Correspondence, 1918-1919

Component identifier:

Subseries 24-1

Content Summary:

The correspondence includes letters, cables, telegrams, memoranda and copies of replies. This correspondence refers to a large number of subjects such as aspects of the various Allies' attitudes to the peace conditions, the exploration of Papuan oil fields, the Belgian war effort, the proposed International Hydrographic Conference, demobilisation, recommendations for honours, war memorials, an Australian air force, the purchase of ships, the supply of wool and wheat to Great Britain, the establishment of oil refineries in Australia, and trade with Italy.

The correspondents include W. A. Watt, R. R. Garran, George Pearce, Sir Ronald Munro-Ferguson, Lord Milner, Lloyd George, Sir Maurice Hankey, Lord Cecil and L. S. Amery.

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)

Contents

Access and use