The Grand Alliance (174 page)

exercises and that “spit and polish” will not be incompatible with effective field training.

2. Pray let me have a further note to show how you
are applying the ideas of this paper, and return it to me.

I have been very much pleased by it.

Prime Minister to Minister of

22.XII.41.

Food

Your minute about the egg distribution scheme.

The fact that 370,000 small producers have enough
gumption to keep chickens is a matter for congratulation; under this head the only complaint I have heard is
that this practice is not sufficiently encouraged. After all,
the backyard fowls use up a lot of scrap, and so save
cereals.

I quite recognize your difficulties, with your imports
cut to one-third, but I hope that you will get in the
quantity which you had planned, so that this important
animal protein which is so essential in the kitchen
should not be deficient.

Prime Minister to C.I.G.S.

22.XII.41.

(Sir Alan Brooke)

Surely it was a very odd thing to create these
outlandish numbered regiments of Dragoons, Hussars,
and Lancers, none of which has car bines, swords, or
lances, when there exist already telescoped up the
18th, 20th, and 19th Hussars, 5th Lancers and 21st
Lancers. Surely all these should have been revived
before creating these new unreal and artificial titles. I
wish you would explain to me what was moving in the
minds of the War Office when they did this.

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AppendixB, Book Two

PRIME MINISTER’S TELEGRAMS TO THE GOVERNMENT OF

AUSTRALIA

Prime Minister to Prime

29.VIII.41.

Minister of Australia
36

Now that you have taken up your great office, I send
you my most cordial good wishes for success, and
assure you that I and my colleagues will do everything
in our power to work with you in the same spirit of
comradeship and good-will as we worked with Mr.

Menzies, who, we are so glad to see, is serving under
you as Minister for the Co-ordination of Defence.

2. We have followed attentively the difficulties which
have arisen in Australia about your representation over
here, and perhaps it will be a help if I let you see our
side of the question and how we are situated.

3. Since the declarations of the Imperial Conference
of 1926, embodied in the Statute of Westminster, all
Dominion Governments are equal in status to that of
the Mother Country, and all have direct access to the
Crown. The Cabinet of His Majesty’s Government of
Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of which at present I
have the honour to be the head, is responsible to our
own Parliament, and is appointed by the King because
they possess a majority in the House of Commons. It
would not be possible, therefore, without organic
changes, about which all the Dominions would have to
be consulted, to make an Australian Minister who is
responsible to the Commonwealth legislature a member
of our body. The precedent of General Smuts in the last
war does not apply, because he was an integral mem-The Grand Alliance

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ber of the War Cabinet of those days, appointed by the
King because of his personal aptitudes, and not because he represented the South African or Dominions
point of view.

4. In practice however whenever a Dominion Prime
Minister visits this country – and they cannot visit it too
often or too long – he is always invited to sit with us
and take a full part in our deliberations. This is because
he is the head of the Government of one of our sister
Dominions, engaged with us in the common struggle,
and has presumably the power to speak with the
authority of the Dominion concerned, not only on
instructions from home, but upon many issues which
may arise in the course of discussion. This is a great
advantage to us, and speeds up business.

5. The position of a Dominions Minister other than
the Prime Minister would be very different, as he would
not be a principal, but only an envoy. Many Dominions
Ministers other than Prime Ministers have visited us
from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and South Africa
during the present war, and I am always ready to confer
with them or put them in the closest touch with the
Ministers of the various departments with which they
are concerned. In the normal course the Secretary of
State for the Dominions and the High Commissioner for
the Dominion concerned look after them, and secure
them every facility for doing any work they may have to
do. This arrangement has given satisfaction, so far as I
am aware, to all concerned.

6. I have considered the suggestion that each of the
Dominions should have a Minister other than the Prime
Minister sitting with us in the Cabinet of the United
Kingdom during this time of war. I have learnt from the
Prime Ministers of the Dominions of Canada, South
Africa, and New Zealand that they do not desire such
representation and are well content with our present
arrangements. Some of the Dominions Prime Ministers
have indeed taken a very strongly adverse view,
holding that no one but the Prime Minister can speak
for their Governments except as specifically instructed,
and that they might find their own liberty of action
prejudiced by any decisions, some of which have to be
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made very quickly in war-time, to which their Minister
became a party.

