1944 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference

The conference

Outline

The conference was attended by the Prime Ministers of all of the Dominions within the Commonwealth except Ireland and Newfoundland. Attendees included Prime Minister John Curtin of Australia, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King of Canada, Prime Minister Peter Fraser of New Zealand and Prime Minister Jan Smuts of South Africa. Also attending was Prime Minister Sir Godfrey Huggins of the self-governing colony of Southern Rhodesia, and representing India was The Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir. Members of the Churchill War Cabinet and the High Commissioners of the Dominions also attended.

Ireland did not participate although at the time the British Commonwealth still regarded Ireland as one of its members. Ireland had not participated in any equivalent conferences since 1932.

The British Commonwealth leaders agreed to support the Moscow Declaration and reached agreement regarding their respective roles in the overall Allied war effort.

Prior to the conference, Robert McIntyre and Douglas Young, the leaders of the Scottish National Party, lobbied King, Fraser, Smuts, Huggins, and Curtin, asking them to raise the issue of Scottish independence at the conference and to invite Scotland to take part in it and all future Commonwealth Conferences. Curtin viewed it as an internal matter for the British government, King was sympathetic, and the remainder simply voiced their acknowledgement of the communiques.

Churchill failed to obtain the demonstration of Commonwealth solidarity that he had sought. The American journal Business Week concluded that the real winner of the conference was the United States. Churchill omitted the conference in his memories.

Participants

Ministers

Military

• AUS General Sir Thomas Blamey
• UK Lieutenant-general Sir Hastings Ismay
• NZL Lieutenant-general Edward Puttick

Diplomats and civil servants

• AUS Sir Frederick Shedden Secretary, Department of Defence
• CAN Norman Robertson
• UK Sir John Stephenson
• UK Sir Richard Hopkins Permanent Secretary to the Treasury

References

References

1. Ehrman, John. (1956). "Grand Strategy Volume V, August 1943-September 1944". HMSO (British official history).
2. [[National Library of Scotland]], [[Edinburgh]]. Acc. 10090, Papers of Dr [[Robert McIntyre (politician). Robert Douglas McIntyre]], MB ChB, DPH, Duniv, JP. File 19: Letters to Commonwealth Prime Ministers 1944, and argument with Douglas Young 1951. Accessed 6 August 2014.
3. Milner, Marc. (2025). "Second Front: Anglo-American Rivalry and the Hidden Story of the Normandy Campaign". Yale University Press.
4. Churchill at the time was [[Minister of Defence (United Kingdom). Minister of Defence]] and [[First Lord of the Treasury]]
5. Attlee was at the time [[Lord President of the Council]]
6. Eden was at the time [[Leader of the House of Commons]]
7. Morrison was at the time [[Ministry of Home Security. Minister of Home Security]]
8. Curtin was at the time [[Minister for Defence (Australia). Minister for Defence Coordination]]
9. Mackenzie King was at the time [[Minister of Foreign Affairs (Canada). Secretary of State for External Affairs]] and [[President of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada. President of the Privy Council]]
10. Fraser was at the time [[Minister of Foreign Affairs (New Zealand). Minister of Foreign Affairs]]
11. Smuts was at the time [[Minister of International Relations and Cooperation. Minister of Foreign Affairs]] and [[Minister of Defence and Military Veterans. Minister of Defence]]
12. Huggins was also Minister for Native Affairs