International affairs, 1937-1952

Component identifier:

Subseries 48-15

Content Summary:

Hughes never lost his interest in the world arena and during his declining years collected material for speeches, press statements and ministerial statements, cuttings and pamphlets on world events. This subseries contains papers on the conference following the conclusion of World War II, the 1951 Peace Treaty with Japan, the 1946 evacuation of Egypt and the coup in 1952, Canada, and events in Czechoslovakia. In addition, there are some US Office of War Information bulletins, speeches by Evatt, Chiefly and Spender, Menzies' Roy Milne lecture (1950), and some bulletins issued by the French Delegations in Australia.

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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