Function and purpose
On August 3 1918 H.R. Merton and Company Limited, metal merchants and
brokers of London, issued a writ against the Australian Prime Minister William
Morris Hughes. Hughes, according to the writ issued, had alleged that Merton's were
enemy traders, of German origin and character, a branch of the German company
Metalgesellschaft, disloyal and dangerous to Great Britain and had behaved
treacherously to the British Government. Merton's sought damages and an
injunction to stop Hughes making further defamatory statements. Merton's
contended in the writ that Hughes' statements had led to their application for
a licence to trade under the Non-Ferrous Metals Industry Act of 1918 to be
refused. This refusal of a licence had forced Merton's in October 1918 into
voluntary liquidation. Further writs were issued in October 1918 and December
1918 following what Merton's contended were Hughes' defamatory statements. In
June 1919 the plantiff's gave notice to trial. In October 1919 Hughes' solicitors
successfully had the trial postponed on the grounds that documents provided by
the plantiffs still needed to be inspected and the difficulty of Hughes being
present at the trial. In March 1920 proceedings were stayed with Hughes'
counsel stating that his allegations did not refer to any individual associated
with the company but rather the company itself. No damages, costs or
injunctions were awarded, each party paying their own costs. The case had cost
the Commonwealth 6500 pounds Sterling.
Following the issuing of the writ solicitors Coward & Hawkesley Sons
& Chance of London were instructed to act for Hughes. The
Attorney-General's Department and the departmental head, Sir Robert Garran,
Solicitor-General, also took up the defence. The defence team then gathered
documents supporting Hughes' statements from many sources: the
Procurator-General in London, the Customs Department, the United States of
America, the British Foreign Office and the Attorney-General's Department. Many
of these supporting documents originated with the Enemy Trading Acts that were
introduced at the beginning of World War I.
It is these supporting documents gathered by Hughes' defence team that form
the majority of the papers collected in this series. The other papers in the
series are directly related to the legal proceedings.
Using the series
System of arrangement and control
The papers in this series were originally arranged into a group of 14 series
A479-A493. However as the purpose for such an arrangement was not evident it
was decided to rearrange the 14 series into one main series with an imposed
single number control system.
The papers in the series have been divided into two categories:
I - consisting of items 1 to 8 which are directly related to the legal
proceedings
and
II - consisting of items 9 to 60 which are the supporting documents gathered
by the Hughes defence team. Within category II the following sub-categories
apply:
items 9 to 18 are documents gathered by Hughes solicitor's Coward & Hawkesley
Sons and Chance;
items 19 and 20 are original Australian Metal Company documents;
items 21 to 30 are Attorney-General's Department files;
items 31 to 38 are Attorney-General's Department files and may have been Sir
Robert Garran's personal files;
items 39 to 48 are documents gathered in the United States of America;
and items 54 to 57 are copies of documents provided by the plantiff's
solicitors.
Series history
At the completion of the legal proceedings, papers with Coward &
Hawkesley Sons and Chance of London and the Australian High Commission London
were returned to the Attorney-General's Department in Australia. In February
1927 'five parcels' of papers (see NAA: A456, W22/37 & NAA: A9084, Item 1:
Page 21 entry 2918 - the relationship between these 'five parcels' and the
papers returned from London is not clear) were sent by Attorney-General's to be
filed with the Investigation Branch. The papers were found in 1963 in the
basement of the Administrative Building (now the John Gorton building) with
ASIO material.
Sources
National Archives of Australia (ACT): A456/3; W22/37.
National Archives of Australia (ACT): A11661; 8.
LF Fitzhardinge, The Little Digger 1914-1952, pp.331-333.
Series converted from
A479; A480; A481; A482; A483; A484; A485; A486; A487; A488; A489; A490;
A491; A492; A493