The National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations present The Pacific Story. The Pacific Story This is the story of the Pacific, the drama of the millions of people who live around this greatest sea where the United States is now committed to a long-term policy of securing the peace. This is the background story of the events in the Pacific and their meaning to us and to the generations to come. The Pacific Story Tonight's Pacific Story comes to you as another public service with drama of the past and present and a brief talk by Dr. Herbert Ver Ebert, Foreign Minister for Australia who has been representing Australia on the Far Eastern Commission at Washington. The Pacific Story Australia comes out. The Pacific Story The place Australia will occupy in the Pacific from now on will never be the same as it was before the war. The Pacific Story These were the words of Australia's great wartime Prime Minister John Curtin. And in these words are a world of meaning. Ask this Australian. It means that once we could regard the oceans to the east and the west and the south as most to protect us from attack. We know now that these oceans are really great distances over which help us come. Or ask this Australian. Once we could think of the chain of islands north of us as boppers against attack. We know now that they can also be used as stepping stones to Australia. Or ask this Australian. Once we could think of ourselves as tied to the world by the long ocean routes to London. We know now that our predominant interests must lie in the Pacific. The Pacific Story Australia has come of age. The seven million whites who occupy the continent of Australia about the size of the United States. Have cut off with themselves a new role to play in the affairs of the Pacific. Australia must be thought of as a permanent independent factor in world affairs. A great deal of water has gone under the bridge since World War One. In the First World War, Australia fought as an intimate partner of Britain. But at the close of the war, difficulties rose. What we have, we will bloody well hold. This was Prime Minister William Morris Hughes. He referred to the German possessions in the New Guinea Archipelago. We fought for and we conquered these possessions. New Guinea is vital to the defence of Australia. And we insist on retaining control of these territories. For the first time on a question of foreign affairs, Australia took a firm stand. She made it stick. Billy Hughes was right. He dug in his toes and refused to budge. And we can thank him for the hold he had in New Guinea when the Big Show broke out in the Pacific in 1941. New Guinea became the battleground for the command of the Western Pacific. And it was because we had Australian troops and air power already in Papua that the Allies were able to stop the Southford Drive of the Japanese. But the Australians not only saw the need of a change in handling the foreign affairs of their country, they saw that other changes would be necessary. For years past, we have borrowed large sums of money from London. We have used these monies on public works, building roads, irrigation systems, railways, communications and power utilities. If we expect induced immigrants to come here and settle here, we've got to open up the country. And that takes money. But we are creating a big public debt and we've got to pay the interest on it. Right. And the only way we can raise the money to pay the interest is by the export of our wool and farm products. Right, but how are we going to produce wool and farm products without population? We've got to have population to earn money. We cannot keep on borrowing money from London forever. We've got to have money to open up Australia, to make it worthwhile for people to come here and settle here. A lot of our people have worked so long on government projects that they don't want to work for private employers. If Australia is to make any headway, we've got to promote private enterprise. The war had changed things. The old system would no longer work. Australians turned to industry. Well, there's the new missile. Yes, time for lunch. Got your bucket? Yes. Different from working on those highways, eh? Well, yes, maybe. Let's eat right here. Good-o. Let's see what the lady gave me. Oh, eggs. I got mutton. Well, as I was saying, this is better than working on those bloody roads. No, if we can make a dough of it. No, we're making steel and selling it, aren't we? Yes. We've got a tariff to protect us against outside competition, haven't we? That tariff will not help us against what's happening now. What? The Depression. That's a fair tale. It's spreading all over the whole world. It hasn't in Australia. It will. And then what will happen to our new industries? There'll be work for nobody. Do you think it will hit us? I do. The Great Depression struck with a mighty impact. Unemployment swept Australia. You see, look what's happened. Our food and wool growers are all but wiped out. Our industries are all but paralyzed. The new industries were crippled almost before they'd established themselves. The Great Depression has not only hit Australia, it has hit the entire world. We are on the right track. We must go ahead. We must industrialize. Australia had been caught in a period of transition. While she was trying her wings, she had been knocked down. The new factories were silent, and unemployment reached into every part of the continent. Yet those with vision saw the course that must be taken. We must build more factories. We must depend upon ourselves. Australia, they saw more clearly than ever before, must think of itself as a Pacific Ocean country. Let us fully realize what we have and what we can become. Australia is as large as the 48 states of America. Our resources have hardly been touched. But we are isolated by thousands of miles from other continents. It is 7,000 miles to the west coast of the United States. It is 12,000 miles to the western Europe by way of the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean. It is 4,700 miles from the west coast of Australia to Africa, even Singapore. The nearest important city in Asia is 1,900 miles from Australia and 3,400 miles from Sydney. These distances became more important with the growing tension in the Pacific in the late 30s. In the light of the meaning of this isolation, Australia looked more and more to itself. By 1938, when the Australians celebrated the 150th anniversary of the founding of their country, they could point to their progress as a nation. They now had a population of more than 7 million, and the industries they had worked so hard to establish were now beginning to pay off. Two years later, an important event was in the wind. What do you think, have Burt Evert quit in the High Court to stand for a seat in the Federal Parliament? Now why does Evert want to get into Parliament? He's a dink and sort of bloke, you know, always been for the underdog. Well, here he is with an outstanding record on the High Court, appointed when he's only 36, the youngest man ever to sit on the High Court facing... He's been a judge on the High Court for ten years now. That's what I'm saying. Man of high character stepping down to stand for a seat in the Parliament. We need men of his kind in the Parliament. But what chance has he got? The Labour Party endorses him to run for Barton in New South Wales. Barton's been held by the Conservatives for years. What we'll do is lose a good man on the High Court. Certainly he ain't got a chance to win in Barton. That was the way the talk ran. But Herbert Beer Evert won in Barton. Not only that, the enthusiasm for him as a candidate was so great that the Labour Party won several more seats in the Parliament. This was the start of a series of dynamic events such as Australia had never before experienced. Britain was at war. Australian forces were deployed throughout the world. In October 1941, the Labour government came into power. John Curtin, a former editor of a trade union newspaper, became Prime Minister. Joseph Benedict Chifley became Treasurer and Evert became Attorney General and Minister of Foreign Affairs. Look here. The entire Cabinet is from the working class. The Air Minister's been a locomotive driver. The Supply Minister was once a barber. The Army Minister was a schoolteacher. The Navy Minister a patent maker. And the Treasurer was a railway worker. When the Japanese struck at Pearl Harbor, Evert declared war on Japan independently of Britain, hours before Britain made the decision. What is this? Been our tradition always to look to London for our foreign policy. That day is gone. Evert believes in the British Commonwealth, but he also believes in geography. We're still part of the Empire. That we are, but we're at war with Japan and we're out here alone in the Pacific. As the papers say, Evert is the spokesman for Australia's new international order. We've got to depend on Britain. That's why Evert's come out for a firm and unbroken alliance between the British Empire and Russia and the United States. Well, if you ask me, we're oversteppin' our rights on we try... Evert's right. He's for American leadership in the Pacific and against any further appeasement or any agreement Britain might make with Japan that might hurt China. He says that Australia's got to have absolute equality with Britain in handling military or political affairs in the Pacific. And we're with him. Pearl Harbor smashed Australia's isolation. The men of Australia's cabinet were plain men, outspoken and blunt. John Curtin had opposed the coalition of the conservatives, the Labour and the rural parties, holding that in war as well as in peace, there should be a party in opposition free to criticise the administration. And when his Labour government swept into power, he shook the Empire to its face. He told the British government in London frankly to quit being so condescending. The fall of Singapore is Australia's Dunkirk. Our honeymoon is finished. It is now work or fight and work or fight