About Jessie Street
Jessie Mary Grey Street (née Lillingston; 18 April 1889 – 2 July 1970) was an Australian diplomat, suffragette, and a campaigner for Indigenous Australian rights. She was referred to as "Red Jessie" by the Australian media, due to her support for the Soviet Union through World War II and the Cold War.
Jessie Mary Grey Lillingston was born on 18 April 1889 in Ranchi, Bihar, India. Her father, Charles Alfred Gordon Lillingston, JP was a member of the Imperial Civil Service in India.
Her mother Mabel Harriet Ogilvie was the daughter of Australian politician Edward David Stuart Ogilvie and Theodosia de Burgh, who owned Yulgilbar station, near Grafton, New South Wales. When Mabel inherited Yulgilbar in 1896, Lillingston resigned from the Indian Civil Service to take up residence there. Jessie began her formal education with a governess. In 1904-06 she attended Wycombe Abbey School, Buckinghamshire, England. She matriculated by private study and enrolled in arts at the University of Sydney (B.A., 1911), where she lived at Women's College (1908) and also met her future husband.
Captain of the university women's hockey team, Jessie attended the inaugural meeting (1908) of the New South Wales Ladies' Hockey Association and played in its first interstate match (1909)—against Victoria. She was a founding member (1910) and president (1925-26) of Sydney University Women's Sports Association. She was associated with Dorette Margarethe MacCallum and others who were challenging the patriarchy at the University of Sydney where the men were trying to monopolise the sports facilities.
Jessie Street, ca. 1910 by L. W. Appleby, courtesy State Library of NSW
With her parents, she visited Europe in 1911 and again in 1914. She worked in London as a volunteer at Bishop Creighton House, a Church of England settlement, and for the New York Protective and Probation Association at Waverley House, a reception centre for young women arrested as prostitutes. Back in Sydney, she married (Sir) Kenneth Street on 10 February 1916 at St John's Church of England, Darlinghurst.
In 1916, she married Kenneth Whistler Street, who was knighted in 1944. Her father-in-law Sir Philip Whistler Street served as Chief Justice of New South Wales, and as Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales, as did her husband Kenneth and their youngest son, Laurence, who was knighted in 1976. Their other children were Belinda, Philippa and Roger.
SOCIETY WEDDING.
STREET— LILLINGSTON.
Pink and white blooms and evergreens, in the form of arches and sheaves, decorated St. John's Church, Darllnghurst, yesterday afternoon, for the wedding of Mr. Kenneth Street, First Lieutenant of the German Concentration Camp, and eldest son or Mr. Justice Street, and Mrs. Street, of "Liverynga," Onslow Avenue, Elizabeth Bay, and Jessie Mary Grey, eldest daughter of Mr, and Mrs. Charles Lillingston, of Yulgilbar, Grafton, Clarence River. Canon E. C. Beck officiated.
Both the bride's parents are in England, in order to be near their soil, who is on active service, so she was given away by her uncle, Mr. William Ogllvle, of ''Il Parran," Glen Innes. Elegant simplicity marked her gown of Ivory duchesse satin, veiled in a rich Limerick lace, similar lace forming her long veil, which was arranged cap-fashion with a tiny wreath of orange blossoms. She carried a bouquet of white blooms. Miss Agatha Flower, as bridesmaid, wore a particularly dainty frock of white net over white taffeta, designed with a three-tiered skirt, each tier having wide builds of chartreuse-green satin, the coatee, corsage being similarly banded, and finished with a green waistbelt. Her white sailor-shaped hat had folds of faint pink tulle, and a narrow black velvet chin strap. Pink roses formed her bouquet, and her gift from the bridegroom was a brooch set with pearls. Mr. Ernest Street (brother of bridegroom) and Mr. Montague Stephen, acted as ushers.
