‘Sometimes a little injustice must be suffered for the public good’
How the National Security (Aliens Control) Regulations 1939 (Cth) affected the lives ofGerman, Italian, Japanese and Australian born women living in Australia
during the Second World War.
Doctor of Philosophy
Maria Glaros
University of Western Sydney
2012
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Acknowledgements
This thesis would not have been possible without the assistance from my supervisors Judith Snodgrass,
Carol Liston and Elizabeth Roberts. Judith and Carol have guided me throughout the years, providing
invaluable support and have helped me develop my methodological approach. I would like to thank
Elizabeth for her support, encouragement and enthusiasm in the topic. All supervisors have been
patient and understanding throughout my experience and for this I am most grateful.
Thank you to all my friends who provided their encouragement during my study, especially Kate Gould,
Raylene Dagher and Penny Karanasos. I would also like to express my gratitude to all the women who
agreed to participate in interviews and contributed to this research. I would also like to recognize the
staff at the National Archives of Australia, National Library, State Library, and University Western
Sydney library.
And finally, I would like to acknowledge and thank my parents who have supported me and offered
their assistance since I began this project. And most importantly, a big thank you to my wonderful,
husband Emanuel, who has been patient and supportive from the start to finish of this thesis.
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Statement of Originality
The work presented in this thesis is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, original except as
acknowledged in the text. I hereby declare that I have not submitted this material, either in full or in
part, for a degree at this or any other institution.
....................................................................................................
(Signature)
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Contents Page
List of Tables v
List of Appendices vi
Abbreviations vii
Abstract viii
Introduction 1
PART I: OUT BREAK OF WAR
Chapter One: The Rule of Law 38
Chapter Two: ‘…for the glory of greater Italy’: Italian cruisers MV Remo and
MV Romolo 90
PART II: ENEMY ALIENS ON LAND
Chapter Three: German at Heart 130
Chapter Four: Risk to National Security 182
Chapter Five: ‘Interned as a precautionary measure’ 225
PART III: VICTIMS OF CIRCUMSTANCE
Chapter Six: ‘A certain war psychosis’: German Jewish Women living in
New South Wales during the Second World War. 263
Chapter Seven: The Wives of Enemy Aliens 313
Conclusion 351
Appendices 356
Bibliography 371
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List of Tables
Page
Table 1 Registration figures of enemy alien, 30 September 1945 51
Table 2 Internment Figures, 31 March 1944 185
Table 3 Ages of 116 Italian women living in New South Wales
during the Second World War 186
Table 4 Ages of 151 German‐Jewish women living in New South
Wales during the Second World War 268
Table 5 Ages Australian‐born women living in New South
Wales during the Second World War 315
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List of Appendices
Page
Appendix One: A list of the Classification of Nationals 356
Appendix Two: Surveillance Organization Chart – First World War 357
Appendix Three: Surveillance Organization Chart – Second World War 358
Appendix Four: Registration, Questionnaire & Parole Form 359
Appendix Five: Application Form to Own a Wireless 367
Appendix Six: Application for Naturalization 369
Appendix Seven: DVD ‐ Details of 750 women examined in this study 370
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Abbreviations
ABC Australian Broadcasting Commission
ACAC Aliens Classification and Advisory Committee
AJWS Australian Jewish Welfare Society
ALP Australian Labor Party
AMF Australian Military Forces
ARO Aliens Registration Officer
ASIO Australian Security Intelligence Branch
AWAS Australian Women's Auxiliary Services
AWC Allied Works Council
BBC British Broadcasting Commission
BHP Broken Hill Propriety Limited
CAC Civil Aliens Corps
CCC Civil Constructional Corps
CIB Commonwealth Investigation Branch
CPA Communist Party of Australia
CPF Commonwealth Police Force
DSO Defense Security Organisation
IWW Industrial Workers of the World
MPI Military Police Intelligence Section
NAA National Archives of Australia
NSDAP National Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeites Partei
POW Prisoner of War
UELCA United Evangelical Lutheran Church of Australia
WAAFS Women's Auxiliary Air Force
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ABSTRACT
Throughout Australia’s history xenophobic immigration policies and security measures have appeared
in times of uncertainty. The implementation of the Anti‐Terror laws in 2005 inspired me to carry out
research on important security measures introduced at the outbreak of the Second World War in
September 1939. Migrants living in Australia became subject to the National Security (Aliens Control)
Regulations 1939 (Cth) introduced by the Commonwealth government. ‘Non‐British’ persons living in
Australia were required to register as ‘aliens’; nationals from countries with which Australia was at war
were classified as ‘enemy aliens’. This included all German Italian and Japanese nationals. In addition,
Australian women married to enemy aliens lost their British nationality under the Nationality Act 1920
(Cth) and were required to register as enemy aliens.
This study focuses on five groups of women affected by the legislation: Australian born women of
German descent, Italian born women, Australian born women of Japanese descent, German Jewish
refugee women, and Australian born women married to Italian nationals. These groups were chosen
not only to highlight the various ways in which the Regulations were applied to women of different
nationalities, but also to address a gap in the literature on the control and internment of ‘alien’ women,
despite the vast amount of material that was available at the National Archives of Australia (NAA). This
thesis is in large part based on archival research. Files on over 700 women were examined, many of
which had never before been consulted. I also conducted five interviews, including three women who
were registered as enemy aliens during the war.
This dissertation has 3 parts. Part I provides an analysis of the Aliens Control Regulations and those
who helped administer the laws. It also provides context on the operation of these laws by detailing
the experience of Italian women who were detained under the Regulation just moments after Italy
entered the war. Part II provides case studies illustrating the diverse ways in which these Regulations
were applied. Part III shows women who fell victim to circumstance – German‐Jewish refugee women
who were wrongly categorized as ‘enemy aliens’ and Australian born women married to Italian
nationals, unaware that they had lost their British status.
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The case studies presented in this thesis show that ‘war hysteria’, discrimination, isolation, racism and
victimization were all part of the wartime experience of these women who were caught in the net of
the Aliens Control Regulations.
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Introduction
That a Security Act was essential to cope with subversive activities, should they arise, is obvious. That
the Act was administered in a glaringly careless and needlessly harsh manner, is equally obvious. It
was moderation where it touched property; it was severity when it touched human freedom.
1
(German national and former South Australian Member of Parliament, Hermann Homburg)
On Saturday, 17 October 2009, I attended a symposium on 150 Years of Italians in Queensland’
which was held at Dante Alighieri Society in Brisbane. The symposium was a great success, with
many fascinating papers on the history of Italians in Queensland. However, there was one
important aspect that stood out that day for me – no paper was given on the experience of Italian
women in Queensland during the Second World War.2 This omission was emphasised by the fact
that at the symposium I had met an Australian woman, Francesca Maria Merenda, born in Innisfail
in northern Queensland, of Italian parents. Francesca was interned in Australia during the war just
after she turned eighteen years of age. Because of their Italian origin, Francesca and her family
were classified as enemy aliens when Italy declared war on the Allies in June 1940. Francesca and I
exchanged details and organised a meeting where I interviewed her about her ordeal. I found out
that her father Paolo Merenda came to Australia in 1920 and worked at Innisfail cutting sugar cane.
Three years later, Paolo’s fiancé, Nicoletta, followed him to Australia. Francesca describes how they
married in Australia:
Dad’s mate who went up with him from Innisfail to Cairns, in those days it was a big trip, you know
1923 I’m talking about. His friend said to him, 'Don’t worry Paul', he said, “..look after your fiancée”.
So Dad arranged to be married that day then go to Innisfail the next day, where he was living and
Mum said “Where’s my suitcases?”And the fellow said to Dad, “Don’t worry I put them on the rail
motor, I’ve sent them down, you don’t have to worry about them tomorrow”. In the suitcases were
1 Hermann Homburg was a former South Australian Member of Parliament who was interned during the war because of
his involvement in German organizations. H. Homburg, South Australian Lutherans and Wartime Rumours. Adelaide:
Self Published 1947, p. 93.
2 ‘150 Years of Italians in Queensland’ Symposium, Dante Alighieri Society, Brisbane, 17 October 2009.
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Mum’s bridal frock, her wedding dress and the veil, and she couldn’t put them on. So what could she
do, a girl could not spend the night with a man not married, so they went and got married in the
clothes that she had got off the boat, and then went to Innisfail the next day, then went to the
photographer all dressed up and they had their wedding photos taken in their bridal finery, and they
sent them to Italy to the family.3
Francesca was born on 16 September 1924. Her parents anglicised her name to Francesca Mary
when they registered her as an alien. When Italy entered the war, Francesca’s father was arrested
for associating with other Italian men who were members of the Fascist Party. He was interned in
December 1941. Francesca and her mother were not interned until October 1942. Authorities took
their photos and on the night of their arrest, Francesca and her mother slept ‘in the gaol house, on
the floor with the drunks’.4 The next day they were sent to Tatura, in north eastern Victoria, where
they would spend 16 months interned at the camp where they were reunited with Paolo. As
Francesca described the camp: ‘we had barbed wire fences all around us and we had the guards
sitting up there with their guns, you know, it was a military camp’.5
When asked the reason for her internment, Francesca responded
The Australian Government….They interned me and I read my papers many years later.I was a 'potential
spy' and a 'danger to the Commonwealth of Australia' and I believe, this is my belief, it was because I
could speak both Italian and English and if anyone needed anything in a little town called Tully in North
Queensland, they'd go to my father and he would send me with that person to the Police station or to
the ‐ everywhere they had to go and help them out with the language. 6
It has been over sixty‐five years since the end of the Second World War. Yet the history of the
German, Italian and Japanese women in Australia who were classified as enemy aliens within the
National Security (Aliens Control) Regulations 1939 (Cth) during the war remains to be written.
3 Francesca Merenda. Personal Interview. 10 October 2008.
4 Francesca Merenda. Personal Interview. 10 October 2008.
5 Francesca Merenda. Personal Interview. 10 October 2008.
6 Francesca Merenda. Personal Interview. 10 October 2008.
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Francesca’s interview provides a fascinating perspective on how she was treated during internment
and the racial antagonisms that existed during this time. Her story indicated the level of concern
the Commonwealth Government had towards enemy aliens during war‐time and how authorities
interned enemy aliens without any evidence to suggest that they were a potential threat to the
nation’s security.7 Indeed, it is clear from the files held at the National Archives of Australia (NAA)
that while authorities tried their best to find evidence to implicate the Merenda family, their failure
to produce any did not deter authorities from detaining them.
Like other migrant women who grew up in Australia during war‐time, Francesca placed no blame on
the Commonwealth Government for her internment, especially when considering the threat of
enemy invasion.8 However, what Francesca may not have been informed of was that the
Commonwealth Government, while drafting legislation, was well aware of the ramifications
minority groups would experience as a result of the implementation of the National Security Act
1939 (Cth). As evidenced in the Second Reading Speech, the issue of national security was a hotly
debated topic in Parliament, and as we will see, many argued that minority groups would fall victim
to the legislation put forward.
Historiography
The history of these German, Italian and Japanese women has been ignored far too long. Their
stories reflect anxieties of Australia’s past and are valuable to the understanding of current events
in this country. The purpose of this thesis is to ensure that these stories are recognized and not
7 German‐Jewish refugee Ilona Balog also believed that given the context of threat to Australia’s security, anyone
foreign would be subject to discrimination. See Chapter Six.
8 See Ilona Balog. Personal Interview. 31 October 2008.
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forgotten by younger generations. German, Italian and Japanese communities have contributed to
Australia’s multicultural society and identify these stories as a meaningful part in Australia’s history
‐ a history of exclusion based on race.
