At War with Bill Jordan: The New Zealand High Commission in Wartime London

Abstract

For the government of New Zealand, the role of high commissioner in the United Kingdom was of paramount significance. The Labour government's 1935 electoral success was followed quickly by the appointment of William Jordan to fill this role. British-born and with a very visible loyalty to the Crown and the imperial idea, during the pre-war years he was nonetheless not averse to offering stringent opinions on British foreign policy. An active participant in the League of Nations, he believed passionately in the value of collective security and the need to forcefully deter the dictators. The war's outbreak in September 1939 hit him particularly hard but his support for the British Empire's greatest challenge remained resolute. His High Commission was blessed with an abundance of talent to handle all the key issues and despite the considerable distances involved, a regular stream of visitors from New Zealand were prepared to make the arduous journey, including among them Prime Minister Peter Fraser. Their host was a complex character who was noted for a ‘volcanic’ temper and clashed regularly with members of his staff, visiting political figures from home, fellow dominions' high commissioners and even British dignitaries. Yet, for the sake of the Commonwealth alliance, all this was kept successfully behind closed doors.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to David Steeds for reading a version of this paper and the many helpful comments he provided. The research for this article would not have been possible without the generous financial assistance provided by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Defence Studies Central Research Fund. The analysis, opinions and conclusions expressed or implied in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the JSCSC, the UK MoD or any other government agency

Notes

Stewart, ‘“The Liquidator”’, 171–94.

Cranborne to Churchill, 17 Nov. 1944, DO 121/10A, Dominions Office papers, The National Archives, London (TNA).

‘Air Chief Marshal Sir Cyril Newall’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 40, 562–64. For an outstandingly researched account of his period in office see McLean, The Governors, 238–46.

Not least, because the high commissioner's position in London had long been one of a kind. Only during the Second World War would the decision be taken to create additional overseas diplomatic positions. In addition to London there were now missions established or in the process of being established in Canberra, Washington, Ottawa and Moscow.

Wood, Political and External, 52–53.

‘Notes on Mr Amery's Tour in Australia and New Zealand’ (Dec. 1927), submitted to cabinet by Prime Minister Stanley Baldwin, 8 Feb 1928, Cabinet Office papers, CAB 24/192, CP37(28), TNA.

Garner, Commonwealth Office, 49.

Sutch, ‘New Zealand and World Affairs’, 721.

Berendsen, ‘Reminiscences of an Ambassador’, book 2, unpublished manuscript, Alister McIntosh papers, MS papers 6759-456, Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington (ATL). These memoirs have now been edited and published by Hugh Templeton as Mr Ambassador: Memoirs of Sir Carl Berendsen. All references in this essay refer to the original and unpublished version.

Wood, Political and External, 13–18; Templeton, ed, ‘Beginnings’, in An Eye, an Ear and a Voice, 6–7; King, Penguin History of New Zealand, 391–92.

John Crawford and James Watson, “The Most Appeasing Line”, 75–97. A fascinating, well-researched and generally convincing article, it is, however, too harsh in its conclusions about Jordan failing to appreciate his complex character, his relationship with Savage and his outlook on global affairs.

Ross, ‘Reluctant Dominion or Dutiful Daughter?’, 38–41; McKinnon, Independence and Foreign Policy, 14–19, 22.

Nash, ‘New Zealand and the Commonwealth’, 31; McKinnon, Independence and Foreign Policy, 23–26. Speaking at the Royal Empire Society in May 1946, while in London for the Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference, Walter Nash, attending as deputy prime minister, told his audience: ‘What do we in New Zealand think of the Commonwealth? Well, we in New Zealand are British: we came from Britain and we naturally think about things in the same way as other British peoples.’ Nash, ‘Britain and the Commonwealth’, 181.

Much of the biographical detail is taken from the excellent work produced by Hickey, ‘“Man in his Time”’.

Similar poverty had been experienced by the future New Zealand wartime prime ministers Peter Fraser, an economic migrant from Scotland, and Michael Savage, who had left Australia in his youth.

He spent over a year at Sling Camp on Salisbury Plain, the main New Zealand military depot, waiting for transport home.

Hickey, ‘“Man in his Time”’, 32.

Ibid., 107.

Interview with Alister McIntosh, 26 April 1978, 1–3, Michael King papers, 77-107-13, ATL. I am grateful to Dr Kent Fedorowich for sharing this reference with me.

Walters, History of League of Nations, 736; Wood, Political and External, 51.

Berendsen, ‘Reminiscences’, book 2, 174.

Jordan to Savage, 6 Oct. 1936, prime ministers' correspondence (Jordan-Savage, Jordan-Fraser correspondence, 1936–40), PM 16/1, Archives New Zealand, Wellington (ANZ).

Hickey, ‘“Man in his Time”’, 111.

Berendsen recalled that, while he was not rebuked for deciding not to give the speech prepared by the New Zealand cabinet, ‘it was made clear to, and in the end, accepted by Jordan, that he was in fact the servant, and not the master of the Government, the instrument of its policy and not its founder’. Berendsen, ‘Reminiscences’, book 2, 178.

