Brisbane Line, 1942-1943

Component identifier:

Subseries 48-5

Content Summary:

In 1942 the Minister for Labour in the Curtin Government, E. J. Ward, claimed that while Menzies was Prime Minister, a contingency plan existed to abandon the entire area north of Brisbane to Japan in the face of an overwhelming invasion. The claim was investigated by Justice Lowe in a Royal Commission inquiry that reported in September 1943. This file contains typed extracts from press reports on Ward's 'Brisbane Line' statements, from Hansard and from a press conference with General Macarthur, a map, and other cuttings on Ward's suspension from cabinet.

Comprises Folder 24.

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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