Peter Fraser

This article is about the New Zealand politician Peter Fraser. For other people, see Peter Fraser (disambiguation) .

Peter Fraser (around 1942)

Peter Fraser (born August 28, 1884 in Hill of Fearn , † December 12, 1950 in Wellington ) was a New Zealand politician and from March 27, 1940 to December 13, 1949 Prime Minister of New Zealand . He was in office for most of the Second World War. Historians see him as an important figure in the history of the New Zealand Labor Party . After Helen Clark , he had the second longest term of any Labor Party prime minister.

Early life

Peter Fraser was born on August 28, 1884 in Hill of Fearn , Scotland . He received a basic education but then had to leave school for financial reasons. He became an apprentice to a carpenter, but had to give up this job because of extremely poor eyesight. Fraser later found it difficult to read official documents and insisted on spoken reports instead of written ones. However, before his eyesight deteriorated, he read a lot. The socialists Keir Hardie and Robert Blatchford were among his favorite authors.

Fraser became active as secretary of the local Liberal group at the age of 16 and joined the Independent Labor Party in 1908 .

Trade unionists

After unsuccessfully seeking employment in London, Fraser decided to immigrate to New Zealand at the age of 26. Obviously he chose New Zealand because he believed the country had a progressive spirit.

Upon arriving in Auckland , Fraser got a job as a dock worker. He became active in the trade union movement and a member of the New Zealand Socialist Party . When Michael Joseph Savage (later Prime Minister of the Labor Party) ran as a socialist candidate for the Auckland Central constituency , Fraser organized his election campaign. Fraser was also active in the New Zealand Federation of Labor and represented them in the Waihi miners' strike in 1912. Shortly afterwards, Fraser moved to New Zealand's capital Wellington .

In 1913 Fraser helped found the New Zealand Social Democratic Party . During the same year he was arrested by the police on charges of breach of the peace in connection with his union activities. Although the arrest did not lead to any serious personal consequences, it changed his strategy. Fraser refrained from direct protests and began to advocate a parliamentary work to power.

When the First World War broke out, Fraser opposed New Zealand involvement. Like many on the left, he saw the conflict as an "imperialist war" that was more about national interests than principles.

Labor Party

In 1916 Fraser helped found the New Zealand Labor Party , to which many members of the Social Democratic Party moved. The members elected Harry Holland as party leader. Michael Joseph Savage, Fraser's old Socialist Party ally, was also involved.

Later in 1916 the government arrested Fraser and several other Labor Party members as agitators. The reason for this was their open rejection of the war and especially their call to abolish compulsory military service . Fraser was sentenced to a year in prison. He always rejected the guilty verdict, since he would only have been guilty of subversion if he had taken active steps to undermine conscription, not just by expressing his rejection of conscription.

After his release from prison, Fraser worked as a journalist for the Labor Party newspaper and resumed his work in the party. His first post was as campaign manager for Harry Holland. In the 1918 by-elections for the Wellington Central constituency , Fraser was elected to parliament. He was particularly distinguished by his measures against the flu epidemic 1918-1919 .

In 1919 he married Janet Henderson Munro, also a political activist. The couple stayed together until Janet's death in 1945, and their marriage remained childless.

Early parliamentarian career

During his first years in parliament he became more clear about his own political views. Although he met the Russian October Revolution of 1917 and its Bolshevik leaders with enthusiasm, he soon developed a negative attitude. He became one of the strongest proponents of excluding Communists from the Labor Party. He devoted himself even more to parliamentary politics instead of protest actions and had a moderating influence on many political decisions of the Labor Party.

Fraser's view conflicted with that of party chairman Harry Holland. However, the party gradually moved away from the extreme left. Holland died in 1933, leaving the question of succession open. Fraser tried to lead the party, but lost to Holland's deputy Michael Joseph Savage. Fraser became his deputy.

Although Savage had less moderate views than Fraser, he also did not pursue the extreme ideology of Holland. With the "softer" image and a conservative government coalition grappling with the aftermath of the Great Depression , Savage's party managed to win the 1935 election and form the government.

Cabinet Minister

In the new administration, Fraser became Minister of Health, Minister of Education, Minister of the Navy, and Minister of Police. He was very active as a minister, often working 17 hours a day, 7 days a week. He showed a particular interest in education, which he saw as crucial for social reform. His appointment of CE Beeby to the Department of Education provided him with an important ally for these reforms. Fraser was also the driving force behind the Social Security Act of 1938 .

When the Second World War broke out in 1938, Fraser had already taken on most of the Prime Minister's functions in addition to his portfolios, as Michael Joseph Savage had been ill and near death for some time, although the government kept this from the public.

Internal party disputes, however, weakened Fraser's position. John A. Lee , a recognized socialist in the party, opposed the party's perceived swing to the political center and sharply criticized Savage and Fraser. However, Lee's attacks became so sharp that many of his supporters turned away from him. On March 25, 1940, Fraser and his allies succeeded in expelling Lee from the party.

prime minister

Statue of Fraser in the grounds of the former Wellington Houses of Parliament

After Savage's death on March 27, 1940, Fraser successfully defended the leadership against Gervan McMillan and Clyde Carr . However, he had to grant the party's caucus the right to appoint cabinet members without confirmation from the prime minister. This practice was later continued by the Labor Party.

