Insider's view of New Zealand's wartime leaders

Oliver Riddell reviews Beyond the Battlefield.

BEYOND THE BATTLEFIