Table Of ContentChristopher Waters is Senior Lecturer in Twentieth Century Inter-
national History at Deakin University, Australia. He has published
widely on Australian international history, Anglo-Australian rela-
tions and Australian political history, and his publications include
The Empire Fractures: Anglo-Australian Conflict in the 1940s; Evatt to
Evans: The Labor Tradition in Australian Foreign Policy (joint editor);
and Ministers, Mandarins and Diplomats: Australian Foreign Policy
Making 1941–1969 (co-author). A review in the Canberra Times
described The Empire Fractures as ‘a most impressive first book’.
‘This is the first book-length study of Australia and appease-
ment undertaken for over thirty years and the first ever to base
itself thoroughly on the complete archival record. It docu-
ments the arch-appeasement policy of the Lyons and Menzies
governments, guided by former prime minister, S.M. Bruce,
who held the pivotal post of high commissioner in London; a
policy often in advance of, or more extreme than, that of the
Chamberlain government in Britain. This is a conscientious
and worthwhile study and it deserves to be widely read.’
Carl Bridge, Director of the Menzies Centre for
Australian Studies, King’s College London
‘This is the best researched account of Australian policy to the
European crises of the second half of the 1930s yet written. The
author has been meticulous in locating all the relevant primary
records relating to the subject in archival holdings in Australia
and the United Kingdom. The depth of the research and the
high quality of its writing will make this book an indispens-
able addition not only to Australian historiography but also
to the study of British foreign policy in the interwar period.’
David Lee, author of Stanley Bruce:
Australian Internationalist
AUSTRALIA AND
APPEASEMENT
Imperial Foreign Policy
and the Origins of
World War II
Christopher Waters
Published in 2012 by I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd
6 Salem Road, London W2 4BU
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
www.ibtauris.com
Distributed in the United States and Canada
Exclusively by Palgrave Macmillan
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
Copyright © Christopher Waters, 2012
The right of Christopher Waters to be identified as the author of this work
has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright, Designs
and Patent Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or
any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
written permission of the publisher.
International Library of Twentieth Century History, Vol. 53
ISBN: 978 1 84885 998 2
A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available
Typeset in Garamond by editorial et cetera
Printed and bound in Sweden by ScandBook AB
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction 1
1 The Origins of the Imperial Appeasement Policy 5
2 Friendship with All: Australia’s Radical Appeasement Plan 20
3 Implementing Appeasement: Chamberlain, Bruce and Lyons 33
4 Menzies Embraces Appeasement 53
5 Not Worth a War: The Sudetenland Crisis 72
6 Back from the Brink of War: The Australian Intervention 98
7 Pursuing General Appeasement: Munich to Prague 128
8 Persisting with Appeasement: Prague to Danzig 152
9 To Negotiate or Fight? The Polish Crisis 186
10 Last Days to War: Reluctant Warriors 214
11 A Judgement 243
Notes 267
Select Bibliography 295
Index 303
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book has been a long time in the making. The pressures on
contemporary university lecturers are many and books can only be
researched and written with the assistance of many people. One of the
delights of researching international history is the wonderful experi-
ence of working in many different archives and libraries around the
world which are always staffed by helpful and dedicated profession-
als. For their invaluable assistance I thank librarians and archivists
from the following institutions: the National Archives of Australia in
Canberra; the National Library of Australia; the Library of Univer-
sity College, University of New South Wales; the Australian Defence
Force Academy; the Deakin University Library; the Library of the
Australian National University; the State Library of Victoria; the
National Archives of the United Kingdom; the Churchill Archives
Centre, Churchill College, Cambridge; and the National Archives of
Canada. The research and editing of this book was made possible, in
part, by financial assistance from the University of New South Wales
and Deakin University.
This book is the product of many fruitful exchanges with col-
leagues and friends and I especially acknowledge the contributions
of the following: Dr Dale Blair, Dr Frank Bongiorno, Dr Frank
Cain, Professor Peter Dennis, Barry Fitzgerald, Associate Profes-
sor Don Gibb, Dr Peter Haeusler, Dr Tony Joel, Dr David Lee, Les
Louis, Professor David Lowe, Associate Professor Sarah Paddle, Dr
viii Australia and Appeasement
Gregory Pemberton, Associate Professor Wayne Reynolds, Dr Bart
Ziino and the late Chris Taylor. I also warmly thank my colleagues
at Deakin University who make it such an enjoyable and stimulating
place to teach and research. My many students at Deakin Univer-
sity have contributed to this book by challenging me to interrogate
more deeply the history of this era. Dr Debra Jordan contributed the
research in Australian and international newspapers which provided
essential material for this history. I thank my editor at I.B.Tauris,
Joanna Godfrey, for taking up my book and overseeing its publica-
tion with exemplary professionalism. I am grateful for the assistance
of Fiona Walters of HistorySmiths, who meticulously copy-edited
the manuscript before publication. The index was compiled by Helen
Penrose. Any errors that remain are, of course, my own responsibil-
ity. My family has always been a source of wonderful support in my
scholarly endeavours and I thank them for it. Finally I express my
deep appreciation for my partner in history and life, Dr Helen Gard-
ner, for her insights and encouragement, without which this book
would not have been finished.
INTRODUCTION
At a quarter past nine on the evening of 3 September 1939, Robert
Menzies, the Australian Prime Minister, broadcast to the Australian
people: ‘It is my melancholy duty to inform you officially that, in
consequence of a persistence by Germany in her invasion of Poland,
Great Britain has declared war upon her and that, as a result, Australia
is also at war’. Menzies went on to explain how Britain and France,
supported by the British Dominions, had made every effort to main-
tain the peace by keeping the door open to a negotiated settlement.
As these efforts had failed, Menzies declared that the British Empire
was now ‘involved in a struggle which we must at all costs win, and
which we believe in our hearts we will win’. Later in his broadcast
Menzies presented the reasons why the British peoples were at war.
Firstly, the Australian Prime Minister explained that Adolf Hitler had
made ‘brutally plain’ to the world that his ambition was not limited,
as he once claimed, to uniting all German people under one rule, but
extended to bringing by force many European countries, even those
of alien race, under German rule. If Hitler was allowed to continue
unchecked, Menzies continued, there could be ‘no just peace for the
world’. Secondly, Menzies explained that the British Empire had gone
to war to defend vital principles: ‘Honest dealing, the peaceful adjust-
ment of differences, the rights of independent peoples to live their
own lives, the honouring of international obligations and promises’.
Thirdly, Australia was at war, Menzies stated, because ‘where Great
