Providing an eye, an ear and a voice: Ian McGibbon notes the 80th anniversary of the creation of New Zealand's diplomatic service.

• Author: McGibbon, Ian
• Position: ANNIVERSARY

On 11 June 1943 New Zealand passed another important milestone on its path to independence--the creation of its own diplomatic service. For most of the preceding century, as part of the British Empire, its foreign relations had been in the hands of British politicians and officials. Only with the outbreak of the Second World War had the picture begun to change. As it was entitled to do under the Dominion status encapsulated in the Statute of Westminster, albeit as yet unratified by New Zealand, the Peter Fraser-led government had appointed an ambassador in Washington and a high commissioner in Ottawa in 1941-42. But it was not until 1943 that a series of unforeseen occurrences led to the passage of 'An Act to make Better Provision for the Administration of External Affairs', with the short title External Affairs Act, 1943.

This development was not precipitate. As early as 1940 the president of the NZIIA, Victoria University College history professor Fred Wood, had urged the government to create a more appropriate organisation to conduct New Zealand's international relations. Wood suggested the need for

a fairly small but expert and coherent group, charged with the duty of helping the Prime Minister to formulate long term policy.... Ideally, there should be a group in Wellington with men as liaison officers in key places ... and there should be circulation of personnel. Such action would emulate Australia, which had had such a department since federation in 1901, and Canada, which had set up a department in 1929. Although a Department of External Affairs had also existed in New Zealand since 1919, it had a different purpose to these other Dominion departments; its role was limited to administering New Zealand's League of Nations mandate, German or Western Samoa. The government had in 1925 developed a different mechanism to secure advice on international affairs with the appointment of Carl Berendsen as imperial affairs officer--the true genesis of New Zealand's foreign service.

Wood's initiative came to nothing. Apart from the press of wartime business, Berendsen's resistance--he was now head of the Prime Minister's Department--ensured that no action was taken. Not till Berendsen was removed from the scene in March 1943 with his appointment as high commissioner in Canberra did it become possible to create a department.

Berendsen's imminent departure impelled a reassessment of New Zealand's needs in this field. How were his responsibilities...