A reception was held at the Queen's Club, Macquarie Street. Mrs. William Ogilvie, of Glen Innes (aunt of the bride), acting as hostess, and being assisted by her daughter, Miss Beatrice Ogilvie. Mrs. Phillip Street wore a becoming gown of fine black Chantilly lace, mounted on white silk, and topped by a smart black hat.
The guests Included Sir Albert, Lady, and Miss Gould, Sir Thomas and Lady Hughes, Mr. Roger Forrest Hughes, Mr. Justice Street, Mr. Justice Gordon, Senator Walker, Mr. and Mrs. Roger Fitzhardinge, Mrs. Anderson (Gunnedah), Mrs. Griffiths and Miss Nestor Griffiths, Mrs. Armstrong, Mrs. Hawkins-Smith, Miss Stephen, Mrs. Selby, Mrs. and Miss De Burghi, Mrs. Consett Stephen, Mrs. M'Carthy and Miss Elwin M'Carthy, Mrs. Clubbe, Mrs. Murray Prior and Miss Bundock (Queensland), Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Dowling, Colonel Sands, and Lieutenant Bedford.
As Mr. Lawrence Whistler Street, a son of Mr. Justice Street., was recently killed in action, few of the bridegroom's friends were present.
Later, Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Street, left for their honeymoon, the bride went lug a navy blue tnfi'otn costume, and a navy hat, trimmed with pink blooms. SOCIETY WEDDING. (1916, February 11). The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1883 - 1930), p. 9. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article238783084
Lawrence Whistler (Larry) Street (1893–1915)
The news of the death while in action at Gallipoli of Lieutenant Laurence [Lawrence] Whistler Street, second son of his Honor Mr. Justice Street, of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, was received with deep regret in Sydney, particularly by the Bench and members of the Legal profession, to many of whom he was personally well known. Lieutenant Street was 21 years of age, and was an officer of the 3rd Battalion of the 1st Infantry Brigade. His early education was carried out at the Sydney Grammar School, where he passed about seven years. In 1911 he entered the Sydney University, and became a resident student of St. Paul's College, taking his B.A. degree in March, 1914. Subsequently, he entered as a student at law, and became associate to his father. He volunteered for active service in August last, and was therefore among the first to show his patriotic spirit in that way. The late Lieutenant Street, who was very popular, was an enthusiastic supporter of all kinds of athletic sports, and was well-known in rowing circles. Many sympathetic messages in respect of the death of his son have been received by Mr. Justice Street. MEN OF THE DARDANELLES. (1915, June 1). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 8. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article15594542
Mrs. Street was a prominent activist in Australian and international political life for over 50 years, from the women's suffrage movement in England to the Aboriginal Australian rights.
In 1920 Jessie was secretary of the National Council of Women of New South Wales. She planned to liven up interest in the council's work by calling elections rather than co-opting office-bearers, but met opposition and resigned. From 1921 to 1950 she was a councillor of Women's College, as was her father-in-law in 1917-34. She became an executive-member of the Feminist Club and briefly its president (1929). When she invited the Women Voters Association, the Women's Service Guild and the Women's League to join with the Feminist Club to form the United Associations (later United Associations of Women) some club members objected and she resigned.
Street was elected president of the U.A. in 1930. She held that office on and off until 1950, standing down from time to time to allow other women the experience. The U.A. became the New South Wales branch of the Australian Federation of Women Voters, which had been founded by Bessie Rischbieth in 1921 to give women a voice nationally and internationally. Rischbieth was Australia's leading feminist, and mentor to Street. She confided her plans for the A.F.W.V., suggested issues for action, used Street to interview ministers, and arranged for her to meet prominent overseas feminists. The A.F.W.V.'s journal, Dawn, was well established, and a useful medium for U.A. publicity.
The overriding objective of the A.F.W.W. and its affiliates was 'real equality' of status and opportunity—an end to discrimination against women in the workplace, in law, or in appointment to public office, as a consequence of marriage or motherhood. The welfare of children and the promotion of international peace were associated aims. The strategy of post-suffrage international feminism, which Rischbieth had helped to develop, was to mobilise nationally and internationally to bring pressure on government, both directly, and indirectly through the League of Nations.