MacDonald to Anthony Eden, secretary of state for foreign affairs, 30 Sept. 1936, DO 121/2, TNA.

Writing post-war, Sir Alister McIntosh had commented that ‘the United Kingdom were finding it so difficult to come to grips with Jordan that Malcolm [MacDonald] found contact through their respective duodenal ulcers’. McIntosh to Berendsen, 1 Feb. 1950, in McGibbon, ed., Undiplomatic Dialogue, 203. With the end of the Spanish Civil War in 1939, New Zealand was the only dominion not to recognise the new Franco regime.

MacDonald to Eden, 17 Sept. 1937, DO 121/2, TNA.

MacDonald to Galway, 6 Oct. 1937, Lord Avon papers, FO 954/4A, TNA.

Minute by MacDonald, 9 Oct. 1937, DO 121/93, TNA.

Harvey, ed., Diplomatic Diaries, 138, diary entry, 12 May 1938.

MacDonald to Galway, 15 Feb. 1938, FO 954/4A, TNA.

Berendsen, ‘Reminiscences’, book 2, 164, 198 and 172.

Wood, Political and External, 52.

Foster, ‘Sir William Joseph Jordan’ (http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/1966/J/JordanSirWilliamJosephPcKcmg/en).

Garner, Commonwealth Office, 199. He also notes Cranborne's Freudian slip at a farewell dinner: ‘When Bill Jordan got up to speak at the League of Nations, it was like a breath of hot air!’

Lee, Rhetoric at the Red Dawn, 84.

‘William Joseph Jordan 1879–1959’, Dictionary of New Zealand Biography (DNZB), vol. 4, 260–61. When other diplomats mentioned that they were university Blues at Oxford or Cambridge, he would proudly mention that he was a London Blue (i.e. that he had been a policeman). Hickey, ‘“Man in his Time”’, 46.

‘Comments by William Jordan at a meeting of Dominion delegates at Geneva’, 12 Sept. 1938, DO 114/94, TNA.

Hickey, ‘“Man in his Time”’, 123. It is interesting to note the comments about Jordan's successor, Frederick Doidge: ‘[he] was sometimes seen as more English than an Englishman, his loyalty to the Crown “almost a religion”. He was one of the last of the “Empire Citizens”: although born in Australia and spending 30 years of life in New Zealand, he regarded Britain as “Home” and devoted his career to reviving the old imperial relationship’. ‘Frederick Widdowson Doidge 1884–1954’, DNZB, vol. 5, 148–49.

‘Jordan’, DNZB, vol. 4, 261.

Berendsen, ‘Reminiscences’, book 2, 258.

W. G. Stevens, ‘Recall without Repining’, 212, unpublished memoirs, Stevens papers, 84-006-2/3, ATL.

Stevens to McIntosh, 2 April 1950, McIntosh papers, MS papers 6759-352, ATL.

Cumpston, Lord Bruce, 159. Bruce in turn was said to be impatient with Jordan's general lack of interest, presumably in the role that might be played by the dominion high commissioners in helping shape British Commonwealth policies. Garner, who was well placed to judge the merits of each, thought that Bruce was frequently wrong in his views, highly demanding and liable to be importunate. Garner, Commonwealth Office, 269.

Bissell, Imperial Canadian, 124, 110–11.

Diary entry, 22 Jan. 1942, A3.8 (1942), BC 631, Sydney Waterson papers, University of Cape Town Archives and Library.

‘Jordan’, DNZB, vol. 4, 261.

Diary entry, 26 Aug. 1939, INKP 2, Sir Thomas Inskip papers, Churchill Archive Centre, Cambridge.

Mansergh, Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs, 202.

Belshaw, ‘New Zealand in the Post-War World’, 388–89.

Throughout the 1930s New Zealand was sending around 97 per cent of her meat, butter and cheese exports to Britain. McKinnon, Independence and Foreign Policy, 54. According to another historian, ‘New Zealand was virtually nothing more than Britain's overseas farm’. Ross, ‘Reluctant Dominion’, 41. Also see Stewart, ‘Instruments of British Policy’, 176–81.

Belshaw, ‘New Zealand in the Post-War World’, 389.

Ross, ‘Reluctant Dominion’, 41.

Cain and Hopkins, British Imperialism, 511–14; minute by Sir Eric Machtig, assistant under-secretary of state, Dominions Office, 25 Feb. 1939, DO 35/548/4, D 210/34, TNA.

Sinclair, Walter Nash, 177.

Nonetheless during the first three years of the war, New Zealand produced and shipped to Britain 821 million pounds of butter, 681 million pounds of cheese, 2,029 billion pounds of meat and 2.2 million bales of wool. Nash, ‘New Zealand's Total War Effort’, 138.

Wood, ‘New Zealand in Wartime’, 137–38.

