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In 1914 the role of the governor-general, as the British monarch’s representative in Australia, was to ensure that Britain’s imperial policies (those relating to countries who were members of the British Empire) were carried out in Australia.
- Executive Summary
- Introduction
- Declarations of War
- A Blank Cheque
- A Separate Declaration of War?
- Executive and The Parliament
- Further Reading
On 31 July 1914 in an election speech at Colac in Victoria, the Opposition Leader Andrew Fisher (ALP) famously declared that ‘should the worst happen, after everything has been done that honour wil...Only days later, Britain declared war against Germany on 4 August 1914. The spark that lit the fuse of war was the 28 June 1914 assassination of the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Fr...It is unlikely that Fisher or his contemporaries had any idea of the human and financial sacrifice of Australia’s commitment. Overall, 324,000 members served overseas with the Australian Imperial F...In 1914, the British Imperial Government remained responsible for the foreign policy of the empire, including declarations of war, so the British Government of Herbert Asquith did not need to consu...On 31 July 1914 in an election speech at Colac in Victoria, the Opposition Leader Andrew Fisher (ALP) famously declared that ‘should the worst happen, after everything has been done that honour will permit, Australians will stand beside the mother country to help and defend her to our last man and our last shilling’. Fisher’s speech occurred in the...
The growing dangers arising from nationalist and territorial disputes in the Balkans had been recognised as early as the 1878 Congress of Berlin, when German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck famously noted: Europe today is a powder keg and the leaders are like men smoking in an arsenal ... A single spark will set off an explosion that will consume us a...
First, it is unlikely that Fisher had any idea just how costly the human and financial sacrifice of this blank cheque policy would be for Australia. Overall, 324,000 members served overseas with the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). As the Australian War Memorial states, for Australia, the First World War remains our most costly conflict in terms of...
A second notable issue is that Australia had no choice about whether to go to war. Notwithstanding that the Australian Constitution provided that the Commonwealth Parliament could legislate with respect to both defence and external affairs (subsections 51(vi) and (xxix) respectively), and the Executive had the broader executive power of section 61,...
A third issue that continues to be controversial today is the extent to which the Australian Parliament, as distinct from the executive government, does or should play a role in decisions to commit troops to conflict. Under the Australian Constitution, the power to declare war is the prerogative of the executive arm of government, which as noted ab...
J Beaumont, Broken Nation: Australian in the Great War, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 2013 C Clarke, Sleepwalkers: How Europe went to war in 1914, Penguin, Sydney, 2013 M Glenny, The Balkans: 1804—2012: Nationalism, war and the great powers, Granta Books, London, 2012 P Ham, 1914: The Year the world ended, Random House, North Sydney, 2014 M MacMillan, T...
The Crown’s representatives in Australia were the six state governors and the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, Sir Ronald Munro Ferguson (1860-1934), a Scottish Liberal politician and former army officer.
Governor-General Sir Ronald Munro Ferguson with his wife, Lady Helen Munro Ferguson, and others at Government House, Melbourne, in about 1914. NAA M3614, 3 Even before Britain had declared war, the critical question facing Australian politicians was how they could support the war.
Governor-General – Thomas Denman, 3rd Baron Denman (until 18 May), then Ronald Munro Ferguson. Prime Minister – Joseph Cook (until 17 September), then Andrew Fisher. Chief Justice – Samuel Griffith.
On 11 November, Governor-General of Australia Sir Ronald Ferguson received a cablegram from the Secretary of State for the Colonies on behalf of King George V. The message announced the signing of the armistice with Germany and thanked the Australian people for their support.
The governor–general played a remarkably activist role in Australia during the war and kept detailed accounts of his discussions and doings. His papers, now in the National Library of Australia, allowed Scott intimate access to the federal political process.
