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By Root 930 0

received nothing beforehand to suggest that this could happen. Churchill did now warn his Dominion counterparts of the possibility of 'an early heavy attack' but he still remained reluctant to inform them of the seriousness of the situation in France.27 And even this was only done after Chamberlain, now Lord President of the Council, had explicitly raised the point, enquiring in front of the entire War Cabinet what information could be given to the Dominion governments. The news brought renewed messages of Dominion support. Menzies pledged 'the whole of the Commonwealth's resources to victory'. New Zealand's leader, Peter Fraser, who had replaced Savage following his recent death, also telegraphed to London with a commitment to fight to the last 'come what may'. Mackenzie King authorised the despatch of four destroyers to Britain and in another sign of support for the cause the Canadian Communist Party was outlawed 'amid a rush of Dominion feeling against Red quislings'. The South African response was more reflective, Smuts recognizing France's likely denouement would mean that the British Commonwealth would be left alone.28

Within Whitehall the increased tempo of the war was beginning to tell, most noticeably in the DO. Aside from its general day-to-day responsibilities and almost hourly requests from the Antipodean Dominions for strategic appreciations of the situation, there were new tasks for the department to handle, such as finalizing what might happen were an invasion to take place.29 For at least one of the British high commissioners serving in the Dominions, the 'badly overworked department' seemed to be suffering from 'a want of correlation'.30 With Lord Halifax continuing to extol the merits of a possible negotiated settlement with Germany, Menzies joined in beginning what would prove to be the first of three attempts made by him to initiate a 'peace' initiative involving the United States.31 The position was further complicated by the WO's confirmation that Italy would soon enter the war on Germany's side.32 This carried wide strategic considerations both for Britain's Middle East and Far East positions.33 Constitutional concerns also had to be taken into account in light of the brush with neutrality in Cape Town the previous year with the DO's legal experts rushing to revise the procedure by which the Dominions might declare war.34

For the Dominions' representatives based in London, their attention remained firmly focused on the implications of France's demise. Their anger had not abated nor had their belief that they were being ignored and under-utilized. So meagre did they believe the information from the official channels to be that they had even taken to attending the Canadian Military Headquarters on a daily basis where it was believed they could better track developments. Bruce thought it 'criminal' that the War Cabinet had failed to fully consider the implications of a possible French collapse, leaving him with 'a most gloomy view of British prospects'. The seven-page note which he produced and sent to the already over-worked Churchill proposing an international conference to arrange a peace settlement was, not surprisingly, very poorly received.35 Following the British prime minister's visit to the front in mid-June and his report back that the French had fallen back on 'what must be regarded as their last line', the Australian high commissioner and his colleagues emboldened themselves to make a daring move.36 They had become aware that the chiefs of staff had in fact prepared reports on how to respond to France's surrender and the request was made that they be allowed to read them. It was Caldecote who delivered this to the War Cabinet, warning his colleagues that the Dominion governments 'must be treated as full partners and their assent must not be taken for granted'. Two days later the documents were made available for inspection, but they did not make for pleasant reading as within them the degree to which British forces could be sent to the Far East immediately following a Japanese attack was