Part 5

23 January 1943

The War Cabinet Offices 

Fraser looked around and ticked off the faces. Churchill, Attlee, Sir John Andersen, Eden, Herbert Morrison, Bevin and Lyttelton. Beaverbrook was not present. 

It had been planned that way. He had helped arrange this and would talk to Winston afterwards, but that was it. 

Churchill rumbled dyspeptically as the War Cabinet went through its agenda. Fraser did not mind, he was on the agenda in ‘general business’, and was entitled to sit with this Cabinet when in London. Any Dominion Prime Minister was. Besides, he thought to himself, I do enjoy the ebb and flow. 

Finally Churchill turned to him. 

“And finally, Prime Minister Fraser of New Zealand has some general business.” 

“Thank you, Prime Minister. As you all will be aware, the Constitutional progress of the Empire was blocked during the 1921, 1923, 1926, 1930 and 1937 Imperial Conferences. You are all aware of just how hard the Prime Ministers of Australia and New Zealand fought for formal recognition of a structure of strategic alliance between the UK and the Dominions, in order to address this matter.” 

There were gentle if puzzled nods around the table, this was old – ancient – news. 

“The governments of Australia and New Zealand remained then and remain now determined to resolve this issue, as, in our view, failure to do so will lead to the inevitable disintegration of the Empire. On 1st November last, we therefore signed, in secret, the Wellington Alliance, binding our two nations. I am here for two purposes. The first is to extend an invitation to the Government of the United Kingdom to join this Alliance.” 

He raised his hand to quiet the startled expostulations. 

“I am also here to inform you that we have long been aware of the details of the mission on which you despatched Sir Stamford Cripps on 2nd March last. We have been discussing his mission in depth with interested parties. These are the Ceylonese independence group led by State Councillor and Minister for Lands Don Stephen Senanayakewe, and the Levantine group led by Mr Ben Gurion. I might point out that Mr Ben Gurion’s group has significant popular support in the USA, and that this support includes a large and increasing amount of capital inflow, by public subscription, but also politically and in the traditional sense of business investment specific to Samaria and Judaea. Our Governments and the interested groups are agreed after extensive evaluation that both polities are sufficiently mature to declare to Dominion Status on 1st January 1944 at the latest. Ceylon is indeed so advanced that she can ascend to Dominion status on 1 July this year. Both polity leaderships have fully accepted the proposals contained in the arrangements authorised by this Cabinet to Sir Stamford Cripps. We further note that both polities have played a role in, concur with, and signed pre-commitments to accede to the Wellington Alliance in all respects.” 

He drew a deep breath. “In view of the roles played by and the points noted by the Governments of Canada and South Africa during the Imperial Conferences in regard of the constitutional structure of the Empire, it is not planned to formally offer either of those Dominions the opportunity to accede to the Wellington Alliance although naturally that is not ruled out. It is just noted that their previous positions would seem to indicate little enthusiasm for the concept, for reasons both Governments have expressed in depth previously. They will however be fully briefed as to the structure, nature and I stress responsibilities of the Alliance and will of course be welcomed should they wish to join under the extant conditions. No discussions regarding alterations to the responsibilities of the Alliance will be entered in to with respect to Ottawa and Pretoria. They can join on the same condition as everyone else, or not. That choice is theirs, alone. Discussions are currently underway with representatives from Malaya, Singapore, Fiji and Burma as to their possible ascension to Alliance in either Dominion or Crown Colony classifications. I might add that the Burmese groups have indicated that they wish to actually leave the Empire at the conclusion of the current war, but that will be no surprise in this forum. In view of Sir Stamford Cripp’s mission, we have chosen to send an Alliance official to brief him upon authorisation of this body. We have no wish for any inadvertencies to occur with his negotiations, quite the opposite in fact. To be quite blunt, the Governments of Australia and New Zealand find the lack of progress on the matter of formal recognition of a structure of strategic alliance between the UK and the Dominions to be unacceptable, which is why we present you this fait accompli. The fait accompli is regretted. It is solely intended to disable those arguments previously used by the Governments of Canada and South Africa to destroy the chance of any progress on Imperial Constitutional and strategic alliance arrangements. They may join or not, as they wish, but we will no longr accept the manner in which all progress was disabled by the arguments presented by those Governments as recently as 1937. Events since that time have shown how false, indeed dangerous, those arguments were. The security of Canada is guaranteed by geography and their southern neighbour, that of the UK, Australia, New Zealand, Malaya, Ceylon and the Levant, is most certainly not. We only have each other.” 

“I wish to inform you that the Wellington Alliance is both a military and economic Alliance. It carries with it specific performance criteria which members must, I repeat must, meet. This is not optional. For example, Singapore and the Levant are designated as Imperial reserve points. Each member must contribute a specific military capability to this Imperial reserve at one or both of these points. Each member must have a specified minimum level of peacetime military expenditure, 2.4% of gross national product in the case of Australia, New Zealand and other wealthy countries or developed Dominions, 1.4% in the case of lesser developed Dominions such as Ceylon, 1.0% in the case of other entities such as Crown Colonies, focussed on local defence measures. Each Dominion will accept protective responsibilities for a part of the Empire itself incapable of self-protection outside basic local defence. For example New Zealand will assume such responsibilities for Tonga, Samoa, the Line and Cook Islands. This will include maintenance of an appropriate base for troops, warships and aircraft and their permanent presence there. That will of course require the concurrence of your Government should you choose, as we fondly hope you do, to join. Australia will be maintaining and developing the positions at Milne Bay and Tulagi at least for the nonce, to cover Papua New Guinea and the Solomons. In economic terms the Wellington Alliance generally accords with free trade and free movement of persons between signatories, although permanent migration and granting of citizenship remains a national issue as it relates to Dominion sovereignty. However, no citizen of any Alliance nation can be restricted in their movement for business or personal reasons, and no government may deny such a visit unless the person has criminal intent or background, and is staying for less than six months.” 

