Walter Nash

Abstract

Walter Nash was born in Kidderminster, England in 1882. He migrated to New Zealand in 1909 and soon joined the New Zealand Labour Party. He was its National Secretary from 1922-31 and in 1929 was elected MP for Hutt in a by-election, a seat he held until his death. As Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister in the first Labour government(1935-49) he was involved in tough trade and finance negotiations with Britain in the years immediately preceding the outbreak of World War II. In 1941 he was appointed Minister to Washington — New Zealand’s first diplomatic representative there - and he put New Zealand on Washington’s political map. (Later New Zealand representatives soon learned that Walter was well and favourably known there for years after the end of his term.) He was Leader of the Opposition in 1950-57 and Prime Minister from 1957 to 1960. Nash acquired a genuine devotion to his adopted country and its interests, but he never lost his affection for Britain, 'the Old Country’ in his words. In 1956 he was exceedingly reluctant to criticise Britain for its part in the Suez debacle until his Labour Party caucus forced his hand. In 1962,he travelled to Britain at Prime Minister Holyoake’s request to talk to Hugh Gaitskell, the British Labour Party leader, and his senior colleagues, about how New Zealand’s interests might best be protected ifthe Macmillan government succeeded with the first British application to join the European Economic Community (EEC), an application effectively vetoed by French President Charlesde Gaulle in 1963.