Summary heading
Function and purpose
This series consists of documents and photographs
accumulated by Sir Joseph Cook as Australia’s representative to the League of
Nations (while Australian High Commissioner to Britain, 1921-27), and as
Australia’s representative to the Imperial War Conference and Imperial War
Cabinet in 1918 and the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919. Sir Joseph accompanied Prime Minister
William Morris Hughes to the Imperial War Conference and Cabinet and the
Versailles Peace Conference while serving as Minister for the Navy.
Included in the series are League of Nations’ reports,
session transcripts, speeches, journals, agendas and lists of delegates, in
addition to an engagements list for June-August 1918 while Cook was attending
the Imperial War Conference and Cabinet and a transcript of a Versailles Peace
Conference session.
The series contains several photographs, including a photograph of Joseph
Cook in a crowd (probably taken at the Versailles Peace Conference) and
photographs of Joseph Cook’s wife, Lady Mary Cook, representing Australia at
the Red Cross Geneva Conference in the early 1920s.
Related legislation
Using the series
Language of material
Physical characteristics
System of arrangement and control
Single number control symbols [1]-[13] have been imposed on
the items in this series by National Archives.
Relationships with other records
Finding aids
Access conditions
Series history
In 1993 the Cook family donated Sir Joseph Cook papers,
including series M3609, to the National Archives of Australia. The collection was initially located at the
New South Wales Office of National Archives but was transferred to the National
Office of National Archives in Canberra in 2001.
Provenance
Series M3609 is part of the personal collection of former
Prime Minister Sir Joseph Cook, although also contains Red Cross Conference
photographs, which were more likely accumulated by Cook’s wife, Dame Mary
Cook. The Cook family donated the
collection to the National Archives in 1993.
Immediate source of acquisition
Custodial history
Quantity in agency custody
Disposal history
Publication note
Additional information
End notes
Sources