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Historical documents

114 Cablegram From Menzies to Spender[1]

Cablegram, Canberra, 1 September 1951

Three Power Security Pact
Following is text of message requested. Begins: Please convey to those present an expression of the great satisfaction with which we have become parties to this historic pact. Stop. Your own constant labours did much to produce the result which has I am sure the warm approval of the overwhelming majority of the Australian people. Stop. The Pact is conceived in no spirit of hostility, on the contrary it embodies an enduring spirit of friendship and cooperation. Ends.[2]


1 In Cablegram 22 (30 August) Spender suggested that Menzies should send a message that he might read at dinner on 1 September to mark the occasion of the signature of the Security Treaty.

2 The Treaty was signed on 1 September for the United States by Acheson, Dulles, and Senators Wiley and Sparkman, for Australia by Spender and for New Zealand by Berendsen. The text of the Security Treaty between Australia, New Zealand and the United States of America is the same as that of the draft (Document 105) initialled in Washington on 12 July.


[NAA : A5460, 217/6, iii]
Last Updated: 11 September 2013
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