As one New Zealand writer points out, however, none of the lessons from the pre-war period were learnt and when these agreements expired in 1954 the country would find itself, once again, in a dire financial position. McKinnon, ‘“Equality of Sacrifice”’, 73.

The situation was only finally resolved with his appointment in November 1946 as the first chairman of the Public Service Commission in Wellington. ‘Richard Mitchelson Campbell 1897–1974’, DNZB, vol. 5, 91–92.

Wood, Political and External, 53.

McIntosh, ‘Origins of the Department of External Affairs’, 12–15; ‘Carl August Berendsen 1890–1973’, DNZB, vol. 4, 52–54. The war would see the requirement for a much enhanced awareness of the international system and this ultimately led, in 1943, to the formal establishment of a Department of External Affairs. With the outbreak of war Berendsen's duties were expanded to include secretary to the War Cabinet. The added responsibility and an increasingly tempestuous relationship with Prime Minister Fraser had a detrimental effect on his health. On the verge of nervous collapse, in March 1943 he moved to Canberra to become New Zealand's first high commissioner to Australia. Templeton, ed, ‘Carl Berendsen’ and Frank Corner', in An Eye, an Ear and a Voice, 11, 66–67.

‘Peter Fraser 1880–1950’, DNZB, vol. 4, 182–87.

Wards, ‘Peter Fraser: Warrior Prime Minister’, 146.

Garner, Commonwealth Office, 154.

Nash's visits had begun before the war, first between November 1936 and July 1937 for discussions about trade and finance, which included the Coronation and the Imperial Conference, and then from June to August 1939 for negotiations connected to the financial crisis.

Powles, ‘Defence Forces of New Zealand’, 530.

Kippenberger, ‘New Zealand Army’, 71.

Sutch, ‘New Zealand’, 721.

Perry, Commonwealth Armies, 180–85; ‘Action taken by the Dominions’, 17 Oct. 1939, CAB 68/2, WP(R)(39)50, TNA.

For an excellent contemporary summary compared to the effort of its fellow Tasman dominion, see Jackson, British Empire, chapter 14, particularly 485–88.

Perry, Commonwealth Armies, 180–85.

‘Notes on New Zealand's War Effort and Future Participation in Pacific War’, 5 May 1944, DO 35/1631, WF 503/3/6, TNA; ‘British Empire War Casualties’, CAB 106/305, ibid.

His apparent and well-publicised generosity contrasted with his reputation among officials for tight-fistedness. ‘Jordan’, DNZB, vol. 4, 261.

Jordan to Fraser, 1 Aug. 1940, PM 16/1, ANZ.

Illustrated Magazine, 29 April 1944.

Ibid.

Campbell to Berendsen, 24 June 1940, McIntosh papers, MS papers 6759-020, ATL.

Jordan to Fraser, 9 May 1940, New Zealand Defence Force, Personnel Files, AABK W4471/1, part 2, ANZ.

Campbell to Berendsen, 24 June 1940, McIntosh papers, MS papers 6759-020, ATL.

‘One of us will have to go, brother’, Jordan told Campbell at one point, ‘and it will not be ME’. To Stevens, he was ‘the most unforgetting and unforgiving man I have ever known. His hatred of Wellington transcends all reason.’ ‘Jordan’, DNZB, vol. 4, 261.

Campbell to Berendsen, 24 June 1940, McIntosh papers, MS papers 6759-020, ATL.

The New Zealand prime minister, nonetheless, remained loyal to his high commissioner: ‘I was pleased that Mr Jordan was able to call and see you. He is a very fine man and very easy to get on with, always jovial and jocular. He is easily the best and most popular High Commissioner that New Zealand has ever had in London’. Fraser to Thomas Skinner, trade unionist and New Zealand Labour party activist, 7 Aug. 1943, TSkinner 2, ANZ.

Templeton, ed, ‘Frank Corner’, in An Eye, an Ear and a Voice, 93.

‘Jordan’, DNZB, vol. 4, 261; Sinclair, Walter Nash, 246; Bassett and King, Tomorrow Comes the Song, 314.

McKinnon, Independence and Foreign Policy, 89–93.

‘Note of a Meeting with the Dominion High Commissioners’, 11 Feb. 1941, DO 121/11, TNA.

McIntosh to Berendsen, 6 March 1950, and Berendsen to McIntosh, 28 March 1950, in McGibbon, ed., Undiplomatic Dialogue, 217–18, 222.

The Times, 31 Aug. 1945. This carried the announcement that Jordan's tenure was being extended by three years.

Stevens, ‘Recall without Repining’, 212.

Garner, Commonwealth Office, 44; also see Lloyd, ‘“What's in a Name?”’, 47–78.

Speech by Batterbee to the Victoria League made on the eve of his departure to New Zealand, Dec. 1938, The Victoria League Monthly Notes, no. 344 (Jan. 1939), MSS NZ s. 13, box 15, folder 2, item 1, Sir H. F. Batterbee papers, Rhodes House Library, Oxford.

Jordan to Fraser, 17 Sept. 1940, AABK W4471/1, part 2, ANZ.