Book Review - Australia and Appeasement: Imperial Foreign Policy and the Origins of World War II

Written by: Christopher Waters, 

IB Tauris & Co Ltd, London,

2012, ISBN 9781848859982, 310pp,

Reviewed by: Augustine Meaher PhD (Melb), Director, Department of Political and Strategic Studies, Baltic Defence College

Australian inter-war foreign and defence policy is a topic that is at last receiving the attention it has long deserved. Australia and Appeasement: Imperial Foreign Policy and the Origins of World War II provides an excellent introduction to Australian foreign policy during the interwar period that complements the more specialised works that deal with specific issues of Australian foreign and defence policy.¹

Australia and Appeasement is the first generalist monograph to focus on Appeasement and Australia in forty years and is able to draw on sources not available at the time of EM Andrews’ groundbreaking Isolationism and Appeasement in Australia: Reactions to the European Crises, 1935–1939. Those familiar with Andrews’ research will find little new in Waters’ conclusions, but they will notice richer quotes and more supporting evidence than was available to Andrews four decades ago. They will also notice a more nuanced approach that gives Australia a greater role in the creation and implementation of Imperial foreign policy, although this is still debatable; the argument that Australia had its own foreign and defence policy—an Australian policy—created and followed for Australian reasons is one that is well made and one that ensures Waters will be consulted with Andrews by future historians.

Australia and Appeasement seeks to determine why Prime Minister R G Menzies remained attached to appeasement even after the outbreak of the European war in 1939; what had been Australian policy towards Europe since 1933; what was the Imperial appeasement policy; and what was Australia’s role in it? Waters provides detailed evidence that enables the readers to answer these questions, although some readers will find his conclusion, which he presents as judicial summation to a jury, frustrating.

Waters conclusively demonstrates that the Australian governing elite, with the notable exception of former Prime Minister Billy Hughes, supported appeasement throughout the 1930s. He should have added that the ALP Opposition was an even stronger supporter of appeasement and had actually opposed the implementation of sanctions against Fascist Italy over Abyssinia, which placed it at odds with all other labour parties in the British Empire. The role of the ALP, which admittedly was in Opposition for almost the entire inter-war period, deserved more attention; it was the ALP which chose not to implement the Statute of Westminster, a decision that greatly affected Australian foreign policy and how Australia saw the world. Furthermore, the UAP governments remembered the ALP’s victories over conscription in the Great War and were understandably wary of giving the ALP this issue again.

There is no question that appeasement was the policy of the British Empire and one that was endorsed by all Dominions. It is, however, questionable if Australia had a role in the creation of this policy or if Australian support simply reassured British policy-makers. Waters’ demonstrates that Australian policy-makers were deeply concerned with British reactions to the Sudetenland and Czechoslovakian crises and communicated their concerns repeatedly and forcefully. Waters’ contention that Australian concerns influenced British policy is less convincing; British foreign policy was dictated by British strategic concerns and Australian support, while comforting, was not necessary. Australia, by refusing to enact the Statute of Westminster, was committed to British foreign policy.

Waters’ monograph is highly readable and rich with quotes. It is highly detailed and provides an excellent foundation for someone who is unfamiliar with Australian governments of the inter-war period and Australia’s complex and evolving relationship with the United Kingdom, and to a much lesser extent the United States and Europe. There is little new in Australia and Appeasement; however, this is the first time the information is available in one place. It is an ideal work for undergraduates and will replace Andrews’ Isolationism and Appeasement in Australia: Reactions to the European Crises, 1935–1939 as the most consulted work.

Endnotes

1     See for example, David Bird, JA Lyons – The ‘Tame Tasmanian’: Appeasement and Rearmament in Australia 1932–39; and Augustine Meaher, The Australian Road to Singapore: The Myth of British Betrayal.