Australian Foreign Policy Documents - a great historical resource: update

Thomas kindly pointed out to me that I had failed to insert the relevant link in Australian Foreign Policy Documents - a great historical resource. I have now done so.

Return from China

Well, back from China this morning. I am still very tired, but have begun the process of catching up on domestic issues.

This was an incredibly packed trip. Just as an example, in our last full day in Beijing we drove to and then walked up one part of the Great Wall, visited the Olympic site, went to a silk market and then a little later took our Chinese hosts out to dinner. Then we did some late night shopping.

Switching the TV on on our return to the hotel, we found in breaking news that a bombing had just occurred in Islamabad and sat there watching the fire engulf the hotel in real time. Not really the type of thing to watch just before going to bed.

There is so much to write about and across several blogs. For someone like me who is fascinated by the way societies work, this was a great trip. I found it especially useful in taking me outside my immediate Australian pre-occupations.

I am not sure that my observations and conclusions are very profound. However, they are interesting to me. So I am going to spend the next couple of days writing things down before they all blur together in my memory.

Postscript

One thing that was nice while I was away were the number of comments I received on various posts. I tried to respond, but I found it a little difficult because of the combination of time pressures and internet access. I will do so properly over the next day or so.

Saturday Morning Musings - the complexity of modern Australian society

Thursday night before going away I got to watch part of an episode of the The Circuit, a court room drama set in WA's Kimberley region.

Helen was fascinated, she had not seen it before. Then we had to turn it off after Clare came home from hockey training because she wanted to watch a birthday present DVD and it was her birthday.

The program reminded me just how complex Australian society has become in ways that many of us barely perceive. In saying complex I am not talking about the complexity of current life, we share that with many other countries, but the complexity of society itself.

Helen found The Circuit episode fascinating because it exposed her to some of the complexities of an area and of the Aboriginal people in that area, bringing alive some of the things that she had read about or heard on TV. She also found a problem in reconciling the simple black/white images presented in the eastern states' media with the sheer complexity of the on-ground problems shown in The Circuit.

Australia could not and will not survive without common patterns and understandings. Yet we should not under-estimate the difficulties involved in maintaining national coherence. A key need, at least as I see it, is the need to recognise and accept difference. If we ignore or, worse, suppress these, we will all suffer.

Some of our Muslim citizens would like to see elements of Sharia law applied. Some of our Aboriginal citizens would like to see more recognition of customary law. Others in the Australian community reject both outright, still others want customary law recognised but also reject Sharia law.

The starting point in managing difference is not an un-thinking imposition of uniformity or rejection of alternative views. The starting point is to understand and delineate the points of difference, the underlying principles, so that we can address the issues. Without this, Australia will move from global success to global failure as a nation.

Postscript

Pretty obviously I wrote this short post in advance of my departure. It has been interesting watching economic developments - the only English language TV we have is BBC World, CNN. This means little on Australia, but constant economic coverage. Very frustrating for a blogger with my interests not to be comment! 

Visiting China 1 - Initial Impressions

This internet connection is free. But I am standing up and have a twenty minute window. Still, I thought that I might record some initial impressions before running out of time. And before things blur! You know how it is when traveling.

Impression one. The Chinese are incredibly courteous, marked by kindness and good manners. I am sure that there are exceptions, but I have not found one so far.

Impression two. Size. The sheer press of people can be quite overwhelming, especially in Shanghai. It is hard for an Australian, at least this Australian, to come to grips with population numbers greater than Australian crammed into a single urban area. This is a BIG country.

Impression three. Safety. At no time whether on the street or in the metro have I ever felt threatened. Again, I am sure that this is not universally true, but it is nice.

Impression four. Complexity. This is a remarkably complex society for a country lad like me to come to grips with.

Out of time. More later. 

challenge to legal Eagle - when is it right to legislate?

In response to a post by Legal Eagle I wrote Round the blogging traps - Legal Eagle on the common law.

We both agree that the proliferation of formal legislated law has become a problem. Now I want to issue a challenge to LE.

LE, can you define just what principles might be used to determine just which issues are suitable for treatment by legislation, which should be dealt with by other means?

Australian Foreign Policy Documents - a great historical resource

In searching around for my post New England Story - The life and death of the mysterious Harry Freame I found a very interesting source, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade historical record series.

The specific document I looked at was a secret cable from Sir Thomas Inskip, U.K. Secretary of State for Dominion Affairs, to Sir Geoffrey Whiskard, U.K. High Commissioner to Australia dealing with the proposed Australian Legation in Japan. From my viewpoint I found this fascinating because of the insights it provided on the way things worked.

This cable is one document in one volume of a twenty volume series. Those that are interested can find an entry point here. You can follow them by clicking backwards and forward. Do have a browse!

By global standards, Australia is NOT a racist country

I have mentioned before that I watch with dismay the constant stream of searches on Australian racism. The latest was a search on "why are Australians so racist" from someone in Arlington Virginia.

Running the same search again, I noticed a pattern. There are mainly two types of posts. The first are posts from Australia saying that we are. Just two quotes:

• Australia is a backwater, a racist and inward-looking country - from an on-line opinion article
• White Australia was founded upon invasion, theft, and genocide. It was subsequently shaped by social inequality - from a South Australian organisation.

Then we have overseas posts or articles that largely reflect Australian stated views back to us.

In the middle are a group of posts and stories that try to redress the balance - if australians are all racist how come I see so many black africans with white women girlfriends and white men with asian girlfriends read one.

Those inwardly focused Australians, and I include the media in this, who for a variety of reasons stereotype Australia as racist, or who are so concerned to fight against racism that they make race issues central regardless of other things, are doing this country a great dis-service.

Is there racism in Australia, yes. Is racism in Australia bad by global standards, no. Is Australia a racist country, no.

Many years ago when I was co-editor of a university student newspaper, we deliberately ran two stories together in the one edition, one on racism in the Soviet Union, the second on racism in China. Our intent then was to redress what we saw as an unbalanced local debate.

The position today is no different. Should we fight against racism, yes. Should we recognise the errors and mistakes from our own past, yes. Should we so obsess with our sins that we forget the broader picture, no.

In a sad way, the worst culprits in all this are those in Australian society who feel most strongly about past injustices. In their desire to set things right, to stop things happening again, they are doing the country great harm.

Postscript

In a comment, rummuser said...

I came here by accident while surfing and felt that I should share my two bits for what they are worth. I have visited Australia and have had some wonderful experiences with Australians. I am an Indian and did not experience the slightest racism, overt or covert, that I did experience in some European countries and in the USA. I have close relatives who are Australian citizens who do not experience any racism and would not live any where else. I may be an exception, I do not know. My personal experiences however should give some support to your own conclusions.

Nice to hear from you, RM.

A pause

We are going to the airport in an hour and I have suddenly realised that I will nor be able to complete the things I want to complete.

In Shanghai my wife has a conference. I am hand bag. I go on the accompanied persons' tours. This may sound dumb, but what I really to do is create a picture - sight, smell, feel - of what S. might have been like in the 1930s. Later I want to be able to shut my eyes and bring back the feel of the place.

I was very lucky to go to Singapore before it was modernised. Shanghai is exploding, more people already live there than live in Australia. BurtI think that the colonial quarter and old city still survive.

In Beijing we are lucky enough to have a local to show us around. I won't go into the connection, at this point, but we are lucky.

Time to give up on all the things I wanted to achieve before we left. Now it's time to go with the flow!

Time to sign off! By all.

Belshaw and China

I leave for China this evening for a bit over a week. We are going first to Shanghai and then Beijing. This is the first time that I have been and I am really looking forward to it. I will be taking detailed notes and, hopefully, some photos for later use.

I have a few posts that should come up while I am away just to keep regular readers interested. However, beyond this, I will not be able to post or respond to comments. Do feel free to comment. I will respond when I get back.

Scattered Friday Thoughts

So much to do today, so this post is limited to some very scattered thoughts, really notes to myself.

In a comment to Anon on New England Story - The life and death of the mysterious Harry Freame I mentioned that I was wondering about who else I might write about. I really do enjoy writing these biographical posts, although they take a lot of time, time that I do not always have. They also get a good response from readers.

I especially like subjects whose lives interact with different worlds, who illuminate a different aspect of life or history. There is a powerful addiction here because of the excuse it gives me for going in a variety of different directions. While I love ideas, I am also curious about people and the detail of life.

There are a lot of people I could write about, especially people who have become submerged with the passage of time. Here the hardest ones are the lesser known because they are far less likely to have on-line material that I can draw from, amplify as required. Yet these are some of the most fascinating stories. Life is not just about the famous, but about all those who have done different things.

So who do I write on next?

I must say that I am pleased with the recent performance of this blog, although I do not understand it. After a slow period, the blog is showing an upward trend in visitor numbers and page views. I cannot explain this. The stats packages I have do not provide any clue. Obviously I am not complaining, I would just like to understand.

The New England, Australia blog is also on an up. I have a better understanding here. Part is due to the Higher School Certificate exams bringing people through to posts such as those on Judith Wright. Part is due to click-throughs from this blog, something that obviously pleases me. Part is simply due to more regular posting.

I remain dissatisfied with the standard and focus of some of my posts. I was thinking as I responded to a comment from Bob Q on Uniformity and the tyranny of the majority that I really wasn't getting this quite right. There was a muddiness in my own thinking.

All this has been a somewhat introspective post, as I am sure that you will agree. Still, I did say that they were really notes to myself!

New South Wales Wales itself again- Brown out strikes

One of the reasons why I try to avoid commenting too much on current politics as opposed to policy is that, too often, I can add little real value. I become just another chattering head adding to the static.

For the benefit of international readers, Matt Brown, the new police minister in NSW, has been sacked in part for dancing in his underpants at a budget party, more because he lied to the Premier about it. I do not know who I am crankier with, Mr Brown or the ALP idiot who leaked the story for factional reasons as a pay-back.

I must be one of the few people in NSW who has read Mr Brown's maiden speech in the NSW Legislative Assembly. I was actually quite impressed because of the way he linked different elements of the ALP past together, including the establishment of the Housing Commission by the McKell Government. Now he has put the state in brown-out.

The factional idiot who leaked the matter comes from the Kafka world I referred to in Uniformity and the tyranny of the majority, a world that acquires a powerful internal reality independent of what is really happening. What counts is what happens in that world even if the ship is sinking.

Wearing my consultant hat, I once made a call on an organisation on the point of collapse. The executive suite was well separated from everyone else. The quiet chatter, the well dressed executive assistants, the coffee in fine china on a silver tray with chocolate biscuits, the patient wait while we waited for the busy senior executive to see us. Then the chat about long term plans.

As we came out, my colleague said to me, "Don't they know?" I replied no, they really can't see what's happening outside.

One of the silliest comments on the whole affray came from a journalist. Doesn't the public service run the state, she said. By implication, things would rub along.

The current sickness in the NSW public sector, the reason for complicated processes and slow decisions, the very real paralysis that seems to affect some agencies, all flow from the top.

I suppose that we have to give the new Premier time to sort things out. This will be hard because he actually has to change direction. In the meantime, I think that I will avoid commentary on NSW affairs until the position is a little clearer. Posts like New England Story - The life and death of the mysterious Harry Freame are much more fun!

New England Story - The life and death of the mysterious Harry Freame

Photo: Sergeant Harry Freame, peering out from a sniper’s hole, Gallipoli.

A little while ago I ran a post, Did you board at St John's Hostel Armidale?. This included a photo of 1937 boarders, one of whom was Harry Freame from Kentucky.

Kentucky was an orcharding and soldier settlement community south of Uralla, about twenty four miles from Armidale.

Looking again at the photograph reminded me that I had not yet told the remarkable story of Harry Freame.

Like any self respecting adventurer, elements of Harry Freame's life are shrouded in mystery, a mystery I suspect he sometimes played to with considerable effect.

When Harry Freame enlisted in the AIF on 28 August 1914 he described himself as a horse-breaker of Glen Innes and gave his birth place as Kitscoty, Alberta, Canada. With his dark complexion and accent, many thought him to be of Eskimo extraction, some thought American Indian, others maybe Mexican, an image he played up to "at Anzac where, in cowboy fashion, he carried two revolvers in holsters on his belt, another in a holster under his armpit and a bowie knife in his boot pocket."(1)

Wykeham Henry Koba Freame was in fact born at Osaka, Japan, son of Henry Freame, sometime teacher of English at the Kai-sei Gakko in Japan, and a Japanese woman, Shizu, née Kitagawa.

The date of his birth is uncertain. James Courtney suggests 28 February 1885 with a question mark(2), Darryl Kelly 1880.(3) This difference is not insignificant because it bears upon the accuracy of some of the stories about Harry Freame's early life. Could he in fact fitted have them all in? My feeling is the earlier date may well be correct.

Harry Freame almost certainly initially grew up in Japan, speaking Japanese like a native born. Darryl Kelly records that he was sent to England at the age of 15 (1895, 1900) to further his education. (4)

This early part of Harry Freame's life is shrouded in mystery. We know that on 19 July 2006 he married Edith May Soppitt at St John's Anglican Church, Middleborough in England, occupation merchant seaman. (5) At that stage his age was somewhere between 21 (1885 birth) and 26 (1880 birth). We also know that he had already started as an adventurer and mercenary.

Both Darryl Kelly and James Courtney refer to two campaigns.

The first is given by both as German East Africa. James Courtney suggests that he was involved in the supression of the Hottentot rising 1904 to 1906 (6), while Darryl Kelly records that Freame told friends that he served in 1904 as part of an international band of mercenaries hired to help suppress a native revolt.(7)

I think that both have the colony wrong. There was a rebellion in German East Africa (now Burundi, Rwanda and Tanganyika, the mainland part of present Tanzania), but this started in the middle of 1905.(8) By contrast, in German South West Africa (now Namibia), a serious and very bloody Hottentot rising did begin in 1904, continuing until it was crushed with considerable brutality in 1907. (9) So I think it likely that Harry Freame served as a scout in South West Africa between 1904 and 1906. This would also be consistent with the date of his marriage.

The second campaign on the other side of the world is the Mexican Wars where he is reported as working as an intelligence officer for President Porfirio Diaz. (10).

José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori (15 September 1830 – 2 July 1915) was a Mexican-American War volunteer, a French Intervention hero who fought against the French imposed Mexican Emporer Maximilian, and President of Mexico. He ruled from 1876 to 1880 and then again from 1884 to 1911. (11)

Darryl Kelly records that Harry Freame was in Mexico twice, returning in 1910. In 1910, a major rebellion broke out against Diaz's autocratic rule, starting the Mexican Revolution.(12) With the collapse of the Diaz Government in 1911 and a price on his head, Harry Freame fled Mexico by pack horse, escaping to Australia via Chile.(13)

We do not know what Harry Freame did between his arrival in Australia and his enlistment in 1914. However, by 1914 he seems to have been established as a horsebreaker at Glen Innes on the northern portion of the New England Tablelands.

Darryl Kelly describes Freame's initial impact on the AIF in this way:

With the final honing of skills in Egypt, Harry's skill and knowledge of previous campaigns began to surface. The swashbuckling air of confidence (of) what would soon become an ANZAC legend was about to take shape. The first item to be modified was the uniform. On this he attached leather pads on elbows, knees and insides of ankles. This allowed for the easy movement when leopard crawling around "no mans land". Next he discarded the standard .303 rifle and opted for a pair of pistols, worn on the hips, these were ideal for the close in combat of a scout. A stout bowie knife was positioned, sheathed in a boot scabbard. The last weapon in his armoury was a small pistol, worn in a shoulder holster, under his shirt. To top it off, Harry's trademark, black and white bandanna (photo) was worn around his neck. (14)

I am not quite sure that the AIF knew what had hit them. Harry Freame's bravery and his skill as a scout quickly became legendary. His uncanny sense of direction, his capacity to wriggle like an eel deep into no man's land at night even into enemy trenches, made him a formidable enemy.

Landing at Anzac on 25 April, he was promoted sergeant after three days of heavy fighting. He was awarded one of the A.I.F.'s first Distinguished Conduct Medals for 'displaying the utmost gallantry in taking water to the firing-line although twice hit by snipers'. He was mentioned in dispatches for his work at Monash Valley in June when C. E. W. Bean described him as 'probably the most trusted scout at Anzac'.(15)

On 15 August he was wounded at the Battle of Lone Pine. Invalided to Australia, he was discharged as medically unfit in November 1916.(16) A little later, he settled on the Kentucky Estate as government storekeeper following its subdivision as a soldier settlement scheme, then acquiring a block and establishing an orchard.

At the end of the war Edith, his arguably long suffering wife, came to join him. The historical material has almost nothing on his family. There was at least one son, the Harry who appears in the St John's Hostel photo. I am only guessing, but Harry must have been born after Edith's arrival. If he was fifteen or sixteen in 1937, then that puts his date of birth at 1921 or 1922.

I wonder how Harry Freame adapted to Kentucky? For those who do not know the area, the quiet dirt roads flanked by pine trees, the orchards, the sound of the crows in in the air, is far removed from the world that Harry Freame had known. Perhaps he found it healing. I also suspect that it made him restless.

Now we need to enter an apparent sidetrack, one that I am working partly from memory without checking my sources. Later I may add references if I get time.

In my post Ethnicity, ideology and the sometimes slippery concept of Australian "independence" - Part One: "Independence", I spoke of the evolution of Australian independence. I also mentioned the role that Billie Hughes had played at the end of the First World War for both better and especially worse. One of my points in the post was that the simple us (Australia)/them (London) model that seemed to be so popular today acted to conceal the reality and complexity of the Australian position.

The complexity of the Australia-Japan relationship in the period leading up to the Second World War is an example.

The adoption of the White Australia policy, in some ways the new Federation's first foreign policy act, created real problems with Japan and also for the Imperial Government wishing to maintain good relations with the Japanese Empire for broader strategic reasons. This included the signing of the Anglo-Japanese alliance in 1902. These Imperial imperatives actually led to some modifications of the policy, exemptions allowing for some types of Japanese entry.

Then during the First World War, Japan played a critical role in keeping shipping lanes open to Australia. There was disappointment on the Japanese side when Hughes at the subsequent peace conference fought to limit Japanese manadates over former German colonies in the Pacific. One can argue that he was right in the case of New Guinea, a Japanese New Guinea would certainly have complicated things later, but scarring was there.

By the early 1930s, Japan was central to Australian life in a way that I, for one, had not realised. Japanese trading companies played a major role in Australian trade, while there were tens of thousands of Japanese living in Australia under various forms of entry arrangements.

From 1931 Japan began to move into China. This further complicated things. Concerns about Japanese expansion warred with economic interests (Australians were seeking opportunities for economic expansion) and a love of things Japanese.

In 1935, William Scott joined Australian military intelligence.(17). A lover of things Japanese, Scott was also concerned about the Japanese presence.

In 1939 on the outbreak of the war in Europe, Harry Freame offered his services to the Government. His wife had died, that year, and I think that he was restless.

Scott employed Harry Freame to infiltrate the Japanese community in Sydney, and represented military intelligence at a conference in September called to iron out differences between military and civilian intelligence. In August 1940, Harry Freame married again, Harriet Briadwood. A month later, Freame accepted an appointment to the Australian Legation in Tokyo as "interpreter".

There is a whole story here that I do not fully understand.

Australian espionage in Japan, yes we did have our own spies, had been centered in the Australian Trade Commission. The establishment of the Australian Legation, one if not the first independent Australian diplomatic posts outside the Empire itself, was intended to extend Australian reach and to protect our economic and political interests in Japan.

The story of the Legation itself is one thing that I do not understand. The second is the fate of Harry Freame.

Harry Freame must have arrived in Tokyo in September or October 1940. In early April 1941 Freame, almost unable to speak, was reptatriated to Australia, dieing in agony on 27 May. The death certificate said cancer, but Freame himself said that he had been garrotted by Japanese Military Intelligence because of a leak in Australia that revealed that he had been employed by Military Intelligence. Medical records affirmed that his throat condition was not inconsistent with strangulation.(18)

There are two further postcripts that add to the sadness of the story.

The first is Australia's treatment of its large Japanese community during and then at the end of the war when we simply classified them as "seamen", a legal fiction allowing mass deportation. The second is the fate of Harry Freame junior.

In May 1942, Lieutenant Harry Freame Jr serving with the 2/24th Battalion 9th Division lead an assault on a Japanese underground bunker position near the Tarakan airfield using flamethrowers and grenades. Freame was wounded and hospitalised. A few nights later he was killed when a Japanese infiltrator threw a fused shell into his hospital ward. (19) I do not know whether there were any more family members.

Sources:

Axis History Forum, accessed 11 September 2008. (19)

James W. Courtney, Freame, Wykeham Henry Koba (1885 - 1941), Australian Dictionary of Biography on-line edition, accessed 11 September 2008. (1), (2), (5), (6), (15), (16), (18)

German East Africa, Wikipedia, accessed 11 September 2008. (8)

German South West Africa, Wikipedia, accessed 11 September 2008. (9)

Darryl Kelly, The ANZAC Bushido - 764 Sergeant Wykeham Henry Freame (1st Battalion AIF), Sands of Gallipoli Stories, accessed 11 September 2008. (3), (4), (7), (10), (13)

Mexican Revolution, Wikipedia, accessed 11 September 2008. (12)

Andrew Moore, Scott, William John Rendell (1888 - 1956), Australian Dictonary of Biography on-line edition, accessed 11 september 2008. (17)

Porfirio Diaz, Wikipedia, accessed 11 September 2008. (11)