Australian histories have tended to focus on the internment of men during the Second World War.
This study focuses on migrant and Australian‐born women who were interned or affected by other
key aspects of the Aliens Control Regulations. Kay Saunders in her work referred to what has
already been done by the government to comprehend this part of our history, including a dinner
that was held in Western Australia by the Premier in 1990 and in New South Wales by its Premier in
1992 which only distinguished Italian internment in Australia.9 However, there has been no
acknowledgement of widespread internment and those affected by the Aliens Control Regulations
by the Australian War Memorial; there was no official acknowledgement or apology made by the
‘Australia Remembers 1945‐1995’ campaign; the ‘Prigioniero Di Guerra: POW Italian migrants
Exhibition’ at the Liverpool Regional museum in 2005 focused only on the internment of Italian men
during the war; and more recently, and there was no recognition of Italian women living in
Queensland during the war‐time at the ‘150 Years of Italians in Queensland Symposium’ held at the
Dante Alighieri Society, Brisbane on 17 October 2009.10
9 K. Saunders and R. Daniels et. al., Alien Justice: Wartime Internment in Australia and North America. St. Lucia:
University of Queensland Press, 2000, p. xviii.
10 Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre and Liverpool Regional Museum. Prigioniero Di Guerra: POW Italian Migrant's
Exhibition. 2005. Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre and Liverpool Regional Museum, Sydney; and ‘150 Years of Italians in
Queensland’ Symposium.
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The most significant resource in this study was written by Noel Lamidey. During the early 1970s,
acknowledgement of the treatment towards migrants in Australia during the Second World War
was highlighted by Lamidey. Lamidey not only helped to administer the Aliens Control Regulations,
but also headed the Aliens Classification and Advisory Committee (ACAC), established in September
1942, which aimed ‘to work in close association with the Director‐General of Security on all matters
affecting aliens, and to see that our treatment of them did not fall short of that of other allied
democratic countries’.11 In 1974, he released three reports that documented amendments that
were made to some of the ‘major measures taken by legislative enactment and administrative
procedure to control aliens’ during the Second World War.12
The first report, written by Lamidey himself in 1947, was titled ‘A Report to the Honourable Arthur
- Calwell H.P. Minister for Immigration upon some Aspects of Aliens Control in Australia During
Time of War’. The other two documents were included as attachments. One was a report by Mr
Justice Reed, on the internment and control of Italians in Australia and the other by the ACAC titled,
‘Interim Report submitted to the right Honourable H.V. Evatt, LL.D., K.C., M.P. the Attorney General
of the Commonwealth of Australia’, written in March 1943.13 These reports are significant because
they provide an insight into the Commonwealth Government’s stance toward the treatment of
enemy aliens during the war. Lamidey believed that the purpose of the publication of the report
would be to appeal to
anyone sufficiently interested to seek further and deeper into the matters adverted to herein and to
appreciate some of the difficulties inherent in ensuring that even in times of national emergency the
reputation of the Commonwealth in its treatment of aliens should not fall below the standard of fairness
11 N. Lamidey, Aliens Control in Australia 1939‐46. Sydney: N. Lamidey, 1974, p. 4.
12 Lamidey, Aliens Control, p. 1.
13 Lamidey, Aliens Control.
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and reasonableness attained by other Allied countries, reference must be made to the 3 reports of the
Aliens Classification and Advisory Committee.14
Although Lamidey clearly stated his intention in 1943 that the report would be circulated for public
discussion, it would not be published for another thirty years.
The date of the publication of his work is vital to our understanding of the Commonwealth
Government’s attitudes towards migrants in Australia. It was not until March 1974, when Lamidey
published the reports himself, that the public finally gained access to it. Archival documents held at
the NAA in Canberra reveal that Lamidey completed a draft of this work before its release. He had
also tried to have it published in 1967. He sent a copy to the Attorney General’s office, which was
then sent to the Department of Immigration to be reviewed. Lamidey was anxious for a response.
After two months, clearly concerned about the lack of progress, he wrote ‘Just in case there is a
possibility that the electronic sorting machine is responsible for the absence of any reply to
my…letters I write to say I am now at the printing stage and propose to go ahead as quickly as
possible’.15 The Secretary of Attorney General’s office, E. J. Hook responded to Lamidey, suggesting
that he remove certain passages that implied the report was available for further public scrutiny.
The reports were not available to the public and authorities did not want Lamidey to refer to any
unanswered questions which may arise in relation to the Aliens Control Regulations. Hook
responded
Whether these reports had a ‘security classification’ is, I am sure you will appreciate, not at all conclusive
of the question whether they might be released to the public…Whether the reports to which you refer
should be made available is a matter which has to be decided by the relevant department in the light of
the general Commonwealth policy on access to Commonwealth archives…The second aspect which
14 Lamidey, Aliens Control, p. 2.
15 Letter from Noel Lamidey addressed to Secretary of Attorney General’s office, E.J. Hook, 4 March 1967. See ‘Report
by Mr N W Lamidey on alien control in time of war’. A432/1661/2232, NAA, Canberra.
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troubles me is the extent to which your manuscript discloses, in many places, the detailed operations and
conclusions of the Committee…knowledge at the time could, of course, be freely used although I suggest
that it would be very useful if you were able to indicate references to published sources.
16
It appears that the Commonwealth Government avoided the publication of Lamidey’s report. The
report was suppressed by the Commonwealth Government, who requested that certain details be
omitted and not disclosed to the Australian public. Lamidey did not publish the report until seven
years later, which happened to be the same year in which the report was made public by the
National Archives of Australia (NAA). It is quite possible that Lamidey did not share the same views
of the Commonwealth Government during the late 1960s and chose to wait until the report was
made public in 1974.
Although he was limited to the amount of opinion he was allowed to provide, it is clear that
Lamidey’s conclusions on migration were informed by the lessons learned from troubled areas of
the world. The late 1960s saw the war in Asia, which was attracting considerable attention to the
management of the Commonwealth Governments’ immigration policies. Regarding his role as head
of the Assimilation Division of the Department of Immigration, Lamidey wrote that these ‘are all
valuable documents with respect to Australia’s war‐time history and to an understanding of the
background from which derived Australian post‐war immigration policy and attitudes to immigrants
when they arrived’.17 These documents ‘not only represent a segment of Australia’s history but
16 Draft letter from the Secretary of Attorney General’s office, E.J. Hook to Noel Lamidey, 18 May 1967. See ‘Report by
Mr N W Lamidey on alien control in time of war’. A432/1661/2232, NAA, Canberra.
17 Lamidey, Aliens Control, Preface, unpaginated.
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emphasises to scholars and researchers the problems which had to be faced in our treatment of the
Alien community in the turbulent years of the Second World War’.18
After the war ended, the Commonwealth Government considered the low population of the
country to be a security risk, and in order to protect the nation, Australia had to ‘populate or
perish’. The ACAC report that was prepared for Labor politician and later Minister for Immigration
in 1945, Arthur Calwell, stated the need for both an increase in population through large scale
immigration, and consequently the need for a ministry to oversee it:
This was the first time in Australia’s history that migration had come to be regarded as of sufficient
importance to warrant Ministerial ranking in its own right…But we had learnt our lesson and realised
that without a vast immigration we would as a nation remain in the world’s backwater; if indeed we did
not sink altogether.
19
Lamidey was always concerned about the effects of war‐time legislation and issues regarding
immigration policies. Lamidey and his family moved to London where he took on his new position
appointed by Calwell as Chief Migration Officer in 1946. In his memoirs, Lamidey was hopeful that
what happened during the war would never occur again, and that Australian society would learn
from past experiences.20 He wrote in his report:
it may also in some minor manner help us all to realise that continued progress by mankind in the
search for peace can be helped considerably by increased knowledge, tolerance and understanding in
human relations rather than by death and destruction caused by the war.21
Calwell justified the Commonwealth Government’s actions to control aliens by claiming that while
the war continued, the control of aliens ‘may have been inevitable, for war as the democracies
18 Lamidey, Aliens Control, Preface, unpaginated.
19 N. Lamidey, Partial Success: my years as a public servant. Hunters Hill: N.W. Lamidey, 1970, p. 29.
20 See Lamidey, Partial Success.
21 Lamidey, Aliens Control, p. 5.
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wage it is largely an affair of improvisation, and in urgent situations which demand prompt and
effective action there is little time to weigh the niceties of human rights’.22 However, Calwell did
state there must never be another need for war‐time measures regarding the control of aliens. He
argued:
It would be folly…to ignore the lessons of the war years. Mistakes were made during those years, and
machinery devised in all good faith was sometimes found to be too cumbersome or otherwise
defective. All thoughtful Australians realize that if we are to hold this Continent, the population must
be greatly increased, and with increase immigration must become a subject of first importance.23
22 Lamidey, Aliens Control: ‘A Report to the Honourable Arthur A. Calwell H.P. Minister for Immigration upon some
Aspects of Aliens Control in Australia During Time of War, 1947’, p. 1. Calwell wrote in 1947, ‘I believe that on the
whole the record of Commonwealth in the respect of aliens’ control is very creditable. The restrictive measures
adopted were under constant consideration, and the relevant regulations were revised from time to time to remove
the more obvious injustices’. [Lamidey, Aliens Control, p. 1].
23 Lamidey, Aliens Control, p. 2.
Figure 2: Arthur Calwell in 1940
National library of Australia, Arthur Calwell.
[http://nla.gov.au/nla.pic‐vn3663850‐v]. Date
Unknown. Accessed: 25 March 2012.
Figure 1: Noel Lamidey as Chief Migration Officer in
1950
‘Immigration ‐ Department of Immigration officers
‐ Noel W. Lamidey, CMO (Chief Migration Officer),
London 1947‐1953, London Processing Section’.
A12111/ 2/1950/35A/1, NAA, Canberra.
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Other important works that focus on Australian war‐time history were written by Paul Hasluck, who
was an official historian of the Second World War, before entering the realm of politics. He became
Governor General in 1969. Hasluck was commissioned by the Commonwealth Government to write
twenty two volumes of Australia’s involvement in the war. Two volumes were completed before he
entered politics. In the first volume, Hasluck wrote that the most important security measure
during the first six months of war had been the internment of enemy aliens, along with other
measures which included the registration of all aliens and the restrictions on their travel and
movement.24
In spite of signalling their importance in this early work, Hasluck neglected the issue of security
measures in subsequent volumes, devoting only six pages to ‘The Wartime Treatment of Aliens’ as
an appendix to his volume The Government and the People, 1939‐1941.25 Michael McKernan, in his
1983 book All In!: Fighting the War at Home, scarcely mentioned the Aliens Control Regulations and
argued that they had an insignificant impact on the lives of aliens living in Australia. McKernan
claimed that most enemy aliens ‘were free to come and go as they pleased, subject to a few
restraints such as reporting their movements to local police’.26 In contrast, I will argue that the
German, Italian and Japanese women were subject to more than ‘a few restraints’, and that these
had an adverse impact on their civil liberties.
24 See P. Hasluck, The Government and the People, 1939‐1941: Volume One. Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1952
and P. Hasluck, The Government and the People, 1942‐1945: Volume Two. Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1970.
