Year 12 IB Extended Essays 2018

Extended Essay – fyw899

ranked him the “Greatest Australian Prime Minister”. These recent survey results helps us to

understand Hughes’s popularity of the contemporary setting of 1919.

The popular reaction to the Paris Peace Conference is vivid in contemporary newspapers

around the time of Hughes’ triumphal return. 17 The photo at Appendix 3 is typical of how

Australia crowds welcomed Hughes home. The newspapers emphasised how crowds of

supporters appreciated Hughes’s efforts in Paris. It is fascinating to consider how Hughes and

the newspapers aligned in promoting the ‘little digger’ image at Paris. Thus, the crowd seen

celebrating Hughes’s return mainly comprises soldiers who fought in France and Belgium. To

some extent this was a national apologetic and justification for involvement in the Great War

because Australia’s standing as a new nation had been enhanced.

Hughes’s scuttling of the racial equality article for the Covenant gained him popularity. This

political popularity was based on the widespread racist views held by the majority of

Australians. Such racist attitudes were rationalised through academic papers and formalised

as the White Australia Policy, which received bi-partisan support among the political parties.

Furthermore, Australians were unashamed of their pro-white attitudes. Indeed, many

prominent Australians saw it as a duty to emphasise their racial superiority at every

opportunity. Thus, Australians expected Hughes to be their champion at the Paris Peace

Conference. Clearly, the politically astute Hughes did not disappoint Australian popular

sentiment. Therein lies the ostensible motive for Hughes’s diplomatic aggression to the

Japanese delegation. The humiliation of the Japanese delegation by Hughes only served to

further increase the popular euphoria. But, beyond the euphoria there were other factors at play

that were less visible to the public. It is these ‘secret’ strategic factors that we must now must

consider.

17 Refer to Appendix 3

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