO, 23 May