Australia and World Crisis, 1914-1923

Book excerpt: Australia and World Crisis, 1914-1923 is the second volume in a pioneering two-volume history of Australian defence and foreign policy. It is based on wide-ranging research in collections of personal and official papers in Australia, Britain, the United States and Canada. Linking up with the first volume, The Search for Security in the Pacific, it offers a new and path-breaking understanding of Australia's relations with the world from the outbreak of the First World War to the making of peace in Europe and the Pacific. This study explores a number of fundamental issues that shaped Australia's response to the world in this era, such as race and culture, geopolitics and security, domestic divisions and ideas of loyalty, and the philosophies and personalities of the chief policy makers. From the outset of this global conflict Australia was involved in a 'hot war' in Europe against Germany and its allies, and in a 'cold war' in the Pacific against Japan. The British Australians, for reasons of sentiment and interest, supported the Mother Country, but even as they did so they were deeply concerned about Japan's ambitions. As a result Japan figured prominently in Australia's approach to the war and the peace. Indeed for the Australians the 'cold war' did not come to an end until the Washington Conference of 1921-2, when Japan with the other Pacific powers agreed to limit naval building and to respect existing territories in China and the Pacific. In tracing out this story, the book throws light on many particular aspects of the 'hot' and 'cold' wars. They include the origins of Asian studies in Australia, intelligence gathering, the secret service and loyalty leagues, the fear of Japan in the conscription controversy, Irish Catholics and the Anglo-Irish War. The labour movement and the Bolshevik revolution, the ideological clash of the American President and the Australian Prime Minister over peacemaking, the visit of the Prince of Wales, 'Britishness' and the failure of the idea of Greater Britain all influenced the development of Australia's defence and foreign policy. At the end of the book there is an attempt to provide an assessment of Australia's leadership through these testing times and to point out the significance of this experience for a later generation of Australia policy makers.