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The
Australian American Association had its origins in 1936 in
the shadow of the Second World War. It has borne different
names, having first being known as the British- American
Cooperation Movement, but its identity has been maintained
and its central aims unvarying.
Two veterans
of the First World War, Brigadier H.A. Goddard CMG, DSO, VD
and Captain E.K. White OBE, MC, believed that the one hope
of world peace lay in a close alliance of the then British
Empire (now the Commonwealth) and the United States of
America. Their first task would be to promote this alliance
when in their own country the popular attitude towards the
United States, of which relatively little was known other
than what was learnt from the films, was less than cordial.
In their
drive to interest influential fellow Australians in their
cause, a meeting was convened for the 15th July 1936 at the
Millions Club in Sydney. The purpose of the meeting, which
was large and representative, was to create the British and
America Co-operation Movement for World Peace. The meeting
constituted itself as the nucleus of the Movement and
elected a Council and adopted unanimously the following
resolutions:
1. “That
those present at this representative meeting of citizens,
realising that the prospect of world peace can be immediately strengthened by effective co-operation between
the British Empire and the USA, agree to form themselves
into an Association to that object.
2. “The
objective of the Association shall be, inter alia, the
attainment by agreement between the Governments and peoples
(or by any other means of close co-operation between the
British Empire and the USA) for the maintenance of world
peace by:
(a) Acquainting the peoples of Australia with the necessity
for action on these lines.
(b) Actively co-operating with all Associations devoted to
like aims in other parts of the Empire and in America”.
In messages
of endorsement and goodwill the Movement had the support of
the Premier of New South Wales and the Prime Ministers and
governments of Australia, New Zealand, Canada and South
Africa.
In the USA
contact was made through the Magna Carta Day Celebrations
League of USA, an appropriate point of contact given that
our common heritage of “Freedom under Law” stems from the
Magna Carta. Indeed, this is still very relevant today in
that freedom of the individual as practiced in democratic
societies arises from its beginnings in the Magna Carta.
From information disseminated by the League, organisations
and prominent persons showed keen interest in the activities
of the Movement and assured the Council of support.
With the
exception of a Branch formed in Adelaide with Sir Henry
Newland as President, the history of the Movement between
1936 and 1940 belongs to New South Wales. Through public
speeches, radio broadcasts and monthly magazines, news of
this pioneer step in the cultivation of international accord
had spread to all States. By early 1938 the Movement had
enrolled 4,000 members and had raised enough money to send a
representative to the 1937/1938 Pan Pacific Convention,
which gave American audiences direct acquaintance with its
aims. This received wide publicity; American women’s
organisations, with a combined membership of 5 million,
showed particular interest.
The outbreak
of the Second World War in September 1939 brought about many
changes in the nature of the Movement’s activities. The
wartime Government accepted the Association’s offer of
co-operation with the Prime Minister’s Department and the
newly established Department of Information as an adjunct to
the furthering of good relations with America, at that time
the most important neutral nation. Organisations through
which the Departments and the Movement could co-operate were
set up in Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, with the
Council headquarters in Sydney.
From its very
beginning the Movement campaigned for an exchange of
Ministerial representatives between Washington and Canberra,
and by the end of 1939 this had come to fruition. A
momentous step, as Australia had never had diplomatic
representation in any foreign country before. The government
announced the appointment of the Rt. Hon. R.G. Casey as
first Australian Minister to Washington from 27 January 1940
and almost simultaneously the US Government announced the
appointment of Mr. Clarence E. Gauss as its first Minister
to Canberra.
The
Movement’s work with the Department of Information had
increased to the point where the Government made it a grant
of 1,650 pounds in the financial year 1940-41. This enabled
a secretariat to be established in Sydney with a full time
staff, but one of the conditions of the grant required the
Movement to change its name. In 1941 it became the
Australian-American Cooperation Movement.
Richard
Boyer, Head of the American Section of the Department of
Information in 1941, is credited with first use of the
title, “Australian American Association”. In a phone call to
the Principal of the Brisbane Boys’ College in January he
suggested the formation of an “Australian American
Association” in that city and it was under that title that
500 people met in the Brisbane City Hall. Mr. A.W. Campbell,
Managing Director of the Queensland Primary Producers’
Co-operative Association Limited was elected its first
President. It was he who first used the caption “U.S. and
US”. Also early in that year the Movement was revived in
Adelaide and constituted in the Adelaide Town Hall on 6th
May. The meeting elected Sir George Nicholls, Speaker of the
House of Assembly, as President.
Sir Keith
Murdoch, who at the time was Director-General of the
Department of Information, took the lead in forming the
Australian-American Co-operation Movement in Victoria. On
August 1st it was formally constituted, although a
provisional Executive Council had operated since 18th July.
Although, as in other States, Government assistance was
available, Victoria preferred complete independence. The
strong group of people who worked under Sir Keith’s dynamic
guidance had no difficulty in enlisting the support of firms
and organisations with American connections. By September
Victoria had an efficient system of finance, education and
publicity panels and had established a permanent
secretariat. Its first challenge came swiftly and
unexpectedly when the following year US General MacArthur’s
set up his headquarters in Melbourne. When the headquarters
was transferred to Brisbane the Association there was ready
to play a similar role.
The Movement
in Sydney provided the support necessary for the many US
service personnel both based there or in transit. Members of
the Association’s Women’s Section staffed the American
Center for US Servicemen and arranged home hospitality. This
was a characteristic function of Women’s Sections in all
States. During the later Vietnam Conflict the Association
again fulfilled its hospitality role by establishing a
centre in the Chevron Hotel, Sydney and welcomed 60,000
American servicemen to Australia between 1967 and 1971.
The Movement
was not inaugurated in Perth until 23rd June 1942 but this
was more than compensated for by the magnificent hospitality
it organised for the American naval units stationed at
Fremantle and other ports.
All U.S servicemen arriving in Australia received a copy of
the Movement’s illustrated information booklet “Welcome to
Australia”.
It was not
until November 10, 1943 that delegates from the State
organisations met in Sydney and endorsed the creation of the
Federal Council of Australian-American Cooperation. Mr. E.K.
White (later Sir Ernest), founder of the Movement was
elected first Federal President and continued as President
until August 1946. The Rt. Hon. R.G. Casey had by then
returned from Washington and was the President of the
Australian-American Movement in Victoria. At the request of
Mr. White, who voluntarily stood down for him, Mr. Casey
(later (1960) Lord Casey) became the second Federal
President, and with his election the Federal Secretariat was
transferred from Sydney to Melbourne.
Mr. Casey
resigned four years later and at its meeting in Sydney on
4th September 1950, Federal Council re-elected Mr. E.K.
White to the Presidency and the Federal Secretariat returned
to Sydney from Melbourne.
Federal
Council changed the name of the organisation from
Australian-American Cooperation Movement to Australian
American Association in January 1947. All State
organisations except Queensland, which was originally
constituted as the Australian American Association, and
Victoria, which had made the change on 25th June 1945,
altered their titles accordingly.
Under the
Presidency of Sir John Crawford, the ACT Division of the
Association was established in November 1960 and has been
involved in all aspects of furthering the aims of the
Association since then, particularly in the field of
education and scholarships.
Copyright
David Evans, 2000
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