John McEwen, Australian Minister for External Affairs: "the Consul-General of Japan considers the Freame appointment an excellent one, as Mr Freame had created a very favourable impression." This is the sixteenth in a series on Australia's early intelligence activities, the twelfth on the life of Harry Freame.
We come now to the next and last stage in the life of Harry Freame, one that would be as shrouded in mystery as all those that had gone before.
I have spoken before
in this series about the problems Australia faced in finding Japanese language
speakers. I have also talked about the sometimes chaotic and ad hoc Australian approach
to Australian intelligence gathering.
We will now see both
in operation.
On 4 December 1939, Australian Military
Intelligence employed Harry Freame on “secret defence work”.
There is no evidence that Harry had
retained any intelligence links while living at Kentucky, but now there was
need for Japanese speakers. His role was to monitor the small Japanese
community living in New South Wales.
August 1940 was a big month for Harry. He married again. His new bride
was a nurse, Harriet Brainwood, a divorcee with a son and daughter. He began
working for the Military Censor as a Japanese linguist while retaining his
intelligence role. He was also under consideration for another role.
Japan was a strategic
threat to Australia, but it was also a major trading partner. Still hoping to
avoid war, the Australian Government decided to open a Legation in Tokyo. This
was an historic move, for this was Australia’s first diplomatic post outside
the Empire and Commonwealth.
Sir John Latham was
appointed as Australia’s first Minister to Japan. A special act of Parliament was
required since Latham was also Chief Justice of the High Court. Harry was
offered and accepted the job of interpreter and odd jobs man, an unusual
combination, at the new legation.
In September 1940,
Australian newspapers carried detailed stories on the Freame appointment
including, in many cases, references to his secret defence work. Someone had
backgrounded the papers and all hell broke loose.
The Minister for the Army, P A McBryde, wrote
to the Minister for External Affairs, John McEwen, to express his concern at
the leak. The “possibility cannot be overlooked that this appointment may now be
viewed with suspicion in Tokyo.”
McEwen defended his
Department.
Freame’s activities
were well known to the Japanese authorities in Australia. Further, his
Department had specifically raised the question of Freame’s appointment with
the Consul-General of Japan who had responded that the Freame appointment “was
an excellent one, as Mr Freame had created a very favourable impression.”
Despite the assurances
from the Consul-General, this leak would have unfortunate consequences.
Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 29 May 2019. I am repeating the columns here with a lag because they are not all on line outside subscription. You can see all the Belshaw World and History Revisited/History Matters columns by clicking here for 2009, here for 2010, here for 2011, here for 2012, here for 2013, here for 2014, here for 2015, here for 2016, here 2017, here 2018, here 2019
2 comments:
I would suspect from the Japanese point of view Jim they might prefer Harry in Japan, he would be seen as an Australian strategic asset by virtue of his language skills.. It would also seem likely that the newspaper stories were leaked with an interest in preventing Australia from making this political move given the ever developing geo-politics of the times. We might not have a Harry Freame but there do seem parallels to our own times.
That's interesting, John. They might well have, but there were always differences within the Japanese position. The K seem to have been a world of their own!Given the link came from Australian sources, I think that it was part of an Australian game.
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