Curtin’s Article in the “Melbourne Herald”— I Accept Full Responsibility for the Distribution of Our Resources — My Reply to Mr.

Curtin of January 3 — And of January 14 — Safe Arrival of the First Convoy at Singapore —

Explanations to New Zealand— Mr. Curtin’s Cable of January 18, and My Answer — A General Survey— The Australian Case — The Pacific War Councils in London and Washington Begin to Function.

THIS NEW YEAR of the Second World War, 1942, opened upon us in an entirely different shape for Britain. We were no longer alone. At our side stood two mighty Allies. Russia and the United States were, though for different reasons, irrevocably engaged to fight to the death in the closest concert with the British Empire. This combination made final victory certain unless it broke in pieces under the strain, or unless some entirely new instrument of war appeared in German hands. There was indeed a new instrument of war for which both sides were avidly groping.

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As it turned out it was into our already stronger hands that the secret of the atomic bomb was destined to fall. A fearful and bloody struggle lay before us and we could not foresee its course, but the end was sure.

The Grand Alliance had now to face the onslaught of Japan. This had been long prepared, and fell upon the British and American fronts — if such they could be called

— with cruel severity. At no moment could it be conceived that Japan would overcome the United States, but heavy forfeits had to be paid by them, in the Philippines and other islands, and by the British and the hapless Dutch in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Ocean. Russia, in mortal grip with the main German Army, suffered only from the Japanese assault by the diversion of Anglo-American energies and supplies which would have aided her. Britain and the United States had a long period of torturing defeats before them which could not affect the final issue but were hard for their peoples to endure. Britain was naked because our strength was absorbed elsewhere, and the Americans had scarcely begun to gather their almost limitless resources. To us in the British Isles it seemed that everything was growing worse, although on reflection we knew that the war was won.

In spite of the heavy new burdens which fell upon us, there was no addition to our dangers at home. Australia and New Zealand, on the other hand, felt suddenly plunged into the forefront of the battle. They saw themselves exposed to the possibility of direct invasion. No longer did the war mean sending aid across the oceans to the Mother Country in her distress and peril. The new foe could strike straight at Australian homes. The enormous coast-lines of their continent could never be defended. All their great cities were on the seaboard. Their only four well-trained divisions of volunteers and the New Zealand Division, all their best The Hinge of Fate

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officers, were far away across the oceans. The naval command of the Pacific had passed in a flash and for an indefinite period to Japan. Australasian air-power hardly existed. Can we wonder that deep alarm swept Australia or that the thoughts of their Cabinet were centred upon their own affairs?

It will always be deemed remarkable that in this deadly crisis, when, as it seemed to them and their professional advisers, destruction was at the very throat of the Australian Commonwealth, they did not all join together in a common effort. But such was their party phlegm and rigidity that local politics ruled unshaken.