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An Australian in the Palace of the King– Emperor: James Scullin, George V and the Appointment of the First Australian-Born Governor-General

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 January 2025

John Waugh
John Waugh*
Affiliation:
Melbourne Law School, University of Melbourne
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Extract

The nomination in 1930 of an Australian, Sir Isaac Isaacs, as Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia has become a minor landmark in the development of Australian independence. Opposed or supported at the time as a measure of the strength of Australia’s links with Britain, the appointment has become, for lawyers and historians alike, a test-case for Australian autonomy and the countervailing cultural and legal force of the imperial connection. The central collision between Australian Prime Minister James Scullin (who nominated Isaacs) and King George V (who resisted strongly) added to the constitutional interest of the appointment but contributed to the long closure to researchers of key parts of the documentary record.

For some, the story is a heroic one. This interpretation has its most vivid expression in the final volume of Manning Clark’s History of Australia. In a chapter entitled ‘An Australian in the Palace of the King–Emperor’, Clark takes Scullin’s meeting with the King in November 1930 as his theme and describes how ‘Jimmy Scullin has not grovelled to the English governing classes … Jimmy Scullin has spoken for the Australia that was coming to be.’ In more measured ways, John Robertson's biography of Scullin and Ross McMullin’s history of the Australian Labor Party both make Scullin almost a lone champion fighting British resistance to Isaacs.

Type
Research Article
Information
Federal Law Review , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , June 2011 , pp. 235 - 253
Copyright
Copyright © 2011 The Australian National University

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References

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52 Memorandum by Lord Macmillan, 17 November 1930, RA PS/GV/L 2293/323.

53 Ibid.

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63 Ibid.

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75 Ibid.

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77 Ibid.

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82 Ibid.

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