In Geneva in 1930 Street linked up with the British Commonwealth League, joined a delegation seeking equal nationality rights for married women, addressed the Open Door International for the Economic Emancipation of the Woman Worker on the 'Iniquity of the Australian Basic Wage', and led a 'spontaneous' deputation to the director of the International Labour Organization. The Open Door worked for the repeal of all legislation and regulations that set special conditions for employing women, effectively excluding them from certain jobs and most trades. Street became vice-chairman of Equal Rights International. At home, she called on the government to respond positively to the League of Nations' resolution that had referred the Pan-American Equal Rights Treaty to member nations. She appealed (unsuccessfully) for the inclusion of an 'equal rights' clause in amendments to the Australian Constitution, put forward in 1944. Continuing to work with international feminism, she publicized its work when she was in Australia and renewed contact overseas in 1938, 1945 and later years.
The U.A. co-operated with other organizations in campaigns for equal guardianship rights, divorce law reform, the right of a married woman to retain her nationality and to establish separate domicile, the appointment of women to public office and to jury service, and the election of women to parliament. The methods were proven—public meetings, lectures, conferences, letters to editors and politicians, radio talks, deputations to ministers and public appeals. Throughout history, Street wrote, 'vital changes of policy have been brought about by moral pressure'. The U.A. published numerous leaflets and pamphlets, including three written by Street—on equal pay, child endowment and woman as homemaker.
A woman's right to economic independence was the cause Street made especially her own. It encompassed a right to income for married women, a right to paid employment regardless of marital status, a right to compete alongside men in the labour market, equal pay, and just remuneration of skills. She ran a long and ultimately successful campaign against the Married Women Teachers' and Lecturers' Dismissal Act (1932, repealed 1947), protested strongly at the Trades and Labor Council of Queensland's proposal (1935) to deny work to married women, and objected to their dismissal by the Sydney County Council (1937) and the Commonwealth Public Service (postwar). She lobbied for child endowment to be paid to mothers (1941) and, without success, for a wife's right to an allowance: a wife who left an unsatisfactory husband could claim maintenance, so if she remained with him it was 'only fair' that she be 'legally entitled to the money for her maintenance'. In 1932 Street had devised an elaborate national insurance scheme, with provision for marriage endowment and child endowment.
Since slavery was abolished, all men were entitled to sell their labour at the highest price, but women were denied this right, which, Street stated, 'is the very foundation of human liberty'. Was it fair that a man with private income could claim a job while married women were refused employment? Regulations excluding women from certain work (for example with heavy machinery) were also unjust. Industrial safety was as much a concern for men as for women. To enjoy the right to work, women needed access to family planning. Street had started the short-lived Social Hygiene Association in 1916 to promote sex education. Later, through the Racial Hygiene Association of New South Wales, she was involved in setting up the first contraceptive clinic in Sydney (1933).
Street argued that equal pay was just, and would eliminate the pool of cheap female labour which 'continually menaces the employment of men and the standards of living of all workers'. This was especially so where technology was changing the nature of work. The U.A. briefed counsel to appear in equal-pay cases brought by the Federated Clerks' Union of Australia and the Shop Assistants' Union of New South Wales. As a foundation affiliate (1937) of the Council of Action for Equal Pay, the U.A. continued to co-operate with the unions, despite disagreement on the tactic of phasing in equal pay. In a major campaign in 1940, with support from twenty organizations, the U.A. briefed Nerida Cohen to intervene in the basic-wage inquiry. In the sequel, Street secured a commitment from a number of unions to make applications for equal pay, influencing the Australasian Council of Trade Unions' endorsement of equal pay in 1942. The substantial result was the creation of the Women's Employment Board that set wage rates for women war-workers at 60 to 100 per cent of male rates.
That women should be properly rewarded for skill was another of Street's concerns. In 1923 she had established the House Service Co. to supply casual domestic service to approved clients. An associated Home Training Institute (1927-35) contracted with employers to release full-time employees (untrained young women) for domestic science classes and for afternoon recreation. Street expected the conferral of diplomas to raise the status and remuneration of domestic servants, and she arranged afternoon recreation to counter loneliness. She helped other groups—a co-operative of unemployed women who produced vegetables, eggs and flowers (1932-34), a union which obtained the first industrial award for nurses (1936), and women contesting parliamentary elections. The conference on essential social services (1934) was intended to bring professionally trained social workers to the notice of potential employers. When only one woman was included in the team for the 1936 Olympic Games, Street ran a campaign for additional selections.
The Street family were foundation members of the New South Wales branch of the League of Nations Union. As the failures of the league became more apparent in the 1930s, the U.A. affiliated with the State branch of the International Peace Campaign. Jessie Street visited the Soviet Union, at the invitation of the Society for Cultural Relations with the U.S.S.R., when she took her younger daughter to Europe in 1938. After some weeks in the Soviet Union, she was satisfied that Russian women 'could enter any occupation under conditions of equality'. In Vienna she was deeply saddened by seeing the way that Nazis treated Jews. An advocate for the removal of restrictions on Jewish immigration to Palestine, and for an increased intake of Jewish refugees to Australia, she was to serve on the Aliens Classification and Advisory Committee in 1944 and later on the Commonwealth Immigration Advisory Council.
Jessie Street had joined the Australian Labor Party in 1939, convinced that the organized labour movement promoted much needed reforms. In 1943 she failed to obtain pre-selection for the House of Representatives seat of Eden-Monaro (which the A.L.P. won), but was endorsed for Wentworth, which she lost after distribution of preferences. In 1946 she was again defeated for Wentworth. [1.]
Falk Studios (Firm). ([193-?]). [Portrait of Jessie Street] Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-136682724
Her 1943 run as in the Australian federal election as a member of the Australian Labor Party against United Australia Party frontbencher Eric Harrison for the Sydney Eastern Suburbs seat of Wentworth, saw her nearly defeat him amid that year's massive Labor landslide. She led the field on the first count, and only the preferences of conservative then independent Bill Wentworth allowed Harrison to survive. Her attempt was the closest a Labor candidate has ever come to winning the conservative stronghold of Wentworth.
As chair of the Russian Medical Aid and Comforts Committee, she organised the "Sheepskins for Russia" campaign during World War II, announcing the appeal in a featured article - a snippet of this:
SHEEPSKINS FOR RUSSIA. AN APPEAL TO SHEEPOWNERS.
"We write to ask for your cooperation in an appeal for sheepskins for Russia that we are making throughout New South Wales. Since the outbreak of the war in the Pacific, the Government has prohibited the export of any medical supplies, and our committee has concentrated on the purchase and dressing of sheep skins, sending them to the Russian Red Cross Society in Moscow by the Soviet ships that call at Australian ports. Russia has millions of wounded and untold numbers of people who have lost their homes and all they possess. The cold of the Russian winter is intense, and the lives of many wounded and homeless men, women and children often depend on whether they have warm clothing and bedding..." - Jessie Street, The Muswellbrook Chronicle
As Australia's only female delegate to the founding of the United Nations in 1945 at the San Francisco Conference, Jessie was Australia's first female delegate to the United Nations, where she became the first Vice President of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, and played a central role in ensuring the inclusion of sex as a non-discrimination clause in the United Nations Charter.
Farewell For Mrs. Jessie Street
Representatives or nearly all the Sydney women's organisations were present at the informal party given by the Lady Mayoress (Mrs. W. Neville Harding) at her rooms at the Town Hall yesterday in honor of Mrs. Jessie Street. Mrs. Street will leave shortly for America as a member of the Australian delegation to the World Security Conference at San Francisco.
Chatting to guests at the party, Mrs. Street said she was anxious to meet women delegates from other countries at the conference. She was accompanied by her daughter, Mrs. Donald McKay. Service heads attended the party, and also present were Dr. Frances Mackay, Mrs. H. W. K. Mowll, Lady Julius, Dame Constance D'Arcy, Lady Butters, Dr. Mary Booth, Mrs. James Moyes, Mrs. Sam Jones, Dr. Fanny Reading, Mrs. C. J. Poate, Mrs. W R. Dovey, Miss Margaret Walkom, and Dr. Lucy Gullett.
FAREWELL. Mrs. Jessie Street (left) with the Lady Mayoress (Mrs. W. Neville Harding) , who gave a party in her honor at the Town Hall yesterday. Farewell For Mrs. Jessie Street (1945, April 6). The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1931 - 1954), p. 10. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article248011661
Jessie Street. "Official United Nations photo": UN.
Delegates of fifty nations met in San Francisco, California, USA, between 25 April and 26 June 1945 at the United Nations Conference on International Organisation. Working on the Dumbarton Oaks proposals, the Yalta Agreement, and amendments proposed by various governments, the Conference agreed upon the Charter of the United Nations and the Statute of the new International Court of Justice.
There were 850 delegates at the Conference, and their advisers and staff together with the conference secretariat brought the total to 3,500. In addition, there were more than 2,500 press, radio and newsreel representatives and observers from many societies and organizations. In all, the San Francisco Conference was not only one of the most important in history but, perhaps, the largest international gathering ever to take place.
The heads of the delegations of the sponsoring countries took turns as chairman of the plenary meetings : Anthony Eden, of Britain, Edward Stettinius, of the United States, T. V. Soong, of China, and Vyacheslav Molotov, of the Soviet Union. At the later meetings, Lord Halifax deputized for Mr. Eden, V. K. Wellington Koo for T. V. Soong, and Mr Gromyko for Mr. Molotov.
Plenary meetings are only the final stages at such conferences. A great deal of work has to be done in preparatory committees before a proposition reaches the full gathering in the form in which it should be voted upon. And the voting procedure at San Francisco was important. Every part of the Charter had to be and was passed by a two-thirds majority. This is the way in which the San Francisco Conference got through its monumental work in exactly two months.
The United Nations did not come into existence at the signing of the Charter. In many countries the Charter had to be approved by their congresses or parliaments. It had therefore been provided that the Charter would come into force when the Governments of China, France, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and the United States and a majority of the other signatory states had ratified it and deposited notification to this effect with the State Department of the United States.
On 24 October 1945 (now observed annually as United Nations Day) this condition was fulfilled and the United Nations came into existence. Four years of planning and the hope of many years had materialized in an international organization designed to end war and promote peace, justice and better living for all mankind.
MRS JESSIE STREET
NEW YORK, Feb. 11 (A.A.P.).
Mrs. Jessie Street, of Sydney, was today elected vice-president of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. The president is Mrs. Bodie Begtrup of Denmark. Mrs. Street was nominated as vice-president by the White Russian delegate. MRS JESSIE STREET (1947, February 12). The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), p. 1. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article18011327
Jessie Street's Decision
LONDON. Friday; — Mrs. Jessie Street, of Australia, who was unable to obtain a visa to visit the United States, said she would stay in Europe at least until early next year. She would on July 20 attend the next meeting of the World Peace Bureau. This is the executive body of the World Peace Council. Jessie Street's Decision (1951, July 7). The Toowoomba Chronicle and Darling Downs Gazette (Qld. : 1922 - 1965), p. 3. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article287017141
In 1949, Jessie Street was made a charter member of the Australian Peace Council. In 1950, Mrs. Street and fellow peace activist Louise Mackay, travelled to England to participate in the World Peace Council's Second World Peace Congress, which was held in Warsaw.
