| Summary: | This thesis deals with the politics, foreign policies and diplomacy and of Australia and New
Zealand in the Second World War focusing upon relations between the two countries. It is
a study of the decline of the British Empire-Commonwealth and rise of the United States
and the differing ways in which the Australian and New Zealand governments reacted to
these dramatic changes.
The Australian and New Zealand governments were drawn together twice to meet
two uncomfortable outside influences - one a threatening Japanese invasion, and secondly
United States intentions in the Pacific, affecting Australian freedom of action.
The Japanese threat was significant because the Australian and New Zealand
governments reacted in different ways to the declining power of the Empire-Commonwealth
in relation to the rising power of the United States in the Pacific. The Australian
government's relations with the Empire-Commonwealth soured dramatically as Curtin's
government appeared to move out of the imperial framework and sought close relations
with the United States. The New Zealand government, in contrast, was more inclined to
remain within the imperial framework and did not react dramatically to the decline of the
Empire-Commonwealth.
These divergent reactions help to explain the differences of opinion between the
Australian and New Zealand governments over manpower and the location of their armed
forces - respectively in Pacific and the Mediterranean.
The second outside uncomfortable influence, the United States increasing interest in
the Pacific from mid 1943, led to the Australian-New Zealand Agreement which was a
landmark in trans-Tasman relations.
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