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Clip description
A very serious speech about the dangers of war and the responsibilities of the Australian people. Menzies delivered it after returning home from Great Britain as the justification for going overseas and to thank his colleagues who looked after the country.
The narrator tells of problems within the Coalition, faction fighting and the time it is taking Menzies to answer his critics rather than allow him to work on the war effort. There is also talk of the complacency of the Australian people and the fact that three of his most trusted ministers had been killed.
Curator’s notes
Menzies was a monarchist and an Anglophile. He belonged to that generation who felt that Australia was very much a part of the British Empire and as Australians they were also British. Menzies’s reverence and loyalty for all things British was evident throughout his life.
Menzies was the first Australian prime minister to travel widely internationally. In 1941, he travelled to the United Kingdom to meet with Winston Churchill’s War Cabinet and spent months discussing war strategy. Upon his return to Australia, Menzies wanted to concentrate on the war effort. But he became very frustrated with all the faction fighting and criticism of his preoccupations and being so long away. The film mentions that the Australian people were said to be complacent, which is fascinating, but does not go on to provide enough detail to explain why.