National responsibility for the 'care' of Aborigines had been A.F.W.V. policy from 1933. It was also the first plank in policy proposals for Aborigines in the Australian Woman's Charter. Responding to Aboriginal protest, the U.A. recommended the appointment of a woman and an Aborigine to the Aborigines Welfare Board. In 1956 Street urged Pearl Gibbs to start the Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship. Street thought that the support of a national Aboriginal organization would 'help considerably' if her report were to be forwarded to the United Nations. Advised by Christian Jollie Smith, she drafted an amendment to the Australian Constitution to remove discriminatory references to Aborigines and suggested that the fellowship make it the focus of its first meeting in the Sydney Town Hall. As she travelled interstate collecting information for her report, she met Aboriginal leaders, to whom she explained the constitutional proposals and the importance of national organization. The Anti-Slavery Society decided against sending her report to the United Nations, but her visit had significant consequences. The Federal Council for Aboriginal Advancement (Federal Council for the Advancement of Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders) was formed in 1958 and her suggested amendments to the Constitution were carried in the 1967 referendum.
Street resumed her work for peace. In 1960 she returned to Australia and began writing her memoirs. A first volume was published as Truth or Repose (1966), the second abandoned. When Jessie next travelled, it was mainly to see friends. Though often apart, husband and wife remained affectionate companions. He was a daily visitor in her final months in the Scottish Hospital. (Lady) Jessie Street (her preferred use of title) died on 2 July 1970 at Paddington and was cremated. Her husband, and their two daughters and two sons survived her. She bequeathed $10,000 to the Australia-Soviet Friendship Society and the bulk of her estate to her children.
Following celebrations for her centenary in 1989, the Jessie Street Trust was formed to provide financial assistance to projects in the areas of her main public activities. The Jessie Street National Women's Library was also established in Sydney. The library holds a portrait (1929) by Jerrold Nathan in which Jessie is bedecked in finery, but she commonly wore a tailored suit, simple blouse, cameo brooch and comfortable shoes. Of medium build, with her brown hair cut short for convenience, she had a warm, pleasant appearance and demeanour. Jessie could charm and cheer, and give and win loyalty. She had a talent for friendship and for persuading others to fight for justice. [1.]
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JESSIE STREET — SALUTE TO "A CLASS TRAITOR" (1970, August 5). The Australian Women's Weekly (1933 - 1982), p. 4. Retrieved from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article46186803
Dr Herbert Vere Evatt
It's worth noting that the third regular session of the United Nations (UN) General Assembly, was held from 21 September to 12 December 1948 in Paris, France and from 5 April to 18 May 1949 in New York City, United States. The permanent Headquarters of the United Nations did not yet exist, so sessions of the General Assembly were convened in various cities; this was the first one to be held in Continental Europe.
The president of the United Nations General Assembly for both parts of the third session was Herbert Vere Evatt of Australia.
President of the third General Assembly, H. V. Evatt, overseeing a session in Paris on 23 September 1948. Photo: UN
Herbert Vere "Doc" Evatt, QC, PC, KStJ (30 April 1894 – 2 November 1965) was an Australian politician and judge. He served as a justice of the High Court of Australia from 1930 to 1940, Attorney-General and Minister for External Affairs from 1941 to 1949, and leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) and Leader of the Opposition from 1951 to 1960. Evatt is considered one of Australia's most prominent public intellectuals of the twentieth century.
Mr. Evatt was born in East Maitland, New South Wales, and grew up on Sydney's North Shore. He studied law at the University of Sydney, attaining the degree of Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) in 1924. After a period in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly (1925–1930), Evatt was appointed to the High Court in 1930 by the Scullin government. He was 36 years old, and the youngest appointee in the court's history. He was considered an innovative judge, but left the court to seek election to federal parliament at the 1940 federal election.