25 See Appendix 4 Hasluck, Volume One, pp. 593‐98.
26 M. McKernan, All In!: Fighting the War at Home. St. Leonards: Allen and Unwin, 1983, p. 33.
P a g e | 11
It was not until the last three decades that the issue of how war‐time internment policy affected
enemy aliens living in Australia became a point of discussion for historians. There have also been a
number of published works on internment in other countries. Comparisons with these studies are
beyond the scope of the present work.27 Margaret Bevege’s book Behind Barbed Wire: Internment
in Australia during World War II, was one of the first to provide an account of internment in
Australia. There were many criticisms of her work. Ilma Martinuzii O’Brien, for example, criticized
the fact that Bevege seems to regard internment as a ‘relatively benign experience’, on the grounds
that ‘the internees were not mistreated by their guards’.28 Bevege has also been criticized by
Andrew Moore for providing ‘little evidence of light and shade and few suggestions of fascists being
confused with anti‐fascists’.29 However, Bevege’s work must be recognised because of the
internment studies that followed during the 1980s and 1990s, generating much interest in the
topic.
27 See Alinder, Jasmine. Moving Images: Photography and the Japanese American Incarceration. Chicago: University of
Illinois Press, 2009; C.C. Aronsfeld, ‘Jewish Enemy Aliens in England during the First World War.’ Jewish Social Studies
Volume 18 Issue 4, 1956, pp. 275‐83; J. A. Bennett, ‘Japanese Wartime Internees in New Zealand: Fragmenting Pacific
Island Families.’ The Journal of Pacific History, Volume 44, Issue 1, 2009, pp. 61‐76; T. Kushner, ‘Clubland, Cricket Tests
and Alien Internment, 1939‐40.’ Immigrants & Minorities, Volume 11, Issue 3, 1992, pp. 79‐101; K. McAllister,
‘Photographs of a Japanese Canadian Internment camp: mourning loss and invoking a future.’ Visual Studies, Volume
21, Issue 2, 2006, pp. 133‐56; P. Panayi, et. al, Minorities in Wartime: national and Racial Groupings in Europe, North
America and Australia during the Two World Wars. Oxford: Berg publishers Limited, 1993; D. Saunders, ‘Aliens in Britain
and the Empire during the First World War.’ Immigrants & Minorities, Volume 4, Issue 1, 1985, pp. 5‐27; K. Saunders
and R. Daniels et. al, Alien Justice; J. Stewart, ‘Angels or Aliens? Refugee Nurses in Britain, 1938 to 1942.’ Medical
History, Volume 47, 2003, pp. 149‐72.
28 Elkner, Enemy Aliens, p. 16.
29 A. Moore, ‘…when the caretaker’s busy taking care’? Cross‐currents in Australian political surveillance and
internment, 1935‐1941’ in Saunders and Daniels et.al., Alien Justice, p. 49.
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Authors that have dominated the topic of internment since Bevege’s publication, include Kay
Saunders and O’Brien.30 Most have focused on a particular ethnicity from a specific location, with
the exception of publications from Bevege and more recently, Beaumont, O’Brien and Trinca’s
edited Under Suspicion: Citizenship and Internment in Australia during the Second World War which
covers the experience of all three ethnicities, German, Italian and Japanese.31 Though similar to the
work presented in this thesis, this edition only provides a collection of the case studies of ten
individuals who were incarcerated during the Second World War.
Issues such as ethnic minorities and racial profiling in Australia have become topical due to
contemporary events. Most publications have discussed biographical accounts of those who were
incarcerated, focusing primarily on men interned during the war, and more recently, internment
issues that relate to citizenship and national security.32 As Christina Twomey recently described it,
30 K. Saunders, ‘Discovering’ the Subversive and the Saboteur: The Disjuncture between official records of internment
policy and practice and the remembered experiences of internees in Australia in the Second World War.’ Oral History
Association of Australia Journal, Volume 13, 1991; Saunders, War on the Homefront; K. Saunders, ‘Down on the farm:
Italian POWs in Australia 1941‐47’. Journal of Australian Studies, Volume 19, Issue 46, 1995; K. Saunders, ‘The stranger
in our gates: Internment Policies in the United Kingdom and Australia during the Two World Wars, 1014‐39.’
Immigrants & Minorities, Volume 22, Issue 1, 2003; K. Saunders and Daniels et., al, Alien Justice; and K. Saunders, and
- Taylor, ‘The Enemy Within? The Process of Internment of Enemy Aliens in Queensland 1939‐45.’ Australian Journal
of Politics and History, Volume 34, Issue 1, 1988.
31 See J. Beaumont, I. M. O’Brien and M. Trinca, et. al, Under Suspicion: Citizenship and Internment in Australia during
the Second World War. Canberra: National Museum of Australia, 2008 & Bevege, Behind Barbed Wire: Internment in
Australia during World War II. St. Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1993.
32 Bevege, Behind Barbed Wire; K. Saunders, War on the Homefront: State Intervention in Queensland 1938‐1948. St
Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1993; R. Bosworth and R. Ugolini et. al., War, Internment and Mass Migration:
The Italo‐Australian Experience 1940‐1990. Roma: Gruppo Editoriale Internazionale, 1992; Y. Nagata, Unwanted Aliens:
Japanese Internment in Australia. St Lucia: University of Queensland Press, 1996; and Beaumont, Under Suspicion.
P a g e | 13
the issue of internment has raised questions of ‘race, citizenship and rights’.33 Australian Citizenship
did not officially exist until 1948. However, as it happened, obtaining official citizenship did not
necessarily change things. Research has shown that British citizenship status was no protection
from the label ‘enemy alien’. As O’Brien shows, ‘the absence of a separate Australian citizenship
encouraged the development of a racialised construction of British subjecthood in some sections of
Australian society, and that boundaries were often drawn to exclude people from non‐British
origin’.34
There have been many cases of people naturalized as British subjects under the Nationality Act
1920 (Cth) who were interned or placed under restrictions during the war.35 As we will see, women
who were married to Italian men, as well as Australian‐born women of Japanese descent, were
subject to the Aliens Control Regulations despite their British nationality. The collection of their
stories in this study maintains the argument presented by O’Brien, who claimed that Australian
citizens were deprived of their civilian liberties and in most cases, incarcerated without trial.36
Work on Nazism and Italian fascism in Australia is also relevant to this thesis. Emily Graham‐Turner
and Gianfranco Cresciani have written books on Nazism and fascism that provide background for
the experience of German and Italian women in Australia. The topic of fascism among Italians
33 C. Twomey, ‘In the Front Line’?: Internment and Citizenship Entitlements in the Second World War.’ Australian
Journal of Politics and History, Volume 53, Issue 2, 2007, p. 194.
34 C. Elkner, I. M. O’Brien, G. Rando and A. Cappello, Enemy Aliens: The Internment of Italian Migrants in Australia
during the Second World War. Adelaide: Connor Court Publishing, 2005, p. 17.
35 Beaumont et. al., Under Suspicion, p. 11.
36 I. M. O'Brien, ‘Citizenship, Rights and Emergency Powers in Second World War Australia.’Australian Journal of Politics
and History, Volume 53, Issue 2, 2007, p. 207.
P a g e | 14
residing in Australia has been largely dominated by Cresciani.37 Very little work has concentrated on
Nazism in Australia, however, Turner‐Graham has produced one of the first detailed cultural study
of Nazi ideology during the inter war period in Australia.38 More recently, David Brown has
published work on fascism in Queensland.39 The literature concerning fascism and Nazism provided
the ideological context for the treatment of German and Italian communities throughout the war
period. Many German and Italian women in this study were aware of fascism and Nazism. The
stories presented show that there were indeed Australian German and Italian women who
sympathized with the Nazi and fascist causes. The ramifications of this will be discussed further in
Chapters Two and Three.
Among the useful primary sources on Germans settling in Australia is Charles Prices’ work German
Settlers in South Australia (published 1945). Price specialized in international migration and ethnic
minorities in Australia. He explained that the purpose of his work was to demonstrate:
37 See G. Cresciani, Fascism, Anti‐Fascism and Italians in Australia 1922‐1945. Canberra: Australian University Press,
1980; G. Cresciani, ‘Captivity in Australia: the case of the Italian Prisoners of war, 1940‐1947.’ Studi Emigrazione,
Volume 26, 1989; G. Cresciani, The Italians in Australia. Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2003; G. Cresciani,
Transfield: The First Fifty Years. Sydney: ABC, 2006; G. Cresciani, ‘Refractory Migrants. Fascist Surveillance on Italians in
Australia 1922‐1943.’ Italian Historical Society Journal, Volume 15, 2007. Other works on Nazi ideology in Australia
include G. Gumpl, and R. Kleinig. The Rise and Fall of Australia's No. 1 Nazi. Melbourne: Brulga Publishing Pty Ltd, 2007;
and K. Neumann, Chapter Seven ‘Victims of ‘unnecessary hardship and mental torture’: Walter Stolting, Wolf Klaphake,
and other incompatibles in wartime Australia’ in Beaumont, Under Suspicion.
38 See E. Turner‐Graham, ‘Never forget that you are a German’: Die Brücke, Deutschtumand National Socialism in
Australia’. University of Melbourne: unpublished thesis, 2006.
39 D. Brown, ‘Fascism within the pre World War II Italian Population of Queensland: a study of community processes
and interaction.’ Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society, Volume 93, Issue 1, 2007; and D. Brown, ‘The Case of
the Brisbane Fascio: The transnational politics of the Italian Fascist Party.’ History Australia, Volume 6, Issue 1, 2009.
P a g e | 15
The extent to which members of the Nazi Party delayed the absorption process in Australia by spreading
amongst Australian‐born Germans the Nazi Volksgedanke—the theory that blood overrides nationality
and that all Germans abroad must retain their connection with the German ‘racial’ community.40
Without any concrete evidence, Price claimed that the Nazi Party was a hindrance towards the
‘absorption process’. My research has discovered that though there were Nazi sympathizers,
especially in South Australia, very few explicitly supported Nazi Germany. An Australian‐born man
of German descent, Hermann Homburg, former South Australian Parliamentarian and influential
figure among the German community in South Australia, wrote South Australian Lutherans and
Wartime Rumours in response to Price’s work, arguing that German organizations were preserving
German culture and there was ‘no record in this State of sabotage, treason or anything subversive
by any of its citizens, whatever their ancestry’.41 While many women in this study were conserving
German culture, they were clearly also supporters of Nazism. Despite this revelation, the numbers
of members of the organization were so low that there was no real threat to the spread of Nazism
among the remaining German community.
Suzanne Rutland and Paul Bartrop have written articles concerning German‐Jewish refugees who
settled in Australia. These works highlighted the bigotry that was experienced by this last group,
the German‐Jewish aliens, upon their arrival in Australia. Bartrop wrote about the flaws that existed
within the process of alien registration.42 These articles and biographical experiences help provide
40 C. A. Price, German Settlers in South Australia. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1945, pp. 40‐1.
41 Homburg, South Australian Lutherans,p. 93.
42 S. Rutland, ‘Australian Responses to Jewish Refugee Migration before and after World War II.’ Australian Journal of
Politics and History, Volume 31, Issue 1, 1985; S. Rutland, ‘Postwar Anti‐Jewish Refugee Hysteria: A Case of Racial or
Religious Bigotry?’ Sojourners and Strangers, Journal of Australian Studies, Volume 77, 2003; and P. Bartrop, ‘Enemy
Aliens or Stateless Persons? The Legal Status of Refugees from Germany in Wartime Australia.’Journal of the Australian
Jewish Historical Society, Volume 10, Issue 4, 1988.
P a g e | 16
background information concerning German‐Jews in Australia during the war‐time, particularly
because this thesis argues that German‐Jewish settlers in Australia were wrongfully classified as
enemy aliens and should not have been affected by war‐time legislation.
