The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has a wonderful
collection of historical documents
all trapped in pulped wood and not digitally indexed or searchable.
Documents pertaining to the Columbo Plan, Malaysia, Trade Agreements, Indonesia Independence, etc, etc; all tied up into $50 and $60 paperbacks and hard covers.
Some
documents are digital
. For instance,
UK's Secretary of State M. McDonald to Joe Lyons
on January 1939;
Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs [2] has received a large number of reports from various reliable sources which throw a most disquieting light on Hitler's [3] mood and intentions. According to these reports Hitler is bitterly resentful at the Munich Agreement which baulked him of a localised war against Czechoslovakia, and demonstrated the will to peace of the German masses in opposition to the war mongering of the Nazi Party. He feels personally humiliated by this demonstration. He regards Great Britain as primarily responsible for this humiliation and his rage is therefore directed principally against this country which he holds to be the chief obstacle now to the fulfilment of his further ambitions.
The
Department of External Affairs to Ballard
in 1946. Some of the other ones in that period have a detailed look at the party politics in Indonesia at the time.
You can inform Sjahrir that our reading of the Cheribon
agreement appears to preclude us at this stage of the negotiations
from formally accrediting a consular or diplomatic representative
to his Government. You should assure him however that we wish to
establish close links with the Indonesian Government and ask for
his general comment on the situation. What we have in mind is that
you should be, for all practical purposes and for the time being,
the Australian representative with the Indonesian Republic.
4. In the absence of any Indonesian commentary on the Cheribon agreement, we are inclined to attach some weight to the view that the agreement would facilitate the emergence, as a self-governing state in international law, of the United States of Indonesia rather than the Republic of Indonesia.
Cablegram from
Percy Spender to Robert Menzies
during the ANZUS negotiations;
Thank you for your telegram 3411.[1] While I fully appreciate the reasons for your view that we should not do anything which might tend to narrow the field of discussion between the United Kingdom and United States, further information which I have just received makes me feel that there is some danger of American misapprehension of the Australian attitude if our views become known to the United States only through the United Kingdom, even though the United Kingdom may be putting forward views which in some general strategic sense are those of the Commonwealth as a whole.
Menzies to Fadden;
Also tell Percy Spender that the Pacific Pact is not at present on the map because the Americans are uneasy about the stability of most Asiatic countries. We do not need a pact with America. They are already overwhelmingly friendly to us.
The Pacific Pact was Percy Spender's idea to make a treaty that ensured a permanent US presence in the Pacific. It was also to try and create a counter-weight to NATO influence which was being put together at the time.
Menzies was cold to it at first, as was the US and UK, but when John Foster Dulles arrived in Australia after the outbreak of the Korean War, the initial impetus of the Pacific Pact was to become ANZUS.
Hopefully DFAT will continue the digitisation of our foreign policy history so it is readily accessible and searchable.
cam
More Reading on Percy spender
Most Popular on South Sea Republic
The articles that have been viewed the most:
Most Popular Restaurants in Phoenix
Phoenix Eats Out is the restaurant review site for
Phoenix,
Scottsdale and
Old Town Scottsdale which lists the modernist and contemporary restaurants, taverns and bars in the greater Phoenix area.
This is the list of the most popular restaurants pages from phoenixeatsout.com that have been viewed the most;
My personal favourite restaurants in Phoenix are
AZ88,
Postinos,
Bomberos with
Grazie,
Humble Pie,
Orange Table,
The Vig,
Fez and others coming close behind. View the complete list with the photo-journalistic style images on
phoenixeatsout.com
Most Popular Hikes in Arizona
Arizona is an outdoor state and has lots of hiking in the city and around the state. Phoenix is unusual for most cities in having several large mountains in the center of the city with great hiking. Anyone who comes to Phoenix has to do the
Echo Canyon trail on Camelback and the
Summit Hike on Squaw Peak or Piesta Peak. The views of the city, suburbs and surrounding mountains are wonderful from Camelback and Piesta Peak.
For more experienced hikers there is the McDowell Mountains in North Scottsdale that has several difficult and strenuous hikes in
Tom's Thumb and
Bell Pass. Alternatively, you can hike the highest mountain in Arizona. At 12,600 feet
Humphrey's Peak is a long and difficult hike.
Alternate Australian Constitutions
Between 2004 and 2009 this site,
southsearepublic.org, was a constitutional blog based on scoop which focused on Australian and global constitutional issues.
One of the strongest aspects of it was the development of constitutions by those involved in the blog. These constitutions are the outcome:
The constitutions were built using principles from Montesquieu's separation of powers, the enlightnment's universal political rights and the ancient Athenian technology of sortition and choice by lot.
Archives For South Sea Republic
South Sea Republic started in 2004 as an Australian constitutional blog in 2004 based on scoop software. It was an immigrative outgrowth of Kuro5hin. The archives for each year since then;
The articles are ordered by views.
Who Is Cam Riley
I am an Australian living in the United States as a permanent resident.
I am a software developer by trade and mostly work in Java and jump between middleware and front end.
I originally worked in the New York area of the United States in telecommunications before moving to Washington DC and
working in a mix of telecommunications, energy and ITS. I started my own software company before heading out to
Arizona and working with Shutterfly. Since then I have joined a startup in the Phoenix area and am thoroughly enjoying myself.
I do a lot of photography which I post on this website, but also on flickr. I have a photo-journalistic website which lists
the modernist and contemporary restaurants in phoenix. I have a site on the
Australian Flying Corps [AFC] which has been around since the 1990s and which I unfortunately
lost the .org URL to during a life event; however, it is under the
www.australianflyingcorps.com URL now.
The AFC website has gone through several iterations since the 90s and the two most recent are
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2004-2002) and
Australian Flying Corps Archives(2002-1999) which are good places to start.
Websites Worth Reading
Websites of friends, colleagues and of interest;
