Not Quite the True Believer: Henry (Harry) Gullett at the Paris Peace Conference

Abstract

AbstractHenry (Harry) Gullett, the press liaison for the Australian delegation at the Paris peace conference in 1919, was convinced that the valour and sacrifice of Australian soldiers had earned the nation the right to have its voice heard. In this, he was in complete agreement with the Australian prime minister Billy Hughes. Both were equally certain, however, that Australian interests were now ‘grievously imperilled’. These fears were framed not by the potential future actions of Australia's recent enemies, but by a suspicion that its allies were either ignorant of Australian concerns, or dismissive of them. Britain, America and Japan personified Australian fears about the post‐war world, as the correspondence between Gullett and his wife Penelope will attest. Furthermore, this article will show that though the war had been a seismological catastrophe, Gullett saw in it a further validation of his pre‐war commitment to immigration, which bordered on an obsession. Similarly, for the nation as a whole, the years between 1914 and 1918 heightened the strategic and economic concerns that had driven the nation to sacrifice so much of its human and financial treasure. White Australia, the Australian/British relationship and the concern over the nation's strategic vulnerabilities appeared as pressing in 1919 as they had been in 1914.