Canberra, 29 April 1960

Secret

Agendum No. 41/1960 No. 44/1960: Disarmament-Australian Defence Principles

Matters Referred

Joint Planning Committee report No. 34/1960 on the above subject.

Conclusion

[matter omitted]

2. The views of the Defence Committee are contained in the attached report.

Disarmament-Australian Defence Principles

Conclusions of Defence Committee

Introduction

The Department of External Affairs has requested Defence views on disarmament, with a view particularly to furnishing advice which might be helpful to the Prime Minister in his discussions in London and Washington.¹

2. Our detailed report is at Annex.² It revises the 1955 Defence principles³ in the light of developments since that date and then applies the revised principles briefly to the 1960 Soviet and Western disarmament plans.⁴ Our conclusions are set out below.

   Australian Defence Principles⁵

3. The following are the principal considerations which should govern the Australian defence attitude towards disarmament:
   
   1. In the absence of a general climate of international confidence, any agreement on the reduction or limitation of armaments and armed forces can be entered into only if the assurance exists that all parties to the agreement will faithfully fulfil their undertakings. This requires that in present circumstances agreement on an effective system of international verification, inspection and control must precede the adoption of any system of reduction or limitation of armaments and armed forces.
   2. Such an agreement must not at any stage give a significant military advantage to any one country or bloc. The two main requisites are that the agreement cover all militarily significant states and especially Communist China, and that it embrace both nuclear and conventional disarmament, which should be related to each other.
   3. In determining the size and shape of the armed forces of countries party to the agreement, account must be taken at all stages of essential strategic considerations and of economic, political and demographic factors. This is particularly important to Australia in view of its size, geographic location and limited population, and to the British Commonwealth, by reason of its geographic distribution and dependence on the security of sea and air communications.
   4. There should be no impairment of the inherent right of individual and collective selfdefence, as expressed in the United Nations Charter and in arrangements to give effect to it, such as ANZAM,⁶ ANZUS and SEATO.
   5. Any agreement which provides for national disarmament to the point of leaving each country with only lightly armed internal security forces must also provide for some suitably-equipped international force to keep world peace. Otherwise the internal security forces of a country such as China, with its repressive regime, its large population and its minority problems, would be so large as to exercise, unless checked, a dominating influence in the region.

[matter omitted]

Communist China

6. With the increased military significance of Communist China to the Western position in South East Asia, and the increased importance to the West, and especially to Australia, of the West having adequate conventional forces, the relegation of Communist China to Stage II has serious drawbacks from the military point of view. Further, since this relegation is strongly influenced by political difficulties of associating Communist China with a disarmament agreement, which might postpone Stage II for some considerable time, the absence of emergency provision (both legal and practicable) for the force levels in Stage I to be revised, should the situation require this, is a most serious deficiency.

[NAA: A1209, 1960/469]

• 1 Menzies, who was also Minister for External Affairs, visited London during April and May 1960 for a Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference and other affairs of state.
• 2 The annex surveyed Australian defence principles from 1955 noting the importance of nuclear weapons and the need to tie nuclear and conventional arms reductions together. It also pointed to a need for an effective control mechanism before any reduction of armaments. The report emphasised Australia's strong belief that any arms agreement needed to include China from the outset.
• 3 See Peter Edwards with Gregory Pemberton, Crises and Commitments: The Politics and Diplomacy of Australia's Involvement in Southeast Asian Conflicts 1948-1965, Allen & Unwin in association with the Australian War Memorial, Sydney, 1992, Chapter 10.
• 4 In the Fourteenth Session of the UN General Assembly, which opened in New York on 15 September 1959, unanimous approval was given on 20 November 1959 to a resolution on 'universal and complete disarmament', sponsored by all 82 members of the United Nations, the text of which had previously been agreed to by the Western powers and the Soviet Union. Western and Soviet disarmament proposals were later discussed at a Ten-Nation Disarmament Committee conference in Geneva commencing on 15 March. The contrasting Soviet and Western plans were summarised by the US Information Service on 6 April and published in Keesing's Contemporary Archives, 1959-60, pp. 17370-1.
• 5 These new defence principles were sent to relevant posts (Bonn, Hong Kong, Geneva, London, New York, Ottawa, Paris, Rome, Washington and Wellington) for 'background information' on 12 May 1960. Posts were informed that the principles had been 'approved by the Minister of Defence as an expression of Defence views'. See Savingram from Department of External Affairs to Posts, 'Disarmament-Australian Defence Principles', 12 May 1960, NAA: A1838, TS852/10/4/2/3.
• 6 The ANZAM Agreement (1948-49) was an arrangement under which the UK, Australian and New Zealand governments agreed to consult and coordinate defence planning and activities in an area which included Australia and New Zealand and British territories in Malaya and Borneo, together with the adjacent sea area.