Buckingham Palace, 6 December 1974
Personal And Confidential
When Mr. Whitlam lunches with The Queen on 20th December, I suspect he will speak to Her Majesty about the establishment of a comprehensive system of Australian Honours and Awards.
Mr. Emerton, from the office of the Prime Minister in Canberra, came to speak to me about this on 21st November. He told me that Mr. Whitlam, who had hitherto been considering the idea of instituting gallantry awards only, had recently decided to go the whole hog (or kangaroo) and to ask The Queen to institute a comprehensive Australian Order on the lines of the Order of Canada.
I asked Mr. Emerton:
(a) Was it Mr. Whitlam’s expectation that with the establishment of the Australian Order the supply of British Decorations to Australia should cease?
(b) What chances were there of the States accepting the new Order and being prepared to give up British Decorations?
His answer to (a) was ‘yes,’ and his answer to (b) was that South Australia and Tasmania would agree, New South Wales and Victoria would not like it but might be brought to agree, and that Queensland and Western Australia would oppose it.
I pointed out to Mr. Emerton that the United Kingdom Government inevitably came into this business because the States made submissions to The Queen for British Decorations through the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary and asked if I might discuss it with those concerned in London. I have only just received clearance to do this.
Subsequently to Mr. Emerton’s visit, I have received a letter from the Governor-General confirming that Mr. Whitlam will raise this question with The Queen. I have also seen a despatch from the Governor of Victoria which indicates that his Government will take a thoroughly dim view of the whole business.
It will be necessary for me to prepare a brief for The Queen on how Her Majesty should respond to Mr. Whitlam. I shall be most grateful for your advice (with a small ‘a’) on this in so far as the issue affects the United Kingdom Government.
Mr. Whitlam is conscious that one of the reasons why the Australian National Anthem issue went sour was that he never got The Queen to back it. He will not, I think, wish to make the same mistake over the Australian Order. I suspect he may ask The Queen if she will allow him to say that she is in favour of the establishment of an Australian Order which will replace British Decorations.
In so far as her relationship with Mr. Whitlam goes, obviously the more forthcoming The Queen can be the better, but this has to be balanced against the aggravation which the institution of the Order will arouse in Queensland and Western Australia and also, probably, in Victoria and New South Wales. There is also the important aspect of the United Kingdom Government’s involvement.
The Queen might say that it was her wish to do anything calculated to help Australian unity, and that she would gladly give the idea her blessing and approval provided that Mr. Whitlam could first gain general approval for it from the States. But this would probably fail to satisfy Mr. Whitlam as general approval is precisely what he is unlikely to get.
We have always assumed that it would not be practical to run two systems of Honours in Australia in double harness as, apart from the complication of doing so, they would be in competition one with the other, and the result would be divisive rather than unifying.
I believe this is right in principle but it might just be possible to find some compromise by which those States which wished to receive British Decorations could continue to do so for a ‘phasing out’ period.
I am sending a copy of this letter to John Curle.
[UKNA: FCO 24/1934]