Despite this concession, Fraser stayed in the lead and sometimes bothered his colleagues with his leadership style. Part of this determination to be in control may have been caused by the war, to which it was almost entirely devoted. However, some of his measures, such as censorship , wage fixing and conscription, were unpopular in the party. Conscription in particular led to strong opposition, especially because Fraser had spoken out against it in the First World War.

Fraser replied that, unlike the first, participation in this war was an honorable cause and that conscription was a necessary evil. Despite opposition from within its own party, a sufficient part of the population supported the introduction of conscription to ensure its acceptance.

During the war, Fraser tried to win support for an understanding between Labor and its main rival, the National Party. However, the opposition from both parties prevented an agreement and Labor continued to rule alone. However, Fraser worked closely with Gordon Coates . He was a former prime minister and now a "rebel" in the ranks of the National Party. Fraser praised Coates for his willingness to put aside loyalty to his party and appears to have believed that National leader Sidney Holland put "party utility over national unity".

In terms of war activities, Fraser was particularly careful that New Zealand retained control of its own troops. He believed that the more populous countries, particularly Britain, viewed the New Zealand military only as a complement to their own military, not as the armed forces of a sovereign state. After particularly heavy New Zealand losses in the Balkan campaign in 1941, Fraser decided to reserve the right to decide where New Zealand troops would be deployed. Fraser insisted to British leaders that Bernard Freyberg , commander of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force, should report to the New Zealand government as detailed as he did to the British authorities. When Japan entered the war, Fraser had the choice of recalling New Zealand troops to the Pacific (as Australia had done) or leaving them in the Middle East, as Winston Churchill demanded. Fraser chose the second option.

Fraser with Prime Ministers of the British Commonwealth, 1944.

Fraser had a very difficult relationship with Secretary of State Cordell Hull , particularly in relation to the Canberra Pact of January 1944. Hull treated Fraser in a degrading way during a visit to Washington, DC in mid-1944, which resulted in New Zealand's Military played only a minor role in the course of the Pacific War .

After the war ended, Fraser worked with the newly created Department of Foreign Affairs under Alister McIntosh on the formation of the United Nations . He was especially recognized for his opposition to a right of veto for permanent members of the UN Security Council and often spoke as the unofficial representative of the smaller states.

Fraser worked particularly closely with McIntosh, who was also head of the Prime Minister's department, for most of his tenure. McIntosh privately expressed his frustration with Fraser as a workaholic and his lack of sensitivity to the fact that officials also need a private life. Overall, however, the two of them had a sincere and warm relationship.

In 1947 Fraser also took over the "Ministry of Native Affairs" , which he renamed the "Ministry of Māori Affairs". Fraser took an interest in the problems of the Māori for some time and introduced some measures to reduce inequality.

Fraser's government had proposed adopting the 1931 Statute of Westminster in 1944 in order to achieve greater constitutional self-determination. The opposition was passionate about the proposal, claiming the government was not loyal to the UK. National MP for Tauranga , Frederick Doidge , claimed "with us, loyalty is an instinct as deep as religion."

The proposal was therefore not pursued any further. Ironically, the National-led opposition led to the adoption of the statutes in 1947 when opposition leader and future Prime Minister Sidney Holland tabled a personal motion to abolish the Legislative Council of New Zealand . Since New Zealand needed the approval of the British Parliament to amend the New Zealand Constitution Act 1852 , Fraser decided to adopt the statute.

Although Fraser gave up the education minister's portfolio early in his tenure, he and Walter Nash continued to play an active role in developing education policy. In the 1946 election, Fraser ran for the newly created constituency of Brooklyn. He kept this seat until his death. Arnold Nordmeyer succeeded Brooklyn. In his previous constituency Wellington Central, Charles Henry Chapman was his successor.

Fraser's other domestic political endeavors came under increasing criticism. The slow withdrawal of the rationing introduced during the war and his support for compulsory military training in peacetime did him particularly political damage. With the dwindling support of traditional Labor voters and a population weary of the war, Fraser's popularity also waned. In the 1949 election, the National Party won the election. On December 13, 1949, Sidney Holland took over the office of Prime Minister.

Opposition leader

Fraser became opposition leader, but no longer played an important role for health reasons. He died in Wellington on December 12, 1950 and was buried in Wellington Karori Cemetery. Walter Nash succeeded him as Labor Party leader and opposition leader.

literature

• Colin Campbell Aikman: History, Constitutional - The Legislative Authority of the New Zealand Parliament . In: Alexander Hare McLintock (Ed.): An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand . Wellington 1966 ( online [accessed December 17, 2015]).
• Bassett, Michael: Tomorrow Comes The Song: A Biography of Peter Fraser . Penguin 2004.
• McGibbon, I., ed. Undiplomatic dialogue . Auckland, 1993

Web links

Commons : Peter Fraser  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Newspaper article about Peter Fraser in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Jim Bolger : Speech to the Annual Conference of the Newspaper Publishers Association . Newspaper Publishers Association, March 16, 1994.
2. ^ Aikman: History, Constitutional - The Legislative Authority of the New Zealand Parliament . In: An Encyclopaedia of New Zealand . 1966.
3. ^ New Zealand Parliament - New Zealand sovereignty: 1857, 1907, 1947, or 1987? . Retrieved January 30, 2011.