as we have never worked or fought before. Curtin's fighting words galvanised the people of Australia to the situation that faced them. The Japanese were driving into the Indies to the very gates of Australia. It's up to us. But I never thought Jack Curtin would be the one to say it. Why not? He's always said what's on his mind. That's the trouble. I always thought he was too honest to get very far in politics. And here he is speaking up to the government in London. He knows what's got to be done. Speaking right up to London and telling them right out that Australia's tagging along on nobody's bloody apron strings. The Japanese were closing in. Curtin minced no word. No nation can afford to submerge the right of speaking for itself because of another nation's assumed omniscience. The Japanese crushed the Americans from the Philippines. When General Douglas MacArthur reached Australia, Curtin invited him to take command of Australia's armed forces. Curtin then directed a statement to Britain. I will make it clear that Australia looks to America free from any pangs about our traditional links of friendship with Britain. We know that Australia could go under and Britain could still hold on. We are determined that Australia shall not go. We shall exert our energy toward shaping a plan with the United States as the keystone giving our country confidence and ability to hold out until the tide of battle swings against the enemy. Under Curtin, Australia ceased to pattern her foreign policy on Whitehall and ceased to follow along as the Dominion's office dictated. Under Curtin, Australia cooperated with Britain but set her own course in international affairs. Curtin as Prime Minister and Ebbett as Minister of External Affairs or Foreign Minister set up their own policies toward the Russians, the Chinese and the millions of other Asiatics including the Indians. The subject peoples of Asia should have the right to choose their own form of government regardless of Western interests and should be given the right to work out their own destiny. There could be no question which way the wind was blowing. Australia was in dire danger. She knew it. She knew that the old policies would have to go. She knew that she herself was in danger of becoming a battleground. Ebbett went for help. He went to Washington. Copyright. This is Parker. Oh, did you see Ebbett? Yeah, yeah, what a guy. Square face, square shoulder with a mop of gray hair. You know, these people here don't know how to take him. He's so much to the point. What did he say about Australia? Well, he said that Australia ain't going to budge in her demand for a share in the direction of the war in the Pacific. Ah, one Australia to have more to say, eh? Yeah, and he objects to the Pacific War Council sitting in London. He's got a side of the world from Australia where the fighting's going on. Okay, I'll give you a rewrite, ma'am. Hey, Joe, take it on seven. Story on that Australian Ebbett. Okay, Parker, give it to me. Washington sat up and took notice. Ebbett was no suave politician. He had come to Washington to talk business, and he talked it. And the teeming capital, which had seen kings and emperors, ambassadors and ministers and a potentially revering and suave dignitaries of all kinds, talked about him. Paper, read all about it. Paper here. Ebbett talks with Roosevelt. Australian here for talks with F.D. on. Paper, mister? Yeah, there you are. Thanks. Paper, read all about it. Ebbett talks with F.D. on. Australian here for talks with Roosevelt. In his conversations with the president, Dr. Ebbett has awakened the authorities to the importance of holding Australia as a future base for a counterattack against the Japanese forces. Ebbett told Roosevelt that although Australia fully subscribes to the strategy of beating Hitler first, the war in the Pacific should not be forgotten. He asked that more American war supplies be sent to Australia. Hey, I got an idea that this guy's going to make some progress here. From Washington, Ebbett went to London, repeated the same plea in the same way. The Pacific War Council was shifted from London to Washington, and before Ebbett returned to Australia, he had sat in on it. Australia was no longer a stepchild. Ebbett had put its case fairly and squarely up to Britain and the United States, and Australia had won a voice in the determination of its own destiny. Ships loaded to the primsel with troops and planes and tanks, with all the things needed to fight a war, converged on Australia. The Japanese surged through the Indies, down to New Guinea, and were stopped in the Olin Stanley Mountains, just across the Torres Strait from Australia. Stopped by the Australians in the very territory they had insisted on controlling many years before, Australia became the base for the great counterattack against the Japanese. But while Australia was fighting for her existence, with the Japanese at her very gates, important events were also happening within the nation. Look at this! The Labour Party's