Series number

AWM68

Series title

Official History, 1939-45 War, Series 4 (Civil) Volumes I and II: Records of Paul Hasluck

Contents date range

1930-1971

Extent

9.8 metres 

Access conditions

Subject to the Australian Archives Act (1983)

Agency controlling

Australian War Memorial

Custodial agency

Australian War Memorial

Function and provenance

The 22 volume official history of the Second World War entitled Australia in the war of 1939-45 was published between 1952 and 1977 under the general editorship of Gavin Long who also wrote volumes one, two and seven of Series 1 (Army).  The authors of the other volumes were chosen by the government’s War History Committee which was composed of the Prime Minister, the Minister for the Interior, the Minister for External Affairs and the Leader of the Opposition.  Each author was required to sign a contract with the Department of the Interior to complete their work within a specific time, usually four years.  A number of these contracts were later extended.

The Civil Series (Series 4), consisting of five volumes, covers the home front during the Second World War.  In November 1944 the War History Committee appointed Paul Hasluck, to write volume one of the series relating to the political and social history of Australia during the war.  His volume was later extended to a two volume work in 1950.

Paul Meernaa Caedwalla Hasluck was born in Fremantle, Western Australia on 1 April 1905.  He attended a number of schools before winning a scholarship to Perth Modern School from 1918-1922.  Two months prior to leaving school he was offered a night job at the offices of The West Australian newspaper and in January 1923 he joined the staff as a cadet journalist.  In 1927, while still working for the newspaper, he commenced a part-time degree at the University of Western Australia in journalism and in the 1930s completed his masters.  He returned to the university in 1939 as a part-time lecturer and in the following year became a full-time lecturer.

Hasluck was seconded to the Department of External Affairs in 1941 where he took charge of the Post-War Reconstruction Section and the research and publication activities of the department.  He was a member of a number of Australian delegations to several international conferences including the San Francisco Conference in April-June 1945 which drew up the United Nations Charter and the head of the Australian Mission to the United Nations in New York in 1946-1947.  Hasluck returned to Australia in March 1947 and formally resigned from the department in August 1947 following clashes with his minister, Dr H. V. Evatt.  He returned to the University of Western Australia as a Reader in History and also began working full time on his volume of the official history. 

In December 1949 Hasluck stood for Federal Parliament in the Western Australian seat of Curtin and was subsequently elected.  He agreed to have his official historian’s contract terminated and offered to complete the work without further payment.  As he had finished a considerable portion of the work by this time his offer was accepted by Long.  In March 1950 Long recommended to the Minister for the Interior that Hasluck’s volume which had become longer than originally planned be divided into two volumes. Following this decision the first volume was revised and published in 1952 under the title The government and the people, 1939-1941.

While the first volume was mostly Hasluck’s own work a proportion of the second volume was initially written by Joyce Fisher, research assistant to Syd Butlin, another of the home front historians.  Hasluck had completed the early chapters of the second volume.  Fisher wrote draft narratives for various later chapters which were then sent to Hasluck for re-editing or rewriting where necessary.  She also undertook further research for Hasluck as required.  Long also contributed to some chapters as well as Bill Sweeting who replaced Long as general editor of the series in 1963.  Appendix one of the volume was written by Fisher and appendix two by Sweeting.  Progress on the volume was very slow due to Hasluck’s public commitments.  The bulk of the draft manuscript had been completed by the end of 1963 but editorial revision continued until 1969.  The volume was finally published in 1970 under the title The government and the people 1942-45.

In 1951 Hasluck was appointed the Minister for Territories, a position he held for 12 years.  He was briefly Minister for Defence in 1963-1964 before becoming Minister for External Affairs from 1964-1969.  In the 1969 federal election he was narrowly beaten by John Gorton for the position of Prime Minister following the death of Harold Holt in 1967.  Gorton offered him the position of Governor-General which he held until 1974.  He declined a second term of office and retired to Perth where he remained active in cultural and political affairs and continued his writing until his death in 1993.

Sir Paul Hasluck was appointed a Privy Councillor in 1966, created a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) in 1969, a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) in 1970 and a Knight of the Garter in (KG) in 1979.  His other works include Black Australians: a survey of native policy in Western Australia 1829-1897 (1942), Workshop of security (1948), Collected verse (1969), An open go (1971), Mucking about: an autobiography (1977), Time for building: Australian administration in Papua New Guinea, 1951-1963 (1988), Diplomatic witness: Australian foreign affairs, 1941-1947 (1980), Dark cottage (1984) and Shades of darkness, Aboriginal affairs, 1925-1965 (1988). 

Very little documentation is available relating to the transfer of Hasluck’s papers to the Australian War Memorial (AWM).  A typescript of volume one with amended notes by the author was transferred to the AWM by Gavin Long in December 1955 and accessioned as 3DRL/2032.  A small number of files which Hasluck handed over to the War History Section in March 1970 were accessioned as 3DRL/3670.

