Speeches and broadcasts, 1910-1952

Component identifier:

Series 7

Content Summary:

Hughes was well known as an entertaining and at times inspiring speaker and, in addition to many addresses to Parliament and to election rallies, he spoke on a wide variety of subjects to innumerable conventions, dinners, gatherings of various sorts, and ceremonies. A description of the way in which Hughes prepared his talks is given by three of his secretaries, Olga Northam, H. V. Howe, and Morris West, in John Thompson's radio feature A political triptych - panel 3: they worked for Billy Hughes (1962, pp.18-20). The evidence of their preparation (at times equally puzzling) constitutes this series. It consists of a mixture of research notes, statistics, extracts from books, articles and newspapers and drafts and texts. Wherever appropriate, letters discussing speeches, research material and texts of speeches and broadcasts have been placed in other series. Letters inviting Hughes to speak are in Series 1.

Many speeches and broadcasts are on world affairs, especially World War II, but topics like post war development, the Constitution, democracy, the Red Cross, the development of Northern Australia, Welsh culture, and human nature are also covered. Included in a group of Hughes' published talks are Keith Murdoch's ' The day' and after: war speeches of the Rt Hon. W. M. Hughes (Cassell and Co., 1916), broadcasts such as ABC jubilee celebrations (December 1950), and Winston Churchill: warrior-statesman (1941?), and speeches such as Britain has not failed (February 1942) and a Policy for Australia (January 1925).

The final part of the series is made up of speeches - published, typescript, or roneoed - by others. There are many parliamentary deliveries by Curtin and Menzies in particular, and speeches by L. S. Amery, J. Dooley and the Duke of Windsor. Where possible, the material has been arranged in chronological order. There is, however, a large body of material which is undated, or difficult to date precisely. Only a few folios in this series were numbered with the bulk of the papers unnumbered. Some re-arrangement of these folios has occurred and many items are now out of sequence.

Immediate source of acquisition:

The W. M. Hughes Papers were presented to the National Library of Australia by Dame Mary Hughes in 1953. The collection was received in two consignments. One consisted of papers taken from the Perpetual Trustee Company comprising material from Hughes' Lindfield home and from his office rooms at the Commonwealth Offices, Sydney; the other came directly from Lindfield. Lists of the contents of both consignments are held in the Library's Manuscript Branch. With the agreement of the executors and the Library, much of the collection, was for a time, held at the Australian National University by Fitzhardinge. He was permitted sole access to the collection while writing the biography Hughes commissioned in 1951. Fitzhardinge's own papers documenting the writing of the biography are also held by the Library (MS 5400). The papers transferred to the Library in 1953 are by no means the total collection of Hughes' personal papers, although it is impossible to say what proportion has survived. (see Fitzhardinge, p.936).

Names:

Hughes, W. M. (1862-1952)

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