Cablegram unnumbered 1 September 1939, 8.20 p.m.
IMMEDIATE CLEAR THE LINE
Although overseas broadcast news most alarming [2] no advice yet received from British Government. Glad receive your most urgent advice.
MENZIES
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1 The copy in the Bruce papers gives this time of receipt (on file AA: M100, September 1939).
2 At 5.40 a.m. Berlin time German radio broadcast Hitler’s proclamation to the Army: ‘Poland has refused a peaceful settlement and has appealed to arms. In order to put an end to the intolerable conditions existing I have no other choice than to meet force with force’. News of the proclamation was received in Australia at 4.30 p.m. In Canberra time (see AA: A1608, A41/1/1, iv). At 5.30 p.m. Canberra time a radio report from New York announced that German aeroplanes had bombed three railway stations in Poland (AA: A1608, A41/1/1, iv). The evening news (c. 7 p.m.) reported fighting on the German-Polish border and bombing of Polish towns (Melbourne Age, 2 September 1939, p. 27).
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[AA: CP290/6, ITEM 27]