7. From our domestic point of view, as His Majesty’s
servants in the United Kingdom, there are many difficulties. We number at present eight, and there has been
considerable argument that we should not be more
than five. The addition of four Dominions representatives would involve the retirement from the War Cabinet
of at least an equal number of British Ministers.

Dwelling within a Parliamentary and democratic system,
we rest, like you do, upon a political basis. I should not
myself feel able, as at present advised, to recommend
to His Majesty either the addition of four Dominions
Ministers to the Cabinet of the United Kingdom, which
would make our numbers too large for business, or the
exclusion of a number of my present colleagues, who
are the leading men in the political parties to which they
belong.

8. If you desire to send anyone from Australia as a
special envoy to discuss any particular aspect of our
common war effort, we should of course welcome him
with the utmost consideration and honour, but he would
not be, and could not be, a responsible partner in the
daily work of our Government.

9. His relationship with the existing High Commissioner for Australia and with the Secretary of State for
the Dominions would be for you to decide. It would
seem however if such an envoy remained here as a
regular institution that the existing functions of the High
Commissioner would to some extent be duplicated, and
the relations of the Secretary of State with the High
Commissioners generally might be affected. Such
difficulties are not insuperable, but they may as well be
faced. The whole system of the work of the High
Commissioners in daily contact with the Secretary of
State for the Dominions has worked well, and I am
assured that the three other Dominions would be
opposed to any change.

10. We should of course welcome a meeting of
Dominions Prime Ministers if that could be arranged,
but the difficulties of distance and occasion are, as you
know, very great. We are also quite ready to consider, if
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you desire it, the question of the formation of an
Imperial War Cabinet. So far-reaching a change could
not however be brought about piecemeal, but only by
the general wish of all the Governments now serving
His Majesty.

Prime Minister to Prime

7.IX.41.

Minister of Australia

Our position in Syria and Iraq may be threatened by
a German advance: (a) on Syria through Anatolia; (b)
on Iraq through the Caucasus and Persia (Iran); (c) a
combination of (a) and (b).

Through Anatolia. – If Turkey does not grant passage to German forces the large land and air forces
necessary for conquering Turkey could hardly be
withdrawn from Russia, refitted and reconcentrated, in
less than six to eight weeks. Weather conditions in
Anatolia virtually preclude operations from December 1

to the end of March. We therefore feel that the concentration by the Germans of sufficient forces on the
Turkish frontier to overcome that country is now improbable until a date so late that an attack on Syria through
Anatolia is not likely before the spring.

If however, contrary to expectations, Turkey were to
give passage to German forces, three or four German
divisions might arrive on the Syrian frontier before the
end of the year, and be reinforced at the rate of one
division a month. This force might be supplemented if
sea routes through Turkish territorial waters were
available. A great deal therefore depends on what help
the Turks may expect from us. As to this we have
instructed our Attachés at Ankara to speak on the
following lines:

(a) If Turkey resists we will come to her aid at once
with substantial forces. Our essential object in the
Middle East is the destruction of the German Afrika
Corps and the reconquest of Cyrenaica, but we expect
that at latest by December 1 we could send to Turkey
four divisions and at least one armoured brigade. Air
support will be on a considerable scale, and preparations should be made to receive a force of eight fighter,
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one Army co-operation, two heavy, and six medium
bomber squadrons. (b) We shall provide a strong force
of anti-aircraft artillery for the defence of our own troops
and of those aerodromes allotted to us, and in addition
we are sending to the Turks an immediate and special
consignment of one hundred 3.7-inch anti-aircraft guns.

These are in addition to the normal allocation of six
equipments per month.

Through the Caucasus and Persia. – Even in the
event of an early Russian collapse, a full-scale drive
through the Caucasus on Persia and Iraq would not be
possible this year. The control we have gained in
Persia adds greatly to the security of our right flank in
these regions.

Turning now to our own action to meet a German
advance, whichever way it may come, our first requirement is facilities to operate air forces both offensively
and defensively. Steps are accordingly being taken to
improve and increase aerodrome facilities throughout
this area, and by consent of the Turks in Anatolia.