It is highly probable that the remainder of his collection became part of the official historians’ material that accumulated in the War History Section which was administered by the AWM.  The material would have been transferred to the AWM by the time the War History Section was disbanded in 1972.  This material, consisting of two distinct collections, was accessioned in 1984 as 3DRL/8051 and 3DRL/8052.  Information on file indicates that the material was also sorted at this time and some preliminary listings done.  However, this project does not appear to be completed.

The series became known as AWM68 in the mid 1980s when the Memorial adopted its new numbering system for Official Records.

Hasluck's ministerial and official files are held by the National Archives of Australia in Canberra.  A collection of his personal papers is held at the National Library of Australia in the Manuscript collection at MS 5274.

Content

This series consists of papers created by Hasluck during the writing of his two volumes of Series 4 (Civil) of the official history Australia in the war of 1939-45.  It includes:

·          Correspondence,

·          Draft manuscripts,

·          Typescripts with annotations and revisions of various chapters,

·          Government publications and reports,

·          Journal articles,

·          Newspaper cuttings,

·          Pamphlets,

·          Photographs,

·          Research files and

·          Galley proofs. 

They cover a wide range of topics relating to wartime economic, political and social conditions.  A large proportion of the research material was compiled for Hasluck by his research assistants including Ruth Atkins, Nancy Penman and Joyce Fisher.

It is possible that there are some estrays within this series.  File information indicates that records belonging to other official historians were removed from this series and returned to their own series in 1986.  More estrays may still reside with Hasluck’s material, e.g., 3DRL 8052/75 is a report on conditions in prisoner of war camps in Singapore which was prepared by Phillip Head and probably sent to the Gavin Long and not Hasluck.  Also, files 3DRL/8052 248-255 appear to relate to the Army volume written by David Dexter.

System of arrangement and control

File information indicates that curatorial staff worked on the series in the early 1980s.   Notes on the series dossier indicate that the collection of material accessioned as 3DRL/8052 contained some papers which had been organised and assigned a classification number.  Where possible this original filing system, which consisted of four different subseries, was reconstituted prior to the listing of the records.  This system was possibly implemented by Joyce Fisher in 1959 when she took on the task of assisting Hasluck with the writing and preparation of the second volume.  At the time she requested that all of the research material which was held by Hasluck in Perth be sent to Canberra for her use.  Hasluck’s other assistants may have also assigned file numbers to material during the course of their research.

The material accessioned as 3DRL/8051 does not appear to have been in any order and was subsequently listed by AWM staff using an imposed single number system.

The series was entered onto the RecordSearch database in 1988.  The individual file (item) numbers now consist of the original accession or DRL number accompanied by a single running number, e.g, 3DRL 8052/250.  In some cases the running numbers have been assigned a part number as well, e.g., 3DRL 8052/244A.

Using the series

Each item in the series is recorded on the RecordSearch database which researchers can access via the Internet.  Further assistance in finding relevant information may be gained from related series of records (click on Series Links at the bottom of this page).

Researchers should also consult the papers of Gavin Long, the General Editor of the official history series (AWM67), as they may contain additional information relating to authors or campaigns.  A separate guide to these papers was published by the Memorial in 1993 with the title A guide to the records of Gavin Long.

The Memorial’s registry files (AWM93) may also be of interest.  For most volumes, there is a file relating to the appointment of the relevant official historian and usually other correspondence files relating to its writing.

Sources

AWM administrative file, AWM68 Series dossier

AWM93, 50/9/3/2A, Part 1, [Australian War Memorial registry file:] Official History, 1939-45 War: History of the Home Front: Volume II - Civil: Correspondence regarding plans, scope, etc [Part 1 of 2]

AWM93, 50/9/3/2A, Part 2, [Australian War Memorial registry file:] Official History, 1939-45 War: History of the Home Front: Volume II - Civil: Correspondence regarding plans, scope, etc [Part 2 of 2]

AWM93, 50/9/3/9, [Australian War Memorial registry file:] Official History, 1939-45 War. History of the Home Front (Civil series)

AWM93, 50/9/3/10, [Australian War Memorial registry file:] Official History, 1939-45 War. Appointment of the Home Front historians

AWM93, 50/9/3/10A, [Australian War Memorial registry file:] Official History, 1939-45 War: Home Front historians: General correspondence with Mr Paul Hasluck

Dennis, Peter …[et al.] 1995, The Oxford companion to Australian military history, Oxford University Press, Melbourne

Hasluck, Paul 1994, Mucking about: an autobiography, University of Western Australia Press, Nedlands, WA

Stannage, Tony   [et al.] 1998, Paul Hasluck in Australian history: civic personality and public life, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Qld

National Archives of Australia, RecordSearch database, Person notes for CP115, The Rt Hon Sir Paul Meernaa Caedwalla Hasluck KG, GCMG, GCVO, KStJ, PC

http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/PersonDetail.asp?M=3&B=CP+115

[accessed 1 December 2004]