Deputations and reports, 1936-1941

Component identifier:

Subseries 45-4

Content Summary:

This subseries is a mixture of papers on deputations to Hughes seeking his support for proposals when up for consideration by cabinet, and various reports received either as a member of the War Cabinet or as a matter of 'For information' or courtesy. The subjects covered include amendments to the Commonwealth Railways Act (May, 1936), Army contracts and the Abbco Bread Company Ltd (1941), the erection of a shelter and toolshed at Erskine and Lee Lanes (1937), the Kyeema crash (1938), a matter concerning the Authors as Artists Section of the Australian Journalists Associations (1940) and munitions production (1941).

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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