won! This was the Commonwealth election of 1943. A clean sweep, it is! Out of the House of 74 members, we've won 49 seats! Now, what do your Conservatives think of that? Well, the thing we've got to be careful about is making too many radical changes. But it ain't only in the House that we've won. In the Senate, too! Next July, when the new Senators take their seats, we'll have a majority of eight out of 36 members. Well, it's the first time the Labour Party's ever held power, as well as office. That's right! But for the first time, a Commonwealth Labour government has succeeded a Labour government. And the middle of a war, too! It's more reports, Frank! Curtin as Prime Minister, Chitley as Peasurer, and Ebbett as Attorney General and Minister of External Affairs, had been endorsed in terms unequaled in Australian history. The place Australia will occupy in the Pacific after the war can never be the same as it was up to 1939. This was John Curtin. Australia must have available the advantage of concerted empire policy if she is to be a power to stand for democracy in the South Pacific. Australia was looking ahead. The war was still in its crucial stages. This was early 1944. As the tension eased, the way ahead became clearer. No, we can never go back to the old foreign policy. Old foreign policy? We didn't have any. We'd had London take care of that. Ebbett will never permit that again. Like he says, our interests in the Pacific. There might be some shouting among the Conservatives to go back to the old days, but the old days are gone and so are the Conservatives. Ebbett says there are two ways open for Australia on international affairs. One is by consulting with the British Commonwealth for the purpose of joint action with the other dominions, and the other is by Australia acting on her own. If you ask me, I'm for acting on our own. The way he sees it, we've got to take more interest in the territories close to us. That's why he says we've got to work closer with the United States, and we've got to have good relations with China and the Soviet Union, and even with the South American countries. I say that we've got to... Not only did Australia begin to assert itself as an independent factor in world affairs, it moved toward closer regional ties. In January 1941 in Canberra, the federal capital of Australia, the New Zealand and Australian governments bound themselves together on matters of common interest. There will be no change in the sovereignty or control of Pacific islands, except by international control, in which both Australia and New Zealand will concur. The two governments will have particular responsibilities in all the islands within the Ock, extending from the island of Timor in the East Indies to western Samoa and the Cook Islands. Music By early 1944 it was plain that there could be no status quo ante as far as Australia was concerned. The world was going through the greatest upheaval of all time. People and nations were thinking in terms different from ever before. What had been was past. What was to be was now in the making. Even the most conservative element in Australia had been liberalized. Even those who could not approve the Labour government were moved to praise and support what it had done. What Britain calls the Far East is to us the near north. This was Robert Gordon-Mendez who held the premiership of Australia from March 14, 1940 to August 29, 1941. In the Pacific, Australia must regard herself as the principal providing herself with her own information and maintaining her own diplomatic contacts with foreign powers. I look forward to the day when we will have a conflict of Pacific powers. This means increased diplomatic relations with the United States, China and Japan, to say nothing of the Netherlands East Indies and the other countries which fringe the Pacific. As the war on the Pacific drew to its dynamic close, the groundwork for Australia's new place in the affairs of the Pacific and in the affairs of the world had been laid. Now we know what we've got to do. We've got to increase our industry. The trick will be to develop markets. Before the war we refused to open our markets to competition of the world. Now maybe we'll have to. We've got to take care of our own domestic reconstruction first. Righto, but we can never crawl back into our shell again. Australia, safe from the brink of destruction, knows well the complexity of problems that face it. There's the matter of security. Today we know the distances that separate us from the rest of the world. We know that Britain and America under normal conditions could save it. But there is a grave question whether they could even have saved themselves. They say nothing of saving Australia, but for Russia's great effort and China's years of resistance. Our security in the future must be planned with this in mind. And there are other questions. A thousand million Asiatics live at our back door in poverty. Most of these are Chinese and Indians. Their nations may soon emerge as great powers. What