Summary heading
Prime Ministers Papers Project
Function and purpose
This series is a photographic record of the official
visit of the Prime Minister (Rt Hon Robert Gordon Menzies) to Indonesia, the
Federation of Malaya (from 1963, Malaysia) and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in
December 1959. Apart from Menzies, the party included his wife (Dame Pattie
Menzies), Private Secretary (Miss Hazel Craig), two Members of Parliament (L P
Dean and A J Forbes), four officials (two each from the Prime Minister’s
Department and the Department of External Affairs), Sir John Crawford and seven
press representatives and photographers (1).
Related legislation
Using the series
Language of material
Physical characteristics
Original negatives:
RGM 1 – RGM 231
Photographic
prints: 1 album (reference copies of
prints RGM1 – RGM231)
System of arrangement and control
Single number system with RGM (Robert Gordon Menzies)
prefix.
Relationships with other records
The series is controlled by a register of
photographic negatives (CRS A9118) and related to an ANIB print album for VIP
visits (CRS A8281). Another photograph album covering Menzies’ visit to
Indonesia may be found in AA1972/341, item 322.
Finding aids
Access conditions
Series history
Menzies’ visit to Indonesia (1-7 December 1959) was
the first made by an Australian Prime Minister, and followed the visit by the
Indonesian Foreign Minister (Dr Subandrio) to Australia earlier the same year.
A key issue in Australian-Indonesian relations at the time was West New Guinea,
although the main purpose of the visit was to demonstrate goodwill rather than
reach any formal agreements (2). Menzies met the President (Dr Sukarno),
ministers and members of the Supreme Advisory Council. He also visited the
Presidential Palace in Bogor, addressed staff and students at Gadjah Mada
University in Jogjakarta and toured Central Java.
Menzies’ subsequent visit to the Federation of Malaya (7-12
December) coincided with the final phase of the Malayan Emergency. It included
meetings with the Prime Minister (Tunku Abdul Rahman), Deputy Prime Minister
and Malayan royalty, and visits to the Cameron Highlands, Penang and the RAAF
Base at Butterworth.
On his return trip to Australia, Menzies had an overnight
stopover on the Cocos (Keeling) Islands (12-13 December). The brief visit was
made at the request of the Official Representative (J W Stokes), as a gesture
towards reducing the feeling of isolation of Australians posted there and the
antipathy between the Clunies Ross family and the Australian Government.
Provenance
Australian News and Information Bureau.
Immediate source of acquisition
Australian News and Information Bureau.
Custodial history
This series was transferred to archival custody by the
Australian News and Information Bureau in May 1968 and initially controlled
under the accession number AA1968/194. The negatives and prints were separated
in 1998, the latter being subsequently controlled individually by print (RGM
prefix) number. Some 105 photographs relate to Menzies’ visit to Indonesia, 104
to Malaya and 22 to the Cocos (Keeling) Islands. The series description and
item titles for each print were revised as part of the Prime Ministers Papers’
Project in December 2002.
Quantity in agency custody
Disposal history
Publication note
Additional information
End notes
1) Austin, R W L, The Shadow of the Durian:
Indonesia observed, p32
2) Martin, A W, Robert
Menzies: a life, Vol 2 (1944-1978), pp405-408
Sources
Austin, R W L, The Shadow of the Durian: Indonesia
observed (Griffith University, Queensland, Australians in Asia series No
10, August 1993)
Martin, A W, Robert Menzies: a life, Vol 2
(1944-1978) (Melbourne University Press, 1999)
National Archives: AA1972/341, item 322 ‘Photograph album
commemorating the visit of Prime Minister Menzies to Indonesia, 1-7 December
1959’; CRS A12187, item 16/37/AIR Part 1 ‘Visit of Prime Minister to Malaya’;
CRS A452, item 59/4387 ‘Visit of Mr R G Menzies to Cocos Island and Darwin’