Defence of Australia and Asia-Pacific bases – press release from Prime Minister John Curtin

Press statement issued by Prime Minister John Curtin on 6 December 1942 relating to Australia's current position in the Pacific theatre of World War II.

Transcript

[Page 1.]

[Handwritten in top right corner:] V45/1/12

NOTE: Not to be broadcast before 10 pm., Sunday, December 6, 1942.

FOR PRESS: Statement by the Prime Minister

[Underlined heading:] USE OF MILITIA FORCES.

In June, 1940, the Federal Labor Conference declared that Labor’s policy was adequately [sic] to defend Australia and to prosecute the war unequivocably [sic]. It proclaimed indissoluble unity with our Allies in the cause forced upon us. It said that Australia’s contribution to the war in Europe should be by a volunteer army. It decided that the war in defence of Australia should be organized and waged by compulsory service.

When Japan came into the war a year ago, the Labor Government ordered total mobilization. The Government called up men for the army and for works and services. In a word, the Government instituted conscription for the defence of Australia.

The Government arranged to return all men that could be brought back, who had volunteered for service overseas, in order that they should join with the conscripted men in defending our homeland.

The Government asked for, and was given, the help of other countries in defending Australia. At present, American and Dutch forces are here, fighting with us and for us and for themselves. Chinese laborers are here working for us. These are our 'indissoluble allies.'

There are islands close to Australia which the enemy holds and from which he launches attacks against us. These include the Netherlands East Indies, Timor, the Solomons and others. These places are integral to our defence but, politically, are outside the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth.

The enemy is fighting desperately to hold New Guinea and, at present strongly holds Rabaul. These places are within the jurisdiction of the Commonwealth. I have told the Labor Movement that all these islands are vital places in respect to the defence of Australia. We cannot adequately defend our country while, from these bases the enemy sets out with bombers and naval forces to assail us and, with land forces, to attempt invading us.

I put it as plainly as I can, that the policy of the Australian

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Labor Party in respect to New Guinea and Rabaul should apply to all the islands in this theatre of war. Limiting it to some of them negates commonsense [sic]. All of them have the same military significance in Japan’s attack upon us.

Rabaul is more distant from the mainland of Australia than Timor. It is not feasible for me to be a good Labor man when I conscript men for Rabaul and New Guinea and to become a 'suspect' Labor man when doing the same thing in respect to Timor.

As both places are vital to the one strategy of the one cause, they can be met by only one policy.

The strictures by the Minister for Aircraft Production (Senator Cameron) upon myself make me unhappy. But what is irrelevant can be endured.

No. 548

Canberra, December 6, 1942

About this record

This is a press statement issued by Prime Minister John Curtin (1885-1945) on 6 December 1942. It relates to Australia's current position in the Pacific theatre of the Second World War, the country's relationships with and responsibilities to her allies, particularly the United States, and conscription for overseas service. It is part of an extensive Prime Minister’s Department file on the use of militia outside Australia.

Educational value

In this press release, Labor Prime Minister John Curtin outlines concerns about Australia's defensive position which would lead to his government's decision to extend conscription to include service in certain Pacific islands. Until this time only the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), made up of volunteers, could be called upon to fight anywhere in the world. Curtin's action was highly controversial, made in response to conflicting demands among the Allies.
Previous prime minister Robert Menzies had instituted conscription at the start of the war, forming the Commonwealth Military Force (CMF), also known as the militia. Conscripts could only serve for home defence within Australia and its territories as outlined in the Defence Act 1911. All unmarried men aged 21 and over were required to attend three months of compulsory military training.
Curtin faced mounting demands to allow conscripts to fight overseas as the war in the Pacific intensified. After the fall of Singapore, he had recalled two divisions from the Middle East for the direct defence of Australia despite British Prime Minister Winston Churchill wanting these troops to go to Burma. Curtin also understood Australia's responsibility to assist with Allied offensives into occupied Japanese territory, requiring even more troops.
Curtin had decided to try to persuade the Australian Labor Party (ALP) to change party policy, spurred on by a recent number of reports critical of the Australian war effort in influential newspapers in the United States and Britain. Curtin shepherded his proposal through two bitterly divided meetings of the ALP federal conferences in 1942 and 1943.
Curtin was under pressure internationally and from General MacArthur, Supreme Commander Allied Forces South West Pacific Area (SWPA) to provide Australian troops in the Pacific region. Curtin's decision was part of a strategy based on the conviction that Australia should be on a total war footing – making all Australian troops available for operations in the South West Pacific would give Australia a greater capacity to exert diplomatic pressure on the British and American governments in terms of the allocation of troops and resources.
The press release suggests the intense strain Curtin was under regarding conscription. Some hardline Labor members had damned him as a traitor as he had taken a strong anti-conscription stand during the First World War, and the party had split disastrously over the issue of surrendering power to the other side of politics for a generation.

Acknowledgments

Learning resource text © Education Services Australia Limited and the National Archives of Australia 2010.

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