His smile was wintry. “Believe me gentlemen, the discussions with Prime Minister Curtin’s government over that matter were... robust. Particularly as we are also about to open negotiations regarding the Alliance with Kenya, Uganda and Brazil, and extend to you the offer of opening negotiations, should you choose to join as we hope you do, and with others including Denmark, Sweden and Norway due to your very closely linked economies. They may or may not be attracted by the military side of the Alliance, however. The philosophy behind the Wellington Alliance is enlightened self-interest within an economic and military strategic structure to which all contribute, and supported by an economic arrangement to mutual benefit and which expands the economies of all members. It is an all-or-nothing deal, albeit one with three membership tiers. A colony like Fiji, for example, is small, limited in what it can trade, poor and not industrialised. They can be expected to contribute little but should not be excluded on that basis if they are willing to contribute what they can. The few things they can competitively export should not be penalised by tariff, and again the discussions with Canberra on that issue were, ah, robust. Should, oh, say… Denmark choose to join as a non-Imperial member, they would be expected to prefer Fijian sugar so long as it is commercially competitive. We do not much believe in subsidy – and again that was a robust discussion with Canberra. His Majesty will remain the official head of all Imperial states that so desire it, and the Royal Household will be gifted formal residences in each major capital, and a special private retreat in the Islands where there will be a base. Should Great Britain join, we will request that the Royal family or members of it spend considerable time residing elsewhere during each year.” 

He sighed. “Finally gentlemen, a personal note. This is what we should have done after the last war, but we very foolishly squandered the chance. We tried to push it again until 1937 and Prime Minister Mackenzie King was able to quash all progress. We have paid a terrible price for those failures, we all know here that the Empire still totters on the brink of collapse. Prime Minister Curtin, Minister Senanayakewe, Mr Ben-Gurion and I are determined that the failure be rectified and that the Empire shall not collapse – that is the reason Ottawa will not be invited as we are inviting you, but may freely apply. Personally, I will not see the Empire disintegrate while I am Prime Minister of New Zealand or have breath in my body.” 

He glanced around at the stunned expressions. “That concludes my agenda item unless there are comments. Members of my staff will be distributing copies of relevant documentation this evening. On a personal note, I believe this to be our very last chance. In our foolishness, our arrogance and our pride, and to our lasting disgrace, we threw the baby out with the bathwater after the last war. If we do not build a strategic alliance on which the Empire can stand foursquare now, then we never will, and the Empire has before it only a night without stars. We are building what we can, when we can. I pray, no I beg, that you will join us.” 

J.R. Prior, Diary of a World in Flames: a Chronology of World War II, Imperial Government Printing Office, London, 2001. 

At the time, late January 1943 was just another time of juggling disparate and desperate crises. The high drama of Prime Minister Frazer’s historic appeal to a surprised War Cabinet has to be placed within its operational context. Many things were happening all at once, and from these events the Third British Empire – our Federal Empire –  eventually emerged to realise the dreams of those prescient men of the 1880s who saw an Imperial future in self-government, bonds of culture, mutually assured security and trade. 

What helped realise this was that for the first time the Imperial forces were able to crush one of the serpent-heads of the National Socialist hydra with their heel. Norway: those were the days when much was germinated in and around Norway, to flower years later. 

Chronology

24 Jan 43

Narvik – last elements of German garrison  in the Narvik area surrenders. Royal Marines seize Harstad in a small but sharp action. Under a flag of truce, a demand is delivered to the garrison of Tromso to surrender. This is summarily rejected by 20th Army’s garrison commander. 

26 Jan 43

Royal Marine brigade lands on the north coast of Tromso island at Hamna bay (the Norwegians having a clear picture of where the garrison is disposed) and quickly advances to overrun the airfield. The attached armour (four Arras breaching tanks and eight Churchills) are instrumental in this as they are able to obliterate the defensive positions with impunity. The only AT guns present at the airfield are elderly 37mm, which are completely ineffective against the six inch sloped frontal armour of these vehicles. There were Arras II* tanks in breaching configuration. They had a 17pdr in the turret and two six-pounder fitted side sponsons. Their supporting Churchills were a mix of conventional vehicles with six-pounder AT guns and Churchill Vortex. These were a ‘funny’ with two 20mm automatic and two .303 calibre machine guns in the turret and the original short 75mm in the hull –a specialist field fortification and anti-infantry tank. They simply sliced through the German field defences like a ripsaw. 

27 Jan 43

The marines advanced around the south of the island. German resistance was heavy, but was rapidly cut to ribbons by their inability to stop the British armour. The two surviving 88mm in the sector engaged the British armour as they advanced in the brief period of light. While one conventional Churchill was knocked out but the frontal armour of the Arras tanks again demonstrated its invulnerability to the 88mm, and both 88s were quickly knocked out by return fire from their 17pdr and 6pdr guns. Late in the afternoon, the garrison commander surrendered his remaining forces as the Royal Marines broke clean through his final defensive positions and reached the southern side of the town. Once again, the breaching tanks had shown that their impact on enemy morale was as good a combat value as their actual military capabilities. In the end, British combat casualties were just over 100, many fewer than expected. German casualties were ten times this.