Other resources are concerned with German, Italian and Japanese migration. There have been
countless texts on German and Italian pre‐war and post war migration which helped provide an
insight into the migratory patterns and cultural values of these women.43 Due to the lack of Asian
population during the early twentieth century, most scholarship concerning Asian migration and
cultural patterns focused on the strict immigration policies that existed. Authors Nagata, Pam Oliver
and Neville Meaney have become renowned for their work on Japanese in Australia, producing
helpful and informative work on Japanese in Australia before and after federation.44
43 W.D Borrie, Italians and Germans in Australia: A Study of Assimilation. Melbourne: The Australian University, F.W.
Cheshire, 1954; A. Diana, ‘Italian women in Ausralia.’ Affarisocialiinternazionali, Volume 16, Issue 2, 1988; M.
Mennicken‐Coley, The Germans in Western Australia: Innovators, Immigrants, Internees. Western Australia: Mt Lawley:
Cross print, 1993; D. O'Connor, No need to be afraid: Italian settlers in South Australia betweeen 1839 and the Second
World War. Adelaide: Wakefield Press, 1996; D. Phillips, ‘The Effect of Immigration on the Family: The Case of Italians in
Rural Australia.’ The British Journal of Sociology, Volume 26, Issue 2, 1975; Price, German Settlers; C. A. Price, Jewish
Settlers in Australia. Canberra: The Australian National University, 1964; N. Randazzo, and M. Cigler. The Italians in
Australia. Melbourne: AE Press, 1987;
44 See P. Oliver, ‘Japanese Relationships in White Australia: The Sydney Experience to 1941’. History Australia, Volume
4: Issue 1, 2007; P. Oliver, ‘Who is One of Us? (Re) Discovering the Inside‐out of Australia’s Japanese Immigrant
Communities, 1901‐1957’. Japanese Studies, Volume 22, Issue 3, 2002; P. Jones and P. Oliver, Changing histories:
Australia and Japan. Melbourne: Monash University Press, 2001; M. Auckland and P. Oliver et., al, Unexpected
encounters: Neglected histories behind the Australia‐Japan relationship. Melbourne: Monash University Press, 2007; P.
Oliver, “Citizens without certificates or enemy aliens? Japanese residents before 1947” in Beaumont Under Suspicion;
and A. Shnukal, G. Ramsay & Y. Nagata et. al., Navigating Boundaries: The Asian Diaspora in Torres Strait. Canberra:
Pandanus Books, 2004; Nagata, Unwanted Aliens; Y. Nagata, Chapter Eight ‘Native patriotism: the internment of Moshi
Inagaki in Australia during the Second World War’, in Beaumont Under Suspicion; and N. Meaney, Towards a New
Vision: Australia and Japan across time. Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2007.
P a g e | 17
‘Sometimes a little injustice must be suffered for the public good’
The title of this dissertation ‘Sometimes a little injustice must be suffered for the public good’, was
taken from a comment made by Assistant Treasurer of the Menzies government, Percy Claude
Spender in the House of Representatives on 8 September 1939 regarding his support for the
National Security Bill 1939 (Cth).45 The title captures the essence of the case studies that are
provided in this thesis, which highlight the effects that the National Security Act had on migrant
women, especially German, Italian, Japanese and Australian‐born women designated as ‘enemy
aliens’, living in Australia during the Second World War.
Non‐British subjects were required to register as aliens while those who ‘possessed the nationality
of a State of War with His Majesty; or being Stateless at any time possessed such a nationality’
45 Commonwealth, – Second Reading Speech, House of Representatives, 8 September 1939, 237 (Percy Claude
Spender).
Figure 3: Sir Percy Claude Spender, 1937
Adam Carr, ‘Members of the Australian House of
Representative’. Date Unknown,
[http://psephos.adamcarr.
net/countries/a/australia/membersgallery/re
psgallery1946.shtml]. Date Accessed: 25 March
2012.
P a g e | 18
were required to register as enemy aliens.46 When war first broke out Germans living in Australia
were classified as enemy aliens and most men were rounded up to be interned. As the war
progressed, Italians and Japanese were also categorised as enemy aliens. The general rule was that
women were not to be interned, with the exception of the Japanese. All Japanese ‐ men, women,
and children ‐ were interned after the bombing of Pearl Harbour. I will argue that the Aliens Control
Regulations were subjectively applied, referring to the various case studies presented in this
dissertation.
The Aliens Control Regulations were formed under the National Security Act. The Aliens Control
Regulations were implemented to control individuals and organizations affiliated with fascism and
Nazism that could influence non‐British persons living in Australia and was concerned with their
travel and movement. The Executive arm of Commonwealth Government gave local authorities
control over an alien’s place of residence; internment; control over their possessions and
employment; control over assembly, and propaganda.47 However, this was not the first time that
intelligence authorities targeted migrants and political dissidents living in Australia.
Pam Oliver suggested that one of the main reasons why innocent men and women were caught up
in the legislation was because of poor intelligence gathering during the Second World War.48 The
lack of organization in Australia’s war‐time security service was articulated by Lamidey:
It would be a fair comment I think to say that the Second World War caught Australia hopelessly
unprepared insofar as National security was concerned…we were without a National security
46 Lamidey, Aliens Control: ‘Report to the Honourable Arthur A. Calwell’ (1947), p. 5.
47 See Statutory Rules made under Commonwealth Acts during the year 1939. Canberra: Government of Australia, 1939.
48 P. Oliver, ‘Interpreting ‘Japanese Activities’ in Australia, 1888‐1945.’ Journal of the Australian War Memorial, Volume
36, 2002.
P a g e | 19
organization…the need for a coordinate central body properly equipped to deal with all aspects of
security and intelligence at both national and international level was non‐existent. This need had
been seen over the years by many far‐sighted people since the termination of the First World War
but by the time the Second World War was upon us it had not been bought into the realm of practical
politics.
49
The lack of security organization is evidently attributed to the inconsistent application of the Aliens
Control Regulations towards German, Italian and Japanese women.
The Commonwealth Investigation Branch (CIB) was established within the Attorney General’s
Department in 1919, after the First World War ended, as the Commonwealth Government’s sole
intelligence investigative body (See Appendix Two).50 It was not until March 1941, during the
Second World War, that Australia’s war‐time security was revamped as a more central organization.
The CIB consisted of inspectors who were located in each city across Australia, responsible to the
Director of the CIB, Major Harold Edward Jones. Appendix Three shows that Jones was responsible
to the Secretary of the Attorney General’s Office, who was then responsible to the Prime Minister
and Minister for Defence.51 The role of the CIB was to investigate ‘alleged offences against
Commonwealth Acts and matters of departmental concern’.52
49 Lamidey, Partial Success, p. 28.
50 F. Cain, The Origins of Political Surveillance in Australia. Melbourne: Angus & Robertson Publishers, 1983, p. xiii.
51 Cain, Origins of Political Surveillance, p. xiii.
52 C.D. Coulthard‐Clark, ‘Australia’s Wartime Security Service’. Defence Force Journal, Volume 16, Issue May/June, 1979,
- 23. Jones negotiated ‘a role for the Branch as agent for the Department of Home and Territories to investigate and
make recommendations on all naturalization and some immigration applications’. Jones was hoping that more work
would be provided for the Branch and it would provide ‘access to record concerning Australia’s alien population’. [D.
Dutton, ‘The Commonwealth Investigation Branch and the Political Construction of the Australian Citizenry, 1920‐40*.’
Labour History, Volume 75, 1998, p. 156].
P a g e | 20
The Army was responsible for censorship matters, but censorship of the press was handed over to
the Chief Publicity Censor who reported to the Minister for Information.53 In 1938, as the country
was heading closer to war, a special squad of thirty police officers was formed under military
control and Army officers were placed in full time positions in Police Headquarters where they
directed intelligence work. These positions later became known as the Military Police Intelligence
Section (MPI).54 The CIB handed over responsibilities for security activities to the MPI. Although
there was no central surveillance organization at the time, plans for censorship and the internment
of enemy aliens were already established while the War Book was being drafted.55 This enabled
‘preparations to be made in advance of war, including the drafting of initial control regulations and
orders’.56 The purpose of the War Book was ‘to facilitate the transition from peace to war, by
settling down the administrative actions that will be taken in the early stages of a war emergency;
indicating which Department or other Authority is responsible for action laid down in each field’.57
At the outbreak of war in September 1939, the Commonwealth Government introduced the Aliens
Control Regulations. The main objective was ‘to ensure that aliens, resident in Australia, enemy and
otherwise, could in no way become a danger to the country nor impede the progress of the war
53 Cain, Origins of Political Surveillance, p. 260. The main aim of censorship was to ‘prevent leakage of information’ and
to ‘provide a source of information’. [Cain, Origins of Political Surveillance, p. 260.]
54 Coulthard‐Clark, ‘Australia’s Wartime Security Service’, p. 23.
55 NAA, ‘Series notes for series D1614’.Date unknown,
[http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/SeriesDetail.asp?M=3&B=D1614.Accessed: 18 April 2005]
56 NAA, ‘Series notes for series D1614’.Date unknown,
[http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/SeriesDetail.asp?M=3&B=D1614.Accessed: 18 April 2005]
57 NAA, ‘Series notes for series D1614’.Date unknown,
[http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/SeriesDetail.asp?M=3&B=D1614.Accessed: 18 April 2005].
P a g e | 21
either individually or in association with others’.58 The definition of the term ‘alien’ captured ‘any
person over the age of 16 years other than a person who is a British subject within the meaning of
the Nationality Act 1920‐36’.59
The Nationality Act allowed for migrants to become British subjects through naturalization.
Naturalisation was made more difficult to obtain by non‐white aliens, particularly Japanese
residents. The alien had to have resided in Australia for five years. Even when naturalized, they
were entitled to very few legal rights. Non‐white British subjects were ‘specifically denied
entitlements by provisions in a range of discriminatory legislation’.60 Under the Commonwealth
Immigration Act and the Criminal Act, those who were not born in Australia were still liable to be
deported for ‘treason‐like activities’.61 Because of the racist immigration laws that existed, ‘British
subjecthood was of no benefit to non‐white people in Australia’.62 This was also the case for many
naturalized German and Italian migrants during the war. As Ted Cantle has argued, nationality can
be won or lost, as allegiances change, through exceptional circumstances, or through marriage and
58 Lamidey, Aliens Control, p. 1.
59 Lamidey, Aliens Control: ‘Aliens Classification and Advisory Committee, Interim Report Submitted to The Right
Honourable H.V. Evatt, LL.D., K.C., M.P. The Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Australia’ (1943), p. 5.
60 J. Chersterman, ‘Natural‐Born Subjects? Race and British Subjecthood in Australia.’ Australian Journal of Politics and
History Volume 51, Issue 1, 2005, p. 32. See also The Acts of Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia passed
during the year 1920, in portion of the first session of the eighth parliament of the Commonwealth. Albert J. Mulleti,
Government Printer of the State of Victoria, 1920, p. 146.
61 Chersterman, ‘Natural‐Born Subjects?’, p. 33.
62 Chersterman, ‘Natural‐Born Subjects?’, p. 33.
P a g e | 22
by adoption in respect of children.63 During the Second World War, Australian women who married
German, Italian and Japanese men lost their British nationality.64
The Commonwealth approached the difficult task of trying to protect the nation from enemy
invasion while maintaining the rights of civilians. The National Security Bill was introduced by Prime
Minister Robert Menzies as a national response to Germany’s declaration of war on 3 September:
This Bill is designed to make provision for the safety and defence of the Commonwealth and of its
territories during the present state of war. It is a far reaching measure which gives extensive powers to
the government and in that respect follows the model of legislation with which most honorable
members are already familiar…The unhappy circumstance by which we find ourselves at war… makes it
once more necessary that very great powers should be obtained in order to deal promptly and
effectively with the various problems that will arise in relation to national defence…there must be as
little interference with individual rights as is consistent with concerted national effort.
