Loosening the Bonds - Britain, Australia and the Second World War
'A painful lesson in international politics' - Anglo-Australian relations in the Second World War revealed the rhetoric of Empire not matched by a British commitment to Australia's defence.
It is rather ironic that as Australia commemorates the two-hundredth anniversary of its settlement as a British colony the external links of that transplanted society now reach out more to the United States than to Britain. The origins of this dramatic switch in national allegiance can be traced back to the climactic events of the Second World War.
Australia entered the war firmly enmeshed in the entanglements of Empire. Following the dictates of imperial defence, Australia enlisted in Britain's battle in the confident expectation and understanding that Britain would reciprocate if Australia was threatened. The dutiful Dominion was remarkably slow to realise that British power no longer ruled the waves of the Pacific.
Following the inter-war disarmament conferences, the Royal Navy had been reduced to a two-ocean force – it could certainly protect British interests in the western hemisphere, and could even extend its power into the Indian Ocean to erect a protective mantle over the array of British colonies and interests abutting its tropical shores.
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