League of Nations, 1919-1946

Component identifier:

Series 35

Content Summary:

The bulk of Series 35 relates to two events in Hughes' life connected with the League of Nations in the 1930s. Other League papers are in Series 16, 24, and 42. The first is his 1932 overseas trip, intended to be a holiday, which ended with Hughes partnering Bruce at Geneva as one of Australia's delegates to the Thirteenth General Assembly of the League. The other concerns his scepticism of the League's ability to prevent war and especially of sanctions - a view included in his Australia and war today (Angus Robertson, 1935) which led to his sacking from the Lyons Government late in 1935.

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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