65
63 T. Cantle, Community Cohesion: A New Framework for Race and Diversity. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, p.
116.
64 See the Acts of Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia passed during the year 1920, p. 146.
65 Commonwealth, Hansard – Second Reading Speech, House of Representatives, 7 September 1939, 163 (Robert
Gordon Menzies).
Figure 4: Sir Robert Gordon Menzies in 1939
‘Sir Robert Gordon Menzies’. Encyclopedia of
World Biography, 2004.
[http://www.encyclopedia.com/topic/Sir_Robert_
Gordon_Menzies.aspx]. Accessed: 25 March 2012.
P a g e | 23
Author Margaret Bevege wrote ‘even if basic legal rights were potentially suspendable, it does not
follow that legal form was overturned with the outbreak of war. It was not the intention of the
Commonwealth Government, or the Military Board, to act repressively’.66 However, parliamentary
debates regarding the National Security Bill show that the Members of Parliament were aware of
the effects that the legislation would have on minority groups. For example, Labor Member of
Parliament John Solomon Rosevear (Dalley, New South Wales) stated:
We were assured by the Prime Minister yesterday that that we were waging war, not against the
German people, but against the German dictatorship and the Government, yet, if this Bill is passed in its
present form, we shall also be waging war, on a smaller scale, in Australia against many people who, by
the accident of birth, are German. Some of these people may have been naturalised and loyal subjects
of Australia for many years. Yet an open invitation is being offered to smash their businesses and to
deprive them of their worldly goods merely of the say‐so of any officer who may be appointed under the
regulation‐making power under this Bill. But the danger is not confined to enemy subjects. Many
Australian people may be deprived of their worldly goods, and their whole future may be placed in
jeopardy, merely because some official may have a set against them.
67
The election of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in 1941 did not change the Commonwealth
Governments approach to enemy aliens despite their opposition toward the introduction of the
National Security Bill in 1939. The ALP’s stance against enemy aliens was consistent, especially due
to the heightened security threat to Australia’s north. The Commonwealth Government was well
aware of the potential ramifications of the legislation on minority groups. The most disturbing
comment made during the Second Reading Speech in Parliament that belittled the deprivation of
liberty was made by Member of Parliament Victor Charles Thompson (New England, New South
Wales), who proclaimed:
We know from our experience of the last war that it is absolutely necessary for this Parliament to delegate
a great part of its constitutional powers, which are made constitutional largely by dicta of the High Court,
to the Executive for the time being…I well remember the operation of the War Precautions Act. Although
the legislation was irksome in some respect it did not leave any permanent scars of the feelings of the
66 Bevege, Behind Barbed, p. 27.
67 Commonwealth, Hansard – Second Reading Speech, House of Representatives, 7 September 1939, 173 (John Soloman
Rosevear).
P a g e | 24
people of this country. As soon as the war was over, whatever irritations had been caused by it when
forgotten by the great majority of people.
68
Some historians have excused the Commonwealth’s treatment of enemy aliens in Australia by
comparing the treatment of internees to prisoners of war overseas, or the horrors of concentration
camps. Italian historian Gianfranco Cresciani wrote that
Internment was a trauma both for Italians who were interned and for those who were allowed to retain
their freedom, to pursue a life which could by no means be called normal...in comparative terms, the
material conditions of captivity in Australia were vastly better than those endured by Allied prisoners at
Coltaro, Italy, Colditz,Chengi or Dacheu. The psychological, mental and physical stress of long years of
confinement, isolation and meaningless life left an enduring mark on their characters.
69
Yet, as Cate Elkner wrote
“we were not as bad as genocidal dictators overseas” is weak, as excuses go, and…that beneath the
generality of ‘not too bad’ treatment in a distant sideshow in history’s worst war, real Australian people
suffered needless injustice from petty bureaucracy and small‐minded suspicion.70
This injustice is evidenced in the following chapters presented on German, Italian, Japanese and
Australian‐born women who were married to enemy aliens living in Australia during the Second
World War. Bevege argued that there
was no significant political or press campaign against aliens during World War II. The lack of public
campaign is attributable to the cool‐headedness and commitment to fair play exhibited by the Prime
Ministers, R.G. Menzies and John Curtin, who never engaged in alien baiting themselves, and publicly
68 Commonwealth, Hansard ‐ Second Reading Speech, House of Representatives, 7 September 1939, 176 & 177 (Mr
Thompson).
69 Cresciani, The Italians in Australia, pp. 105 and 111.
70 Elkner et. al., Enemy Aliens, p. iv. The British government have also excused the treatment towards enemy aliens by
referring to the mistreatment of aliens in the United States. T. Kushner referred to an review by Max Betoff of W. Mose
‘If one looks at the treatment by the United States of its citizens of Japanese descent, with no substantial threat of
invasion, the British decision about internment becomes easier to understand’. [T. Kusher, ‘Clubland, Cricket Tests’, p.
79].
P a g e | 25
denounced it in others. They were supported by senior ministers such as P.C. Spender and Dr Evatt. But
internment was not directly in these men’s hands, nor did their attitude make them popular.
71
Bevege may have argued that the internment policy was not in these men’s hands directly, but by
implementing legislation that passed absolute powers to investigative authorities during a time of
crisis, these men can be held accountable for the impact the Aliens Control Regulations had on the
women under study. The inconsistent application of the Aliens Control Regulations towards these
women poses many questions about the administration of justice and the intelligence officers in
charge.
Methodology
This study is based on archival research. Using the NAA online catalogue search function,
documents which were held at the NAA in Sydney, Adelaide, Perth, Brisbane and Canberra were
categorised online and randomly selected on the basis of nationality and women’s names. The
majority of files were examined in Sydney. By 1941, Army officers and the MPI had devised a record
system ‘which was held up as a model for emulation in other states’.72 In New South Wales alone,
records and dossiers were held on more than 12,000 people and firms who provided details on the
large numbers of aliens.73 The dossiers were the responsibility of the MPI authorities until the
Security Service took over in 1942.
The files in this study are primarily from the C123 series held at the NAA in Sydney. The documents
concern unnaturalized enemy aliens living in New South Wales. Alien Applications, Registration
71 Bevege, Behind Barbed Wire, p. 229
72 Coulthard‐Clark, ‘Australia’s Wartime Security Service’, p. 23.
73 Coulthard‐Clark, ‘Australia’s Wartime Security Service’, p. 23.
P a g e | 26
cards and sensitive case files concerning issues of national security and members of the National
Sozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei (NSDAP) in Australia held at the NAA in Adelaide were also
examined (D4878, D4881, and D1915 series). Records from the BP913 and BP25 series created by
the Queensland State Police were examined at the NAA in Brisbane. Passports containing limited
information collected by authorities wereexamined in Melbourne (MP56/10) and Investigation
dossiers concerning internees during the war were examined at the NAA in Perth (K1171 series).
The Japanese women in this study were incarcerated as soon as Japan had entered the war. As a
result, there are not many investigation dossiers that reveal details on their lives, only registration
papers and internee application forms. However, all of the files examined provide an insight in to
the way the Aliens Control Regulations were administered during the war.
In total, over 750 files were examined for this study. Three hundred and sixty of these files had
never before been examined. The documents that were analysed for this study consist of translated
copies of letters, official reports, memorandums and photographs. The translations had been made
at the time of investigation and therefore reflect the information available to the authorities
making decisions. These occasionally contain grammatical errors and I have reproduced them as
recorded. These archival documents and letters reflect the context in which these women lived and
provide an insight into the feelings that were experienced by them, supplying ‘facts, assertions and
responses to experience which cannot easily be found elsewhere’.74
74 D. Fitzpatrick, Oceans of Consolation: Personal Accounts of Irish Migration to Australia. Ithica: Cornell University
Press, 1994, p. 25.
P a g e | 27
While this thesis is in a large part based on archival research, this was supplemented by interviews
where possible. I conducted five interviews which provided information on the context in which
these women lived and their experience of the Aliens Control Regulations. Many women who
experienced the war on the homefront are now well into their 80s or 90s; many are unfortunately
no longer with us. I was fortunate to be able to include some oral testimony in this research,
however, it is important for any author to note that ‘memory’s account of the past is partial or
subjective and that its representations of the past are coloured by the views of the rememberer’.75
In this study, the ‘rememberers’ were women who were growing up during the war and had
recollections of how their family was affected by the legislation. (Most responded to an
advertisement I placed in the Sydney Morning Herald, and the Italian Historical Society Journal, and
to letters addressed to German, Italian and Japanese nursing homes across Australia).
These women included Italian national Josie Ciavola who was an infant during the war when her
family was detained at Fremantle Gaol in June 1940; Yvonne Kraemer who was born in 1940 and
recollects growing up during the war and the stories that were told to her by her parents; and an
Italian‐born woman who chose not to disclose her family name but described her family’s
experience during the war‐time. Three of the interviewees were actually registered as enemy aliens
during the war. These were German‐Jewish refugee Yvonne Kraemer, Austrian Jewish refugee Ilona
Balog, and Francesca Merenda Australian‐born of Italian descent.76 The inclusion of interviews
helps us ‘understand how experience is lived and remembered’.77
75 S. Radstone, ‘Reconceiving Binaries: the Limits of Memory.’ History Workshop Journal, Volume 50, 2005, p.135.
76 Though this research focused solely on German, Italian, Japanese and Australian‐born women, other women of
different nationalities were also interviewed that provided background research into the registration process. This
P a g e | 28
Contemporary Relevance
In addition, it is important to note that this thesis highlights its relevance to contemporary issues.
As historian Eric Hobsbawn has written, for ‘the greater part of history we deal with societies and
communities for which the past is essentially the pattern for the present’.78 It is important that we
learn from the mistakes of the past by recognising the stories presented in this dissertation.
Lamidey wrote in his account of his role in administering the Nation Security Act,
it may also in some minor manner help us all to realise that continued progress by mankind in the search
for peace can be helped considerably by increased knowledge, tolerance and understanding in human
relations rather than by death and destruction caused by the war.
79
Indeed, in recent publications, scholars have related their work on internment to contemporary
issues. These issues include that of Australian citizenship which follows the introduction of the new
Citizenship Test; the release of the Anti‐Terrorism Act 2005 which according to one commentator
has a complete ‘disregard for the civil rights of individuals and the potential for the arbitrary use of
executive power’;80 and the arrival of asylum seekers held in Australian immigration detention
centres.81 The significance of the study of internment is explained by Beaumont in Under Suspicion:
included Romanian Jewish refugee Josie Lacey whose father was conscripted into labour camp during the war and
Czeckoslovakian national Liza Gans who registered as an alien.
77 Radstone, ‘Reconceiving Binaries’, p. 139.
78 E. Hobsbawm, On History. New York: The New Press, 1997,p. 10.
79 Lamidey, Partial Success, p. 5.
80 J. Hocking, ‘Australian Terror Laws: An Historic Critique’. National Forum: The War on Terrorism and the Rule of Law.
New South Wales Parliament, Sydney. 10 November 2003.
[http://www.gtcentre.unsw.edu.au/sites/gtcentre.unsw.edu.au/files/mdocs/88_JennyHocking.pdf] December 2011.