effect will this have on Australia, which is as large as the United States and only has a population of seven million? Australia has fought her way back from the brink of destruction. Today John Curtin is dead, and his friend Ben Chifley is Prime Minister. And today Australia is working to reestablish herself in the new world beset by a hundred questions. What about the tariff which made possible Australia's standard of living? What about the concessions which will have to be made foreigners in order to develop markets? What about our policy of race discrimination against the people of our neighbouring Pacific countries? In the face of these many problems, the Australians quote an old New Zealand folk tale. A Maori warrior was caught at sea in a small boat. A storm blew up. The sky became overcast, and the wind grew wild and the seas mountainous. The warrior feared whether he could survive. He decided to pray. He prayed not for the abating of the storm or the dying down of the winds. He prayed that the sky might clear so that he could see the stars to steer by. Australia has come out as a new and dynamic factor in the Pacific. To tell the significance of Australia's new place in the affairs of the Pacific, the National Broadcasting Company presents Dr. Herbert Veer-Evitt, Foreign Minister for Australia. Australia's effective place in the Pacific has rapidly developed in the last generation, and especially since the outbreak of the Second World War. Australia is a member of the British Commonwealth of Nations, but has long since, 1914, been independent in all aspects, both of its external and internal affairs, still permanently linked to Britain by kinship, but able to speak and act for herself. In the First World War, Australia fought in Europe side by side with Britain and the Allies, and we recall with pride the fact that in 1918, Australians fought side by side with Americans when the Hindenburg Line was broken. But in that war, the Pacific was not seriously threatened by our enemies. In this war, too, Australia has fought again in Europe, in the Middle East. Then came Pearl Harbor and the subsequent tremendous successes of the Japanese enemy until Australia itself was threatened, at a time when our trained soldiers and sailors and airmen were, for the most part, overseas. In that dire extremity of 1942, American help came to the Pacific and American help came to Australia. In Europe, Britain was still fighting Hitler to the death, but for a time, Australia itself was in a situation of most desperate peril. Then the tide gradually turned. The great resistance and counterattacks took place in New Guinea, took place in the Solomons, in the other Pacific Islands north of the equator. That was under the leadership of General MacArthur by land, of Admirals Nimitz and Halsey by sea. Tide has turned, and now we have victory, a victory achieved by wartime comradeship of the Pacific nations, wartime partnership of the United States and Australia. That was a reality. It was successful. Will it be successful in the post-war period? That is the question. In my view, the future of the Pacific will turn to a great extent upon whether that spirit can be continued, the spirit of comradeship, the spirit of real partnership. In the Pacific, countries like Australia, United Kingdom itself, New Zealand, have recognized United States leadership. At the same time, we've got to act together to pool our resources so that we can have in the Pacific security for freedom from fear on the one hand and welfare and freedom from want for dependent peoples on the other. It depends upon the same spirit of cooperation. At Washington, we have a Far Eastern Commission in which under United States leadership, Australia and other Pacific countries are working out together a policy for Japan. In that spirit, we can make the post-war world in the Pacific a happier world than before and we can inaugurate an era of welfare and security throughout the vast regions of the Pacific, partnership under United States leadership. Thank you, Dr. Herbert Veer-Ebbett. Music You have been listening to the Pacific Story, presented by the National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated independent stations as a public service to clarify events in the Pacific and to make understandable the cross-currents of life in the Pacific Basin. For a reprint of this Pacific Story program, send ten cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. May I repeat? For a reprint of this Pacific Story program, send ten cents in stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. Music The Pacific Story is written and directed by Arnold Marklis. The original musical score was composed and conducted by Thomas Paluso. Your narrator, Gain Whitman. Music Programs in this series of particular interest to service men and women are broadcast overseas through the worldwide facilities of the Armed Forces Radio Service. This program came to you from Hollywood. This is the National Broadcasting Company. Music
