In August 1915, Harry
Freame was badly wounded at Gallipoli and finally repatriated to Australia. By
20 November 1916, the day he was officially discharged from the Army, he was
living at 2 Bondi Road, Bondi.
Freame’s return to Australia
coincided with the attempts to establish a new intelligence network to monitor
Japan whose translation efforts were headed by James Murdoch.
Murdoch. a journalist
and teacher, had been appointed as a professor at Sydney University to allow
him to take up the role.
Harry Freame in Sydney c1920. It is likely he was recruited to intelligence activity as a Japanese speaker.This is the sixth in a series on Australia's early intelligence activities, the second on the life of Harry Freame.
This was neither the first nor the last time
that this happened. The White Australia Policy was never an absolute, but more
a barrier that could be relaxed when circumstances demanded it.
It seems likely that
Harry Freame was recruited to this intelligence effort. We have no direct
evidence for this. However, intelligence historian John Fahey mounts a fairly
convincing case.
Fahey shows first that
Freame was linked through the Army to two of the people involved in the
creation of this new intelligence network. He has also found references to an
unnamed Japanese speaking Australian ex-serviceman who was being used by the
group.
Freame was a native
Japanese speaker. We know of no other Japanese speaking ex-serviceman at this
point, so the connection seems likely.
In all this, it also seems
likely that the newly appointed Japanese consul in Sydney was well aware of
Australian activities including Freame’s possible involvement.
Australia was in many
ways a very small goldfish bowl. The newspapers covered new arrivals, while the
Japanese or Japanese speaking community was very small that they were known to
everyone including the Consul.
There is no evidence
that I know that either Japan or the Consul were especially worried about
Australian activities at this point. However, it does seem possible that files
were created that might later prove fatal to Harry Freame.
As I described in an
earlier column, political infighting led Prime Minister William Morris Hughes
to cancel this first Australian intelligence operation targeting the Pacific in
general, Japan in particular.
By the time Freame
became involved again, Australia was in the position it had been in 1916. It
had a renewed interest, but no structure and very few Japanese speakers.
I am jumping forward.
Even before Hughes closed the Pacific Intelligence Branch that had been
carrying out Australia’s Pacific intelligence activities, Harry Freame had
decided to return to New England.
Note to readers: This post appeared as a column in the Armidale Express Extra on 27 February 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
6 comments:
This whole period between Federation and the 1939 outbreak of WWII for Australia I find fascinating to read up on Jim. Your exploration of Harry Freeme touches on the wider National themes as well as the individual events in Harry’s life and escapades. The dominant National position has to be that Australia held Dominion status within the British Empire. Dominion governments were granted autonomy over all internal matters, while Britain retained ultimate control over a Dominions foreign affairs. Under this arrangement, the dominions entered a state of war when Britain declared war, but each dominion could determine the extent to which it mobilized its forces to support the imperial war effort.. Not unexpectedly there were those who gave priority to an Australian interest, principally in respect of the rise of Japan as a Pacific power. I think the rise and fall of the Pacific Intelligence Branch reflects this tension. The RAN with the support of some senior civil servants appears to have been at the heart of this expression of a more nationalistic view of the national interest. As a native speaker of Japanese Harry Freeme would have been ‘gold dust’.
That's an interesting comment, John. I have just been reading John Edward's John Curtin's War, vol ii, Triumph and Decline. This covers the period from early 1942. It's very well written and quite persuasive. I was interested in general, but especially as background to my New England story.
I think that your point on dominion status is well taken. Different dominions reacted in different ways. Canada, for example,formally adopted the Statute of Westminster well before Australia and adopted different positions during WW2.
I am not sure on the nationalism point. There were many shades here and we tend to interpret them It wasn't, i think, that the navy et al were more nationalistic but were more outward looking. Hughes was clearly a nationalist, but was much more focused on immediate political gains.
Yes Jim ‘nationalist’ is way too potent a word to be using given its many meanings, mostly perjorative. Strategic interest, strategic depth may offer improvement in language and meaning. I see Malcolm Fraser’s post 1996 iteration and journey as a more modern reflection of this latent and ever present strand in Australian public life. Yes the Navy would by virtue of its purpose and operational field be Outward Looking, ever the distant horizon to consider.
It's interesting, John, but I haven't attempted to trace the whole Australian nationalism thing through. Partly, i think, because I haven't really seen it as critical or interesting until quite recently. Of course, I looked at it, but having defined a framework I put it aside. And I found some manifestations distasteful in a personal sense.
I only use the name Jim because I have found Historians use it in opposition to imperialist in early Federation politics. I viewed it as similar to the division in UK between Atlanticist and European. In earlier times political difference focussed around the repeal or continuation of the Corn Laws. The eventual repeal of the Corn Laws had significant impact in Canada, the US and Australia as it opened up a significant market for their nascent wheat industries..
https://navalinstitute.com.au/australias-intelligence-operations-1901-45/
That's an interesting mixture, John. I think the corn laws were very important in both British politics and the emergence of the new Empire. I has seen that review. The book forms one part of my current series.
The nationalism thing was interesting. You had the Australian nationalists especially Irish and catholic who defined Australian nationalism as the exclusion of all others and especially perfidious Albion. And then you had those who were also proudly nationalistic but who saw no conflict between that and membership of the Empire and later Commonwealth.
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