81 See Australian Government, Department of Immigration and Citizenship, ‘Becoming an Australian Citizen’. Date:
unknown, [http://www.citizenship.gov.au/], Accessed: 11 May 2010; I. M. O’Brien, Chapter 9, ‘The Enemy Within:
Wartime internment of enemy Aliens’. M. Crotty and D.A Roberts, et. al., The Great Mistakes of Australian History.
P a g e | 29
‘it is important because it reminds us, in the age of Guantanamo Bay and rendition, of the ease with
which internment without trial can be accepted by a public that is fearful for its own security’.82
Many historians have argued that most often in times of crisis, the security of the nation overrides
civilian liberties.The treatment of people registered as enemy aliens during the Second World War
can be perceived as not only a ‘phenomenon that arose in the crisis of war, but was part of a much
deeper racist attitude towards aliens which had increased between the wars’.83 According to
Anthony Burke:
Security has been central to the construction of powerful images of national identity and otherness,
and central to their use in bitter political conflicts which were too often resolved in violent and antidemocratic
ways. In short, security has been a potent, driving imperative throughout Australian
history, a fact which ought to give us a pause when we look backwards with an eye to what we are,
and forwards with an eye to what we might become.
84
From the dispossession of Aborigines to the present war against terror, it is clear that the fear of
the ‘alien’ has long existed in Australia’s history and still exists today.
Australia’s xenophobic past was highlighted by Beaumont who wrote that the tragedy of
internment
served to assuage the anxieties of an Australian population who were already predisposed to an
exclusive understanding of citizenship and who, in the crisis of war, turned easily (if temporarily)
against those whose 'crime' was their ethnicity, race or cultural difference.
85
Sydney: University of New South Wales Press, 2006, p. 154; and A. Bashford and C. Strange, ‘Asylum‐Seekers and
National Histories of Detention’. Australian Journal of Politics and History, Volume 48, Issue 4, 2002.
82 Beaumont et. al., Under Suspicion, p. 4.
83 O’Brien, Chapter Two in Elkner et. al., Enemy Aliens, p. 23.
84 A. Burke, In Fear of Security: Australia’s Invasion Anxiety. Sydney: Pluto Press Australia Limited, 2001, p. xxi.
85 Beaumont et. al., Under Suspicion, p. 8.
P a g e | 30
This thesis supports the arguments made by Beaumont, especially when applying them to German,
Italian and Japanese women. Women who were interned show how far ‘reasonable suspicion’ can
be taken, and how the principle of proportionality can be abused by ‘rigid minds closed with
authority’.86 Even women who were not interned were nevertheless subject to restrictions because
of their ethnicity and consequently experienced hardships, especially when looking after family and
family properties. This thesis discusses the experience not only of women who were interned, but
also women who were not interned to illustrate how the Aliens Control Regulations affected their
lives during the war.
Chapter Summaries
This dissertation covers more than 700 German, Italian, Japanese and Australian‐born women living
in Australia during the Second World War. It is divided into three parts. The first part concentrates
on the Aliens Control Regulations and the impact of the outbreak of war. The second section
focuses on case studies of Australian‐born women of German descent, Italian‐born women and
Australian‐born women of Japanese descent who were affected in various ways by the Aliens
Control Regulations. And the third part shows how German‐Jewish refugee and Australian‐born
women, were affected by war‐time legislation.
Part I consists of two chapters. Chapter One discusses the rule of law – the context and legislation
that existed during the outbreak of war. It provides the context in which these women lived, in
particular the war hysteria and the reaction from the Commonwealth Government and the public
towards Italy’s entry into the war in 1940. A brief summary on Australia’s war‐time security service
86 Crotty and Roberts, The Great Mistakes, p. 155.
P a g e | 31
will also be presented. The focal point of the chapter is the Aliens Control Regulations, providing an
analysis of the restrictions imposed by the Aliens Control Regulations that affected Italian women
during the Second World War in New South Wales.
Germany declared war in September 1939 and German men who had been investigated by
authorities in the period leading up to the war were rounded up to be interned. However, Italy’s
entry into the war in June 1940 was perceived by the media and Australian public as a more
treacherous invasion because of its unexpected entry into the war. Chapter Two focuses on the
capture of the Italian vessels the Remo and the Romolo in Australian waters in June 1940. Very little
information is available on the seizure of these vessels, though my research has uncovered NAA
documents concerning women on board the vessels, who were, in spite of Cresciani’s reports to the
contrary, interned during the war. These women were returning to Italy and some were members
of the Fascist Party.
Part II focuses on other women who became more isolated and experienced financial difficulty
while their husbands were interned; and some women, especially Australian‐born women of
Japanese descent, real or otherwise, were interned and placed under severe restrictions based
solely on their racial appearance. German and Italian women were the largest group of aliens
residing in Australia registered as enemy aliens during the war. Despite the fact there are not many
files on Japanese women because of the low population of Japanese in Australia, I chose to include
Japanese women in the study because I wanted to draw comparisons with the other groups, and
show how war‐time policy changed as the war progressed. The inclusion of Asians also allows the
investigation of racist issues such as appearance – looking Japanese.
P a g e | 32
Part II consists of three chapters that distinguish the inconsistent ways that the Aliens Control
Regulations were applied focusing on German, Italian and Australian‐born women of Japanese
descent. Chapter Three draws attention to Australian‐born German women who maintained the
cultural values of their German heritage and in some cases were ardent supporters of Nazism. It is
important to differentiate the various types of German women examined in this chapter. There are
five categories of ‘German’ that fell under the classification of enemy aliens and were investigated
during the Second World War: Australian‐born women who were German by descent and long term
settlers; Australian‐born women married to German nationals; German‐born women who migrated
to Australia during the years preceding the war; German Jewish‐born refugees who fled Nazi
Germany just before the outbreak of war; and as evidenced in Chapter Six, Hungarian and Austrian
born refugees were also placed under the classification of German enemy aliens due to the Nazi
occupation of their native countries.
As noted in Chapter Three, the NAA files in South Australia confirm that there were official female
members of the NSDAP who were placed under surveillance by authorities. This chapter shows how
the Aliens Control Regulations were inconsistently applied, especially when the head of the
Women’s Nazi Organization in South Australia, Pauline Starke, was considered a threat to national
security by authorities yet was never interned during the war. The role of women in the Nazi Party
activities in Australia seemed to be neglected in Gary Gumpl and Richard Kleinig’s recently released
book The Rise and Fall of Australia's No. 1 Nazi.87 Interestingly, Hermann Homburg’s daughter Rita
Krawinkle appears in this chapter, as one of the few women placed under surveillance by
87 See Gumpl and Kleinig, The Rise and Fall of Australia's No. 1 Nazi.
P a g e | 33
investigative authorities. Nazi party membership was relatively low and most women in this
chapter associated with the Nazi Party were also socially prominent in the South Australian German
community.
Chapter Four focuses on how the Aliens Control Regulations were applied to Italian women who
were not interned, but who nevertheless suffered from the negative impact the Aliens Control
Regulations had on their lives. Male relatives, who were also the main income earners, were placed
in internment camps. As a result, many women experienced significant economic distress and were
left to fend for themselves. Italian women were mainly involved in domestic duties and in many
cases, left to take care of both their homes and businesses formerly run by male relatives. Some
experienced loss of property due to the fact they could no longer support themselves and their
children. Other security measures these women endured under the Aliens Control Regulations
included the restriction on travel and movement, the Prohibited Possessions Order 1940 (Cth) which
placed restrictions on owning particular items, and restrictions placed on employment, assembly
and propaganda. Legislation impacted on these women socially. They became isolated as a result of
their husbands being interned and the registration process which categorised them as the ‘enemy’.
The Australian public and media intensified the matter when malicious accusations were also made
against Italians.
Chapter Five concerns Japanese women and Australian‐born women of Japanese descent who were
interned because of their Asian appearance. Though this dissertation does not go into great detail
about Japanese women due to the low population of Japanese living in Australia during the war, it
was clear that the Commonwealth Government found it difficult to intern them on political
P a g e | 34
grounds. There was no 'Japanese equivalent of the NSDAP or Fascist Party therefore an individual's
commitment to Japan's war activities was not openly proclaimed'.88 There were, however, Japanese
clubs and societies that many Japanese were affiliated with. During the war, Japan was perceived
by Allied forces to be a ‘racial menace’.89 Japan’s role in the war was seen as more of a religious and
cultural war rather than a political one.90 The significance of including this chapter shows how race
influenced the decisions made by authorities to intern Japanese born migrants living in Australia.
After the bombing of Pearl Harbour, all Japanese were immediately interned without being further
investigated. Nagata’s published work Unwanted Aliens: Japanese Internment in Australia provided
accounts of the war‐time experience of Japanese men and women based on oral testimonies and
archival documents.91 The women in my study were interned not because of their ethnicity or
formal citizenship status but because of their Japanese appearance. Authorities thought it best to
intern these women for their own and for public safety. The discrimination and treatment towards
the Japanese reinforces the notion that other historians have expressed, that their treatment was a
reflection of what was happening overseas.92 Nagata interviewed Lamidey, who told her ‘our
government was firm about the Japanese. As far as I remember, we interned the lot and, as a
principle, we didn't intend to let anyone out. It was for their protection'.93
88 Saunders and Taylor, ‘The Enemy Within’, p. 23.
89 See J. Dower, War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War. New York: Pantheon Books, 1986.
90 Dower, War without Mercy, p. 7.
91 Nagata, Unwanted Aliens.
92 I. M. O’Brien, Chapter 9, ‘The Enemy Within: Wartime internment of enemy Aliens’ in Crotty, Great Mistakes, p. 141
93 Beaumont et. al., Under suspicion, p. 121.
P a g e | 35
The final chapters contained in Part III, are strategically placed last to show the bureaucratic failures
and inconsistent ways in which the Aliens Control Regulations were applied to German‐Jewish
Refugees and Australian‐born women married to Italian migrants. Chapter Six illustrates how the
legislation impacted on the lives of German‐Jewish women living in Australia during the war. It
discusses the poor judgement that was made by police and military officers carrying out the Aliens
Control Regulations and the inability of the government to determine who was a genuine Jewish
refugee. Many of these people came to Australia fleeing Nazi persecution, but were nevertheless
classified as the ‘enemy’ along with their ‘enemies’, the Nazi sympathizers. Though they were not
prosecuted under the legislation like their Italian counterparts, German‐Jewish women still endured
the same restrictions and processes as enemy aliens, and in some cases were affected by the
legislation socially and economically. Many women also fell victim to malicious statements made by
members of the community who regarded them with suspicion simply because they spoke German.
Once again, appearance – appearing to be German ‐ overrode reality and the subtlety of identity.
Chapter Seven is concerned with Australian‐born women married to Italian men, unaware that they
had lost their British nationality as a result of their marriage. In order to regain their British status,
these women had to prove to authorities that they had no sympathy towards any of the countries
which were at war with the Allied forces, especially their husband’s homeland. An amendment
made to the Nationality Act in 1935 provided the opportunity for women to retain their British
nationality. Part IV, Division 1 (18) of the Nationality Act, clearly stated that women who were
married to an alien or enemy alien could make a declaration in order to retain their British
P a g e | 36
nationality if they desired to do so.94 The case studies presented in this chapter are fascinating
stories of Australian women who were caught up in war‐time legislation and it is important to note
their significance of their plight in Australia’s history – stories that have been neglected for over
seventy years.
