Canberra, 23 May 1974
Confidential
1. The Minister of State for Defence (Mr Rodgers)1 saw the Prime Minister yesterday, 22 May, accompanied by myself.
2. As already reported to London (Canberra telegram No 463, paragraph 7), Mr Whitlam began the conversation by referring to the Constitutional points which he said he hoped to discuss with the Prime Minister and the Lord Chancellor when Mr Whitlam visits London next month (as he trusts he will be able to do).2
3. Mr Whitlam said he would be asking for the co-operation of British Ministers in bringing to an end the anachronistic relationship which still existed between the United Kingdom Government and the Australian States. It was anomalous that there should still exist in Australia what amounted to six British Crown colony governments. State Governors were appointed by The Queen, acting on the advice of British Ministers, in Her capacity as Queen of the United Kingdom. State Governors (and some State Governments) still flew the Union Jack. State Governments communicated direct (through the respective State Governors) with the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Relations and vice versa. All these colonial relics were incompatible with the position of Australia as a separate, sovereign country. It was anomalous also that recommendations should still be made by some State Governments to The Queen for the award to Australian Nationals of British Honours, including honours in the Order of the British Empire (terminology which was in any case quite obsolete).
4. Mr Rodgers said British Ministers would listen attentively to whatever Mr Whitlam had to say on these matters when he went to London, and—he felt sure—would do their best to be as helpful as they could.
5. Mr Whitlam then said that some of Australia’s current problems arose from what he called the ‘imperial aftermath’. As a result of British policy in colonial times, there were now large numbers of Asians (mostly of Indian descent) settled in such countries as Fiji, Malaysia, Singapore and South and East Africa. Many of the descendants of these Asians no longer felt comfortable where they were and were hoping to find a new home in Australia (where they would rather settle than in Britain or India). This was a difficult situation for the Australians to handle.
6. Another problem had arisen for Australia out of the unwinding of Britain’s former imperial defence commitments in South-East Asia and the Far East. Though of major continuing interest to Britain, such territories as Hong Kong, Brunei and even Singapore were not of equally great concern to Australia, whose primary concern was with the immediately adjacent Asian and Pacific countries (especially Indonesia). Yet Australia had been drawn into shouldering some of Britain’s former military commitments, in the areas which were of lesser interest to Australia. Mr Whitlam added that he recognised the dignity and propriety with which successive British Governments had handled the problems arising from the British imperial legacy. But he thought we would have done better to seek more radical solutions earlier; and he felt that some of our economic and other difficulties of recent years had sprung from our failure to detach ourselves sooner from outmoded attitudes and commitments.
1 William Rodgers, Minister of State for Defence, 1974-76. Rodgers was in Australia for discussions about the Five-Power Defence Arrangements in Malaysia and Singapore.
2 Whitlam’s visit, originally scheduled for June 1974, was put back to December.
[UKNA: FCO 57/599]