ANZAC and Empire

ANZAC and Empire: George Foster Pearce and the Foundations of Australian Defence

John Connor

Cambridge University Press, 2011, 235pp, $59.95

John Connor has written an interesting biography of Pearce, Australia’s longest serving Defence Minister.  He focuses on Pearce’s public life, because little information is available on his private life.  Perhaps for this reason, the book feels incomplete.

Connor stresses that ignoring the British Empire context of this period would produce a narrow understanding of Australia’s role in the First World War, a failing of many modern historians that he takes pains to avoid.  He notes that in an age before ‘official’ multiculturalism, the former carpenter and trade unionist Pearce (like many of his contemporaries) considered himself ‘both British and Australian, and saw no contradiction between the two’.

Connor also notes that Pearce was a man of his times in his racial attitudes.  These attitudes, and the Russo-Japanese War that started in 1904, sparked Pearce’s interest in defence.  While his fears of Japan at that time might have been exaggerated, they remained a constant in his political life through to the 1930s, when he sponsored rearmament to defend against a then more realistic fear of Japanese aggression.

Connor traces Pearce’s early development as Defence Minister, including his support for the Navy, military aviation and compulsory service, and the despatch of the First AIF overseas and maintaining it in action.  However, he misses the opportunity to discuss in more detail the background to the (over) expansion of the AIF in 1916. This occurred even though the need for conscription to maintain its strength was already obvious.  The later heavy casualties at Fromelles and Pozières should have caused a re-think, and it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that this expansion caused many unnecessary problems, military and political, as the war proceeded.

Connor demonstrates that while Pearce was generally a successful minister during the First World War, he failed in the detailed administration of his Department – a task that has also beaten many of his successors!  However, whatever Pearce’s failings during the First World War, Connor correctly rejects suggestions that his eccentric Canadian counterpart Sam Hughes performed better.  At least Australia did not have to establish a separate department overseas to remove the administration of its expeditionary force from the minister!

A darker side of Pearce’s character is displayed by his willingness to censor dissenting views and to intern Germans whom he considered might pose a threat.  However, Pearce and Hughes stood firm against applying capital punishment to the AIF, albeit on political rather than moral grounds.

Connor follows Pearce’s involvement in post-war defence planning, including the establishment of the RAAF and his attendance at the Washington naval disarmament conference.  While Pearce sought ‘counsels of practicability’ rather than ‘of perfection’ for the post-war development of the Army, it is difficult to avoid the conclusion that its senior officers sought to re-create the AIF, without the logistic support needed to operate independently.

While he was attending the Washington Conference, Pearce was moved to become Minister for Home and Territories.  Again becoming Minister for Defence in 1932, he commenced planning for rearmament against the Japanese threat. Inter-service rivalries hampered preparations, however, and a proposal for a regular brigade went nowhere before Pearce became Minister for External Affairs in 1934.  After losing his Senate seat in 1937, he served on the Business Board of Defence Administration during the Second World War.

This book gives a good description of Pearce’s public career, and is worth reading.  For the later years of Pearce’s time in Defence, reading it alongside David Horner’s biography of Sir Frederick Shedden might give a broader context.

JOHN DONOVAN