Conclusion
There has been a considerable amount of research undertaken on issues concerning internment
and migration in Australia. However, there has been very little research carried out on the
thousands of aliens who were not interned. We know very little about the experience of women
who fall into the alien or enemy alien categories. In particular, little work has been done on the
impact of the Aliens Control Regulations on the lives of German, Italian and Japanese women living
in Australia during the Second World War. This thesis aims to fill these gaps.
94 The Acts of Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia passed during the year 1920, p. 146.
PART I:
OUTBREAK OF WAR
Figure 5: Oil painting by Frank Norton depicting the Italian Romolo on fire in 1942. The
Italian Cruiser was captured by authorities in Australian waters in June 1940.
- Norton, HMAS Manoora sinking merchant vessel Romolo. Oil on hardboard, 1942.
Australian War Memorial, [http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/ART22328]. Accessed: 25 March
2012.
P a g e | 38
Chapter One:
The Rule of Law
…however much we may cherish the Rule of Law as one of our most precious possessions, we must
recognize that permanent liberty is often best achieved only by a temporary sacrifice of individual
freedom.1
(Robert Gordon Menzies, 1917)
Arbitrary process can be characterized as ‘different officials [taking]…different views upon whether
or not the internment of a person was justified in a particular instance’.2 The focus of this thesis is
the arbitrary nature of the National Security (Aliens Control) Regulations 1939 (Cth) apparent in the
various ways that German, Italian, Japanese and Australian‐born women were affected by war‐time
legislation. The future Australian Prime Minister, Robert Gordon Menzies, acknowledged just
before the end of the First World War that the rule of law was ‘the complete negation of arbitrary
power or any very extended use of prerogative right’ and believed that the War Precautions Act
1914 (Cth) enacted during the war was a ‘challenge to the rule of law’.3 Menzies claimed that the
Act was ‘a virtual suspension of one of the fundamental provisions of the Magna Charter’.4 Despite
his acknowledgement of the loss of civilian rights during war‐time, the opening passage of this
chapter shows that in 1917 Menzies was conflicted over the justification of war‐time legislation.
Nevertheless, over twenty years later, as the Prime Minister of Australia, Menzies declared war on
Germany on 3 September 1939 and introduced the National Security Act 1939 (Cth) which passed
absolute power to the Executive.
1 R. G. Menzies, The Rule of Law during the War. Sydney: The Law Book Co. of Australiasia Ltd, 1917, p. 24.
2 P. McDermott, ‘Internment during the Great War – A Challenge to the Rule of Law’. University of New South Wales
Law Journal, Volume 28, Issue 2, 2005, p. 331.
3 Menzies, The Rule of Law in McDermott, ‘Internment during the Great War’, p. 334.
4 McDermott, ‘Internment during the Great War’, p. 332. Clause 39 stated ‘no free man shall be…imprisoned except by
the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land’. [McDermott, ‘Internment during the Great War’, p. 332].
P a g e | 39
This chapter will provide background information on the Aliens Control Regulations that were
promulgated under the National Security Act. It will examine the Aliens Control Regulations that
affected the lives of German, Italian, Japanese and certain Australian‐born women living in
Australia. The registration and naturalization process proved to be most problematic, especially for
Australian‐born women who lost their nationality as a result of their marriage to an enemy alien.
Other key areas that will be examined include the internment process, restrictions placed on travel
and movement, limited employment opportunities and the Prohibited Possessions Order 1939
(Cth). Changes that were made to legislation as the war progressed and the inconsistencies that
existed among officials who administered the Aliens Control Regulations will also be highlighted.
However, before we begin, it is important to consider that the introduction of the National Security
Act was not the first time the Commonwealth Government introduced national security measures.
The Development of a War‐time Security Service
The legal definition of ‘national security’ is the ‘protection of a nation and of the people of a nation
from espionage, sabotage…violence, attacks on the nation’s defence system or acts of foreign
interference’.5 Joan Beaumont wrote
in times of national crisis, external threats can rapidly breed unitary constructions of ‘the nation’. The
sense of a community, bound together by common values, beliefs and cultural practices, can fracture.
Societies divide along fault lines, and the consensus that holds a multicultural or pluralistic citizenry
together crumbles in the face of fear, anger, the desire for revenge and the demonising of those who
are different.6
In times of crisis, communities often break down due to the unwarranted discrimination against
ethnic minorities that follows. This is what happened in Australia at the outbreak of the Second
World War. An Australian politician who was later to become Immigration Minister, Arthur Calwell
5 P. Nygh and P. Butt, Butterworths Concise Australian Legal Dictionary. Sydney: Butterworths, 1998, p. 299.
6 J. Beaumont, ‘Australian Citizenship and the Two World Wars’. Australian Journal of Politics and History, Volume 53,
Issue 2, 2007, p. 172.
P a g e | 40
justified the Commonwealth Government’s actions to control aliens by claiming that while the war
continued, the control of aliens was necessary, ‘for war as the democracies wage it is largely an
affair of improvisation, and in urgent situations which demand prompt and effective action there is
little time to weigh the niceties of human rights’.7 However, the Second World War was not the first
time Australia had introduced war‐time Aliens Control Regulations that affected the homefront,
where the notion of law becomes ‘nothing other than an expression of will by a political superior’.8
As evidenced in the Introduction, legislation implemented during the Second World War was just
one of many policies in Australia’s war‐time history when national security has overridden civilian
liberties. As discussed by author Jason Byrnes:
The majority of Australians would be unaware of the long historical links between national security issues
including the threat of terrorism and the AFP…indeed, most of the critical developments in federal policing
have occurred either as a result of, or within the context of, periods of significant national security threats.
9
This thesis supports the argument made by British jurist and constitutional theorist, Albert Venn
Dicey, that ‘the development of administrative agencies [was the]… main threat to the rule of
law’.10 Dicey, whose work was described as ‘highly influential throughout the [British] Empire’,
referred to the leading authority in constitutional law, Professor W. Harrison Moore, who professed
that ‘executive authority is not above, but below the rule of law’.11
The risk to national security has always been a vital concern for the Commonwealth Government.
Beaumont has argued that the war:
7 N. Lamidey, Aliens Control in Australia 1939‐46. Sydney: N. Lamidey, 1974, p. 1.
8 McDermott, ‘Internment during the Great War’, p. 332.
9 J. Byrnes, ‘Warwick incident anniversary’, Platypus Magazine, Volume 96, September 2007, p. 33.
10 McDermott, ‘Internment during the Great War’, p. 334.
11 McDermott, ‘Internment during the Great War’, pp. 331 and 332.
P a g e | 41
shifts the balance of rights and obligations towards the state at the expense of the individual. Faced with
external threats, the state can demand that the citizen be prepared to die in the name of the nation,
while invoking national security interests to justify restrictions of civil rights and basic freedoms.
12
One of the periods of significant national threat included the First World War. The first few months
of the First World War saw Germany plan to re‐take the lost German colony, New Guinea, which
would be used for the renewal of operations in the Pacific. Consequently, the Australian supply
route to Europe and the rest of the Commonwealth was threatened.13 The fear of Germany taking
Australia from the north was a public concern, and as a result, the vision of an internal enemy arose
on the homefront.14 The Commonwealth Government responded to the German threat by
introducing the War Precautions Act which targeted Germans living in Australia. However, Germans
were not the only enemy aliens affected by the legislation.
The enemy alien population also included Irish nationalists, radical pacifists and socialists, unionists,
political and church leaders who campaigned against conscription, and ‘practically…everybody who
dared to speak out publicly against the Commonwealth Government’s total commitment to war’.15
The Aliens Restriction Orders were introduced in May 1915 and in 1916. The orders were
implemented to allow the deportation of an unnaturalized alien without a hearing. In 1917, Prime
Minister William Hughes began a campaign to destroy the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
and passed two Unlawful Association Acts which allowed for foreign and even British radicals who
12 Beaumont, ‘Australian Citizenship’, p. 171.
13 G. Fischer, Enemy Aliens: Internment and the Homefront Experience in Australia 1914‐1920. St. Lucia, University of
Queensland Press, 1989, p. 1.
14 Fischer, Enemy Aliens, p. 4.
15 Fischer, Enemy Aliens, p. 75.
P a g e | 42
were not Australian‐born to be expelled and deported to their country of origin.16 Kay Saunders
wrote that the alien carried the double burden of foreign birth and radicalism and refers to the
‘conservative theory that foreigners were more dangerously extreme’ than people native born.17
The First World War saw significant development in national security operations. During the war,
the Commonwealth feared an open domestic revolution, due to the political dissidents who were
protesting against the Commonwealth Government’s introduction of military conscription. Author
Frank Cain wrote that it was ‘in those years of social and political ferment that the factors which led
to the setting up of Australian surveillance organizations can best be observed and analyzed’.18
Hughes faced large crowds protesting against the pending referendum on the issue. In November
1917, local radicals (‘scallywags’) threw two eggs at Hughes and knocked his hat off.19 This would
eventually become known as the ‘Warwick incident’ and paved way for the development of a wartime
security service. The Army was responsible for censorship in each state while the Counter
Espionage Bureau (CEB), the Commonwealth Police Force (CPF) and the State Police forces were
established to assist in countering espionage against Britain’s war effort and carrying out directions
from the Attorney General (See Appendix Two).20
16 K. Saunders and R. Daniels et. al., Alien Justice: Wartime Internment in Australia and North America. St. Lucia:
University of Queensland Press, 2000, p. 30 and 32.
17 Saunders and Daniels et. al., Alien Justice, p. 31.
18 F. Cain, The Origins of Political Surveillance in Australia. Melbourne: Angus & Robertson Publishers, 1983, p. vii.
19 Byrnes, ‘Warwick incident’, p. 34.
20 Cain, Origins of Political Surveillance, pp. ix – x.
P a g e | 43
A total of 6,890 Germans were interned as a result of the War Precautions Act. About 4,500
Germans of this total were residents of Australia prior to 1914 and 700 Germans were in fact
naturalized British subjects.21 Registration and parole of all aliens was also required under the War
Precautions Act, and regarding other restrictions, it was up to local police officers to prosecute
enemy aliens as they saw fit.22
The structure within the surveillance organization continued to change throughout the interwar
period. In 1919, intelligence services were dismantled and all military responsibilities which
21 Fischer, Enemy Aliens, p. 77.
22 Fischer, Enemy Aliens, p. 75.
Figure 6: Cartoon depicting the Warwick incident
- Donovan, Changing the Guard: A History of the
Australian Protective Service. Canberra: Australian
Government Publishing Service, 1994, p. 4.
Figure 7: Prime Minister William ‘Billy’ Hughes
NAA, ‘William Morris Hughes – Fact sheet 73’.
http://www.naa.gov.au/collection/factsheets/
fs73.aspx]. Accessed: 25 March 2012).
P a g e | 44
consisted of watching over radicals were passed onto the CEB staffed entirely by civilians.23
Hostilities towards foreigners who resided in Australia continued to exist among the Australian
public. However, in 1929, the arrival of the Depression caused the economy to contract and
Australian politics to become paralyzed.24
It was during this period that the Commonwealth Government had ‘assumed immense economic
and political powers’ which would eventually pave the way for the establishment of a more
centralized security intelligence organization during the Second World War.25 Security was seen as
‘an effective tool in the management of industrial populations, social order and economic
prosperity’.26 The Australian Labor Party’s vision was to establish an order in ‘which domestic
reconstruction would merge with the international creation of a permanent system of security’.27
During the First World War, Hughes waged a war against anyone who opposed the Commonwealth
Government during the conflict. Ironically, as Attorney General in 1939, Hughes held the highest
power responsible for the implementation of the Aliens Control Regulations in regard to the Second
World War. Memories of the power wielded by the Commonwealth during the First World War
impacted on later debates in Parliament. During the Second Reading Speech of the National
Security Bill 1939 (Cth), Member of Parliament Hubert Peter Lazzarini (Werriwa, New South Wales),
who was perhaps concerned by the implications the legislation would have on the Italian
23 Cain, Origins of Political Surveillance, p. 41.
24 A. Burke, In Fear of Security: Australia’s Invasion Anxiety. Sydney: Centrum, 2001, p. 54.
25 Cain, Origins of Political Surveillance, p. 188.
26 Burke, In Fear of Security, p. 53.
27 Burke, In Fear of Security, p. 78.
P a g e | 45
community in Australia, proclaimed that no power should be given to the Attorney General,
especially after Hughes’ actions against civilians during the previous war:
We know that it will be invoked by the Government to shut up the Parliament and to govern the
country by regulation… I do not want to see again in this country the turmoil that existed when the
present Attorney General (Mr Hughes) was Prime Minister and strutting about the country, deliberately
made his irritating speeches, magnified the Warwick egg incident, traduced men with whom he had
been associated for years and invoked the War Precautions Act in order to railroad men to gaol. No one
can forget that; it is embedded too deeply in the minds of the people. I am not prepared to give him
any power at all; he is one man whom I will not trust an inch with any power, because he has a brain
that immediately becomes inflamed by the acquisition of a little authority. It is a good job that he has
not the powers that Hitler has in Germany. I believe that the democrats of this country will re‐echo the
statements which I have made to‐day.28
On the other hand, support for the National Security Bill was summed up by Member of Parliament
Victor Charles Thompson, whose statement quoted earlier in the Introduction, highlighted the
fundamental notion of national security overriding civilian liberty:
We know from our experience of the last war that it is absolutely necessary for this Parliament to delegate
a great part of its constitutional powers, which are made constitutional largely by dicta of the High Court,
to the Executive for the time being…I well remember the operation of the War Precautions Act. Although
the legislation was irksome in some respect it did not leave any permanent scars of the feelings of the
people of this country. As soon as the war was over, whatever irritations had been caused by it when
forgotten by the great majority of people.29
Margaret Bevege claimed that the opening of the Second World War found Australia unprepared to
deal with questions of national security because no national corporate body on security existed.30
The Security Service was formed on 31 March 1941 as part of the Attorney‐General’s Department
and was headed by Deputy Director of the Commonwealth Investigation Branch (CIB), Lieutenant
Colonel E.E. Longfield Lloyd, who established his headquarters in nine rooms at the Patents Office
28 Commonwealth, Hansard – Second Reading Speech, House of Representatives, 8 September 1939, 204 (Mr Lazzarini).
29 Commonwealth, Hansard – Second Reading Speech, House of Representatives, 7 September 1939, 176 & 177 (Mr
Thompson).
30 M. Bevege, Behind Barbed Wire: Internment in Australia during World War II. St. Lucia: University of Queensland
Press, 1993, p. 1.
P a g e | 46
in Canberra.31 This organization took over civil national security duties and internal securities that
were previously controlled by the Army.32
The Army retained the responsibility for censorship and all matters concerned with internment. The
executive power to deal with subversive activities was still vested in the Attorney General, while
the control over aliens rested with the generals commanding the Military Districts in each state.33 In
preparation for becoming a more centralized organization, an interdepartmental committee
investigated the idea of setting up a Defence Security Organization (DSO). It was concluded by the
majority of the committee members that ‘as Defence in any event required an organization to
ensure the security of defence works, efficiency and economy was best served by Army
undertaking primary responsibility’.34 The War Cabinet approved the DSO on 5 June 1940 to
operate for three services under the direct control of the Chief of General staff. The DSO liaised
with the CIB, State Police and other civil authorities.35
The Army retained control over civil and internal security in Northern Territory and Western
Australia’s north (see Appendix Three for a diagram of the organizational structure of Australia’s
war‐time security service during the Second World War).36 According to Chris Coulthard–Clark, as
‘the likelihood of war increased, Army officers were placed full‐time in Police Headquarters and
directed the work of the Police Commissioner [of the] Military Police Intelligence Section’.37 The
31 Coulthard‐Clark, ‘Australia’s Wartime Security Service’, p. 24.
32 Coulthard‐Clark, ‘Australia’s Wartime Security Service’, p. 24.
33 Coulthard‐Clark, ‘Australia’s Wartime Security Service’, p. 24.
34 Coulthard‐Clark, ‘Australia’s Wartime Security Service’, p. 23.
35 Coulthard‐Clark, ‘Australia’s Wartime Security Service’, pp. 23 and24.
36 Coulthard‐Clark, ‘Australia’s Wartime Security Service’, p. 24.
37 Coulthard‐Clark, ‘Australia’s Wartime Security Service’, p. 23.
P a g e | 47
role of the MPI was to enforce the Aliens Control Regulations targeted at all aliens and enemy
aliens living in Australia.
The Aliens Control Regulations were introduced as an important means to control aliens and enemy
aliens. According to Noel Lamidey, the legislation
carried with it the highly contentious and difficult task of striking a proper balance between the
implementation of Government instructions to be ever watchful of the security of the nation and the
feeling that this be done with as little oppression or harshness as the emergency of war permitted.38
However, perhaps unsurprisingly, the Aliens Control Regulations had a negative impact upon the
lives of aliens and were always controversial. As Lamidey argued, for some, the restrictions were
‘carried out without due regard to humanity and social justice’, while others argued that the
‘successful prosecution of the war justified any action that was taken’.39
In the five years immediately before the war, over 9,000 German nationals had migrated to
Australia, along with 10,000 Italians, and about 20,000 other continental Europeans, many of whom
were refugees from Nazi or fascist rule.40 Even at this early stage, Australians seemed unable to
understand the difference between refugees from enemy states and supporters of them. There
were some refugees who were refused settlement in Australia. For example, a steamer from Berlin
that was to make a special passage to Australia was cancelled ‘because of the unfavourable
reaction to the proposal in Australia’.41 According to Saunders, once the war began ‘Australian
society became obsessively intent upon identifying and punishing those perceived to be potentially
38 Lamidey, Aliens Control, p. 1.
39 Lamidey, Aliens Control, p. 1.
40 P. Hasluck, The Government and the People, 1939‐1941. Volume One. Canberra: Australian War Memorial, 1952, p.
593.
41 ‘Australia to admit Jew Refugees’.. The Courier Mail, 23 November 1938, p. 1.
P a g e | 48
undermining national security, the war effort or morale’.42 Similar to what had occurred during the
First World War, restrictions were not only placed on enemy aliens living in Australia, but also on
other groups, such as members of the Communist Party of Australia (CPA) and the Australian First
Movement.43 Saunders claimed that a dominant function of the modern State during the war was
the ‘identification, targeting and containment of groups who ‘were perceived as threats to the
security, morale and the physical, moral and ideological well‐being and cohesiveness of the society
under external threat’.44 This was especially evident in regard to the ‘alien’, who represented the
embodiment of all fears, particularly those espousing ‘foreign’ ideologies like fascism.45
The main objective of the Aliens Control Regulations was ‘to ensure that aliens, resident in
Australia, enemy and otherwise, could in no way become a danger to the country nor impede the
progress of the war either individually or in association with others’.46 When war first broke out,
Germans were registered as enemy aliens while Italians and Japanese living in Australia were
classified simply as aliens.47 For the second time round, Germans in Australia fell victim to
restrictions placed on enemy aliens during war‐time.
42 K. Saunders, War on the Homefront: State intervention in Queensland 1938‐1948. Queensland, St. Lucia: University
Queensland Press, 1993, p. 33.
43 Saunders, War on the Homefront, p. 19.
44 Saunders, War on the Homefront, p. 33.
45 Saunders, War on the Homefront, p. 33.
46 Saunders, War on the Homefront, p. 33.
47 It was not until Italy and Japan entered the war later on that Italians and Japanese living in Australia were reclassified
as enemy aliens and further investigated or incarcerated.
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Registration Act 1939 (Cth)
The Aliens Control Regulations introduced during the Second World War targeted minority groups,
categorizing non‐British migrants living in Australia as aliens and enemy aliens. This prevented any
form of assimilation for most minority groups living in Australia at the time. Eleanor Venables wrote
the ‘issue of belonging and not belonging is paradoxical. Where and when does an immigrant begin
to ‘belong’? The ‘new’ society seems to demand belonging of you but, paradoxically, seems also to
block each attempt’.48 As evidenced in Appendix One, each foreign national was classified as either
an alien or enemy alien. This table was recommended by the Aliens Classification Advisory
Committee (ACAC) and established under the direction of the new Director General Simpson.
The registration of enemy aliens was administered by the Security Service, who ‘took measures to
register, photograph and fingerprint every alien’.49 Enemy aliens were expected to register at their
local police station according to a schedule organized alphabetically. For example, on 15 September
1939, newspapers announced that ‘Italians whose names start with the letters K, L and M are asked
to report at the Police Station’.50 In some cases, women provided their own photographs. Police
and military officers located at the local police station were responsible for enforcing the Aliens
Control Regulation. All aliens were required to complete a questionnaire form in triplicate and take
it to the nearest police station. Four photographs of them, one attached to the application form,
were to be handed into an Aliens Registration Officer (ARO), along with a certificate of registration
and passport. A certificate of registration and passport was also required to be handed in to the
48 E. Venables, ‘Recollection of Identity: The Reassembly of the Migrant.’ Sojourners and Strangers, Journal of Australian
Studies, Volume 77, 2003, p. 114.
49 Lamidey, Aliens Control: ‘A Report to the Honourable Arthur A. Calwell H.P. Minister for Immigration upon some
Aspects of Aliens Control in Australia During Time of War, 1947’, p. 6.
50 ‘Registration of Enemy Aliens’. Barrier Miner, 15 September 1939, p. 3.
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ARO. Clause 5 (4) of the Aliens Control Regulations stated that ‘Regulations may require the alien to
allow a print of his fingers or thumbs’.51
There was some difficulty, however, in communicating the Aliens Control Regulations to most
enemy aliens. The questionnaire forms were distributed by police and it was up to the enemy aliens
themselves to provide completed forms and photographs to their local police stations. It was
reported by the Barrier Miner in September 1939, that ‘Comprehensive details are taken from the
aliens and the officers’ work was hampered by the fact that several of them [aliens] have a slight
knowledge of English’.52 Though it was common knowledge that enemy aliens knew very little
English, they were still expected to follow up on the Aliens Control Regulations. It was reported by
Inspector Duckworth that the ‘public who were affected by the regulations should, in their own
interests, ascertain the precise requirements of the regulations from the nearest police station’.53
Authorities issued warnings to those who had failed to register. On 14 December 1939, there was a
small proportion of aliens who failed to register in Western Australia. Authorities announced that
those ‘who failed to report for registration, or enemy aliens who did not give their parole,
subjected themselves to internment’.54
During the war, hundreds of aliens reported to police stations where fingerprints were taken. It was
‘considered necessary as a check upon the identity of the aliens in the future’ (See Appendix
51 National Security (Aliens Control) Regulations, Statutory Rules 1939, No. 88. (m) taken out of Statutory rules made
under Commonwealth Acts During the Year 1939. Also Perogative Orders, etc., with Tables and Index. L. F. Johnston,
Commonwealth Government Printer, Canberra, 1939, p. 408.
52 ‘Registration of Enemy Aliens’. Barrier Miner, 15 September 1939, p. 3.
53 ‘