In October 1944 the American minister to Australia Nelson F. Johnson complained of Evatt: 'when he has finished with his politicking, and his Attorney-Generaling, he has damned little time for External Affairs'. Johnson may have soon rued his remark. Evatt had already shown disrespect for Great Power leadership. Irked that Britain, the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union had made important decisions at conferences in Moscow and Cairo in 1943 without consulting their allies, in January 1944 he persuaded New Zealand to join Australia in an agreement for a regional commission for the South Pacific. American foreign policy advisers disliked this assertion of regional interests, though the British covertly sympathized. Evatt's opportunity to act with greater effect arose after the Yalta discussions of February 1945, at which the Great Powers agreed to call a United Nations conference on a proposed world organization. Scheduled to begin on 25 April at San Francisco, this gathering was to make Evatt's international reputation.
The Australian delegation included Frank Forde, deputy prime minister and nominally Evatt's senior. It was uncertain whether Forde or Evatt was leader, and it may have been that the ailing Curtin wanted both men out of the way to bolster J. B. Chifley's prospects as his successor. Evatt took with him an able team of advisers, among them (Sir) Kenneth Bailey, John Burton, (Sir) Paul Hasluck and (Sir) Alan Watt. Thus supported, Evatt gained prominence during the next two months as spokesman for Australia and for the smaller and middle-ranking nations who wished to empower the U.N. as an instrument of collective security. Evatt probably intervened on too many fronts, but his achievements were significant. Although his vigorous campaigning failed to reduce the Great Powers' right of veto in the Security Council, the role of the smaller nations was strengthened by enlarging the scope of discussion in the General Assembly.
Evatt's team also succeeded in writing into the U.N. Charter a stronger commitment to full employment than originally planned. Where Australia's domestic interests were concerned, Evatt manoeuvred shrewdly. Seeking a definition of colonial trusteeship which would facilitate Australian control of the territories of Papua and New Guinea, he accepted a lesser degree of international accountability than he had originally advocated. He also accepted a concept of domestic jurisdiction compatible with Australia's policies on immigration and towards the Aborigines.
While Evatt was returning to Australia in July 1945, Curtin died. In the ensuing leadership ballot, one or two votes, apparently unsought, went to Evatt; Chifley was elected prime minister and confirmed Evatt in his portfolios. On 15 August the war in the Pacific ended. By then Evatt had a clearly defined foreign policy strategy, though his day-to-day tactics sometimes obscured his aims. Australia's regional security was paramount. It was essential, therefore, that the country's northern neighbours were in stable and friendly hands; in the early postwar months he favoured the restoration of Dutch, British and Portuguese authority in South-East Asia. In addition, Evatt held that Australia and New Zealand should wield influence in the South-West Pacific, without too much American intervention—a policy which led to the wrangle (1945-47) between Australia and the U.S.A. over Manus Island.
At San Francisco Dr. Evatt had made it plain that Australia would speak with its own voice in the international arena. In the brief interval between the end of World War II and the onset of the Cold War many Australians found this stand attractive.
It remained questionable how far a nation of Australia's modest military-industrial strength could carry an autonomous foreign policy. Believing that international relations could become a new province for law and order, based where possible on democratic and ethical standards, Evatt argued that, in the U.N., Australia should not align itself automatically with any major power bloc, but should judge questions on their merits. By enabling the U.N. to develop in its early years as a forum whose outcomes were not always predictable, Evatt's Australia may have helped to secure legitimacy for the new organization, and perhaps allowed the U.N. to act as a force for restraint in the Cold War.
Evatt participated tirelessly. He sat on the U.N. Security Council and became first president (1946) of the Atomic Energy Commission. In January 1947 he attended a South Pacific regional conference in Canberra. At the second session of the General Assembly he chaired a special committee on Palestine; and he attained a cherished ambition with his election as president of the third session (September 1948 to May 1949).
Australia's mediatory role during these years was not always fruitful: the resolution of the long-running crisis in Greece owed little to Evatt's endeavours and he failed to defuse the Berlin crisis of 1948-49. Australia's influence helped to bring about partition in Palestine, though Israel did not welcome Evatt's support for the internationalization of Jerusalem. Outside the U.N., a particularly constructive initiative was his advocacy in 1948 that Britain accept Ireland's declaration of independence from the Commonwealth without reprisals. [2.]
Mr. Evatt joined the diplomatic councils of the allies during World War II. In 1945, he played a leading role in the founding of the UN. He was President of the United Nations General Assembly from 1948 to 1949 as part of the third session of the United Nations General Assembly, and was prominent in the negotiations that led to the creation of Israel as chair of the Ad Hoc Committee on the Palestinian Question. He also helped draft the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The British administration was formalised by the League of Nations under the Palestine Mandate in 1923, as part of the Partitioning of the Ottoman Empire following World War I. The Mandate reaffirmed the 1917 British commitment to the Balfour Declaration, for the establishment in Palestine of a "National Home" for the Jewish people, with the prerogative to carry it out. A British census of 1918 estimated 700,000 Arabs and 56,000 Jews.
In 1937, following a six-month-long Arab General Strike and armed insurrection which aimed to pursue national independence and secure the country from foreign control, the British established the Peel Commission. The Commission concluded that the Mandate had become unworkable, and recommended partition into an Arab state linked to Transjordan; a small Jewish state; and a mandatory zone.
In April 1947, after failing to reconcile the conflicting demands of both the Jewish and Arab communities, Britain indicated an intention to withdraw from Palestine and requested that a permanent solution be discussed by the United Nations General Assembly. Subsequently, a United Nations Special Committee was established to draft proposals for the future of Palestine.
The report of the majority of the Committee (CHAPTER VI) envisaged the division of Palestine into three parts: an Arab State, a Jewish State and the City of Jerusalem, linked by extraterritorial crossroads.
The proposed Arab State would include the central and part of western Galilee, with the town of Acre, the hill country of Samaria and Judea, an enclave at Jaffa, and the southern coast stretching from north of Isdud (now Ashdod) and encompassing what is now the Gaza Strip, with a section of desert along the Egyptian border.
The proposed Jewish State would include the fertile Eastern Galilee, the Coastal Plain, stretching from Haifa to Rehovot and most of the Negev desert, including the southern outpost of Umm Rashrash (now Eilat).
The Corpus Separatum included Bethlehem and the surrounding areas.
Under the chairmanship of the Dr HV Evatt the UN Special Committee recommended the establishment of an independent Jewish State in Palestine, together with an independent Arab State, and this was endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly in November 1947.
The State of Israel was subsequently proclaimed in Tel Aviv on 14 May 1948.
The Arab Higher Committee, the Arab League and other Arab leaders and governments rejected the Plan, stating they formed a two-thirds majority, and owned most of the territory. They also indicated an unwillingness to accept any form of territorial division, arguing that it violated the principles of national self-determination in the UN Charter that granted people the right to decide their own destiny.
They announced their intention to take all necessary measures to prevent the implementation of the resolution. The plan was not implemented and a civil war broke out in Palestine, eventually becoming a larger regional war, and leading to the expulsion and flight of 85% of the Palestinians living in the areas that became the state of Israel; these events are referred to by Palestinians as the Nakba ('catastrophe').
The term "Palestine" (in Latin, Palæstina) comes via ancient Greek from a Semitic toponym for the general area dating back to the late second millennium BCE, a reflex of which is also to be found in the Biblical ethnonym Philistines.
Palestine, officially the 'State of Palestine', is a country in West Asia, it shares borders with Israel, with Jordan to the east and Egypt to the southwest. It has a total proclaimed land area of 6,020 square kilometres (2,320 sq mi) while its population exceeds five million. Its proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, while Ramallah serves as its de facto administrative center. Gaza was its largest city prior to evacuations.
As of September 2025, the 'State of Palestine' is recognised as a sovereign state by 157 of the 193 member states of the United Nations (UN).
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