CHAPTER 17 The Dead Dog Bounce
A ustralia was offered outright independence from Britain in 1931 after the British parliament passed the Statute of Westminster. Whilst it meant that the Commonwealth of Australia could become a sovereign nation with its own foreign policy, Australia’s federal parliament, which needed to first ratify the statute before it could come into effect, sat on its hands. At another time, such a step towards independence might have been welcomed; however, as talk of war gathered pace throughout the decade, the Australian government believed it needed the protection of a British military presence, and so the statute would not be fully ratified until 1942. Meanwhile, as the Australian wine industry continued to develop on both sides of the island continent, the world was becoming a more dangerous place. The increasing militarisation of an imperialist Japan, with a policy known as nan’yo, or ‘southern expansion’, created widespread fear about Australia’s national security. Japan’s invasion of China’s Manchuria in 1931 began years of uncertainty about the political future of Asia and the Pacific. Although there was anxiety within the federal government, Australian knowledge of Japan’s intentions was surprisingly limited. There was not a single Australian who could be found with sufficient language skills to translate complicated Japanese texts. But Japanese wool buyers visited the colonies quite regularly. And Australian trade commissioners to Japan, China, and the Netherlands, whose possessions included Indonesia, had great hopes for an extension of the wine and brandy market in the east. But a bitter trade dispute in 1935 and 1936 created distrust.
PREVIOUS PAGE: Men ordered to present food relief tickets for inspection because of fraud allegations at a Depression dole queue at No 7 Wharf, Circular Quay, Sydney,
11 June 1931. [Fairfax Media FXJ33149]
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