Frederick Doidge

Frederick Doidge, 1940

Sir Frederick Widdowson Doidge (born February 26, 1884 in Cootamundra , New South Wales , Australia , † May 26, 1954 in London ) was a New Zealand journalist , diplomat and politician of the New Zealand National Party (NP).

Life

Journalistic career and collaborator of Baron Beaverbrook

Doidge was the son of a journalist who later became the owner of the daily Cootamundra Liberal . After attending elementary school , he was trained as a journalist at his father's newspaper before he moved to New Zealand in November 1902 and worked there as a journalist for the Patea Country Press . He then moved to the daily Auckland Star , where he first became a reporter , then parliamentary reporter and finally chief reporter. In 1912 he helped found the New Zealand Journalists' Association and became its first president.

After 1915 not the post as an official war correspondent had received, he underwent a double hernia - surgery to his enlistment in the New Zealand Expeditionary Force to facilitate on 2 May in 1916. After recovering from tuberculosis and seasickness , he served as a corporal in the Auckland infantry regiment in France between August 1917 and March 1918 . There he was deployed during the Third Battle of Flanders because of his journalistic knowledge at the divisional headquarters in Passendale , before he was treated between March and April 1918 because of a renewed illness in the 2nd New Zealand hospital in Walton-on-Thames .

Most recently he was before his release on 24 August 1918 the British Ministry of Information employees of Baron Beaverbrook . This hired him after the end of the war in his newspaper group, which included the Evening Standard and the Daily Express . There he trained as a manager and became director of Lane Publications , the group’s book department , in 1928 and finally in 1934 as general manager .

During this time, Doidge became one of Baron Beaverbrook's closest associates and contributed to the newspaper group's commercial success with the help of associates such as David Low and Arnold Bennett . The relationship between him and Baron Beaverbrook was strengthened in particular by the free trade campaign launched by Beaverbrook in 1931 , in which Beaverbrook, with the help of Doidges' organizational talents, wanted - albeit ultimately unsuccessfully - to turn Britain into a duty-free union. This gave Doidge an insight into practical politics, which cemented his belief in full support for British industry and agriculture, and in free trade between Britain and the British Empire .

MP and political views

Doidge returned to New Zealand in May 1935 and began his political career immediately afterwards. In the elections for the House of Representatives , he ran unsuccessfully in 1936 as a non-party in the constituency of Rotorua and as a candidate for the National Party in the constituency of Manukau .

In 1938 he was elected for the first time as a member of the House of Representatives as a candidate for the National Party in the constituency of Tauranga .

There he represented a free trade policy geared towards New Zealand conditions, which made a return of prosperity in New Zealand dependent on a protected market for New Zealand agricultural products in Great Britain. Because of this, he was a strong opponent of the New Zealand Labor Party's plans to inflate the economy, control credit, support secondary industries and commit to radical socialist policies.

On the other hand, he rejected the Locarno Treaties , which guaranteed European borders and collective security, and instead pleaded for a return to Great Britain's “ splendid isolation ” from Europe in combination with the USA . At the same time he was a supporter of the Munich Agreement of September 30, 1938 as well as the appeasement policy of the Axis Powers and noted that in the event of a war "this Dominion (New Zealand) would contribute its last shilling and its last man to the defense of the motherland" (' this Dominion would contribute its last shilling, and its last man to the defense of the Motherland ').

During World War II , he was a supporter of the coalition government of Prime Minister Peter Fraser . As such, in May 1940 he called for the internment of all foreigners, the lifting of work restrictions on production, the conscription of all men of military age and the dispatch of 200,000 soldiers to Great Britain. In 1943 he supported the deployment of the 2nd New Zealand Division in Europe instead of in the Pacific . In May 1945, he and the opposition leader Sidney Holland visited the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp on a trip to Europe .

Foreign Minister and Minister for the Island Territories

After the National Party's victory in the parliamentary elections in 1949, Doidge was appointed Minister for Foreign Affairs and Island Territories in his cabinet by the now Prime Minister Holland in December 1949 .

In this role he was confronted with a complex of political events in the period that followed: peace with Japan , the Korean War and the need for economic stability and progress in Southeast Asia . He advocated a "soft" peace with Japan and stated:

"It is politically impractical and militarily unacceptable to try to impose permanent restrictions of a drastic kind on Japan."

('It is politically impracticable and militarily unacceptable to attempt to force permanent restrictions of a drastic nature on Japan').

In 1950 he took part in the meeting of Foreign Ministers of the Commonwealth of Nations , at which the Colombo plan for economic aid in Asia was discussed. In 1951 he led the delegation in the negotiations for the signing of the ANZUS agreement . Although he accepted the need to involve the US in ensuring the peace of New Zealand and Australia, he opposed the exclusion of Great Britain.

High Commissioner in Great Britain

In September 1951 he resigned his ministerial office and instead took over the most important ambassadorial post of New Zealand as High Commissioner in Great Britain. Successor as Foreign Minister and Minister for the Island Territories was Thomas Clifton Webb , who also retained his previous functions as Attorney General and Minister of Justice.

In this capacity he took part in the coronation procession for Elizabeth II in 1953 and carried the flag of New Zealand . During the Conference of Prime Ministers of the Commonwealth of Nations he was also part of the New Zealand delegation, renewing his relations with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Baron Beaverbrook.

In January 1953 he was named Knight Commander of the Order of St. Michael and St. George .

On May 26, 1954, he died in office in the ambassador's residence in London. His successor as High Commissioner was then again Thomas Clifton Webb.

Web links

• Entry in An Encyclopedia of New Zealand 1966
• Entry in The Biography of New Zealand
• New Zealand Key Ministeries (rulers.org)