1944 and 1948 referenda, 1944-1951

Component identifier:

Subseries 48-21

Content Summary:

This subseries consists almost entirely of papers on the 1944 and 1948 referenda, although there is a small group of items on the 1946 social services marketing and industrial employment referendum. A miscellaneous newsletter from the 1951 referendum has also been filed with this subseries. The 1944 referendum on post-war reconstruction and democratic rights divided support along party lines with Hughes, no longer in the United Australia Party, campaigning with Evatt for a 'Yes' vote.

The file contains speeches and notes setting out the reasons for and against, and includes some of his correspondence with such groups as the Ku-Ring-Gai Citizens Non-Party Yes Committee and the South Australian Yes Committee. The 1948 referendum on rents and prices was another matter however, with Hughes urging a 'No' vote with the Liberal Party. The speeches, broadcasts, leaflets, included here, illustrate their view that through a 'Yes' vote Chiefly and Evatt sough to extend the socialisation of Australian society begun under Curtin.

The 1951 referendum on communism is covered by papers in Subseries 48.8 on communism.

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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