Paul Hasluck

Paul Hasluck

Sir Paul Meernaa Caedwalla Hasluck , KG , GCMG , GCVO (born April 1, 1905 in Fremantle , Western Australia , † January 9, 1993 in Gosnells , Western Australia) was an Australian politician and, among other things, Foreign Minister and Governor General of the country.

Early life

Hasluck was born in Fremantle , Western Australia to a Salvation Army family. Their philosophy affected him throughout his political career. He attended the prestigious Perth Modern School (which Prime Minister Bob Hawke also attended) and the University of Western Australia , where he did a Master of Arts.

In 1923 Hasluck moved to the literature department of The West Australian and began to publish his own works - mainly on the history of Western Australia. At the university he became a lecturer in history in 1939. In 1932 he married Alexandra Darker, with whom he had two sons. As Dame Alexandra Hasluck (1908–1993), she herself was a gifted writer and historian.

In 1941 Hasluck was recruited for the Australian Foreign Office as a clerk and followed the Australian delegations to various meetings, including a. the San Francisco Conference , which resulted in the creation of the UN . On this occasion he came into close contact with the Foreign Minister of the government around the Australian Labor Party , Herbert Vere Evatt , of whom he got a negative impression.

After the war, Hasluck returned to the University of Western Australia to teach history and was given the task of writing two editions for Australia in the War of 1939-1945 , which comprises a total of 22 volumes. Hasluck's treatises were published as The Government and the People 1939–1941 in 1951 and The Government and the People 1941–1945 in 1970. His work was interrupted by his entry into politics, largely due to his dissatisfaction with Evatt's foreign policy.

Political career

In the federal elections in 1949 Hasluck was elected as a member of the Liberal Party of Australia in the constituency of Curtin . In 1951, Prime Minister Robert Menzies appointed him Minister for the Australian Territories. He held this post for twelve years. He was in charge of the Australian colony of Papua New Guinea and the Northern Territory , where most of the Aboriginal descendants live. Although he advocated the paternalistic policies of the time and adopted policies of adaptation for the Aborigines, he made great improvements in their general treatment.

In 1963 and '64, Hasluck was briefly Minister of Defense and then Minister of Foreign Affairs . He was in office during Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War , which he passionately supported. He worked to strengthen Australian ties with the United States and anti-communist governments in Southeast Asia and opposed the recognition of the People's Republic of China .

After the death of Prime Minister Harold Holt in December 1967, Hasluck was convinced that the previous treasurer, William McMahon , of whom he had very little opinion, should not become prime minister. He offered himself as an alternative to McMahon, but since he was 64 years old and too conservative for the party's tastes, many Liberal MPs preferred the younger and more aggressive John Gorton to compete with the Australian Labor Party .

Governor General

Gorton felt uncomfortable having a direct competitor still in the cabinet, so in early 1969 he offered Hasluck the post of governor general . This accepted the new challenge. On February 10, 1969, he resigned from parliament. This move may have cost him a second attempt at prime minister, as Gorton lost the Liberal leadership in 1971 and Hasluck continued to have more prestige in the party than McMahon.

Hasluck's term of office as governor general expired in July 1974. As a token of his respect, Prime Minister Whitlam offered him to remain in office. Hasluck turned this down, however, on the grounds that he would return to his private life. Hasluck returned to Perth , where he was involved in cultural and political affairs until his death in 1993.

Honors

On February 21, 1969, as governor-general-designate, he was named Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St Michael and St George (GCMG) by Queen Elizabeth II . On May 29, 1970 she also appointed him Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian Order (GCVO) and on April 24, 1979 Knight Companion of the Order of the Garter (KG).

The federal electoral district of Hasluck was named after him and his wife.

Literature and web links

• Paul Hasluck, Black Australians , Melbourne University Press, 1942
• Paul Hasluck, Shades of Darkness: Aboriginal Affairs 1925–1965 , Melbourne University Press, 1988
• Paul Hasluck, Mucking About: An Autobiography , University of Western Australia Press, 1994
• Paul Hasluck, The Chance of Politics (edited by Nicholas Hasluck), Text Publishing, 1997
• Robert Porter, Paul Hasluck: A Political Biography , University of Western Australia Press, 1993
• www.naa.gov.au/images/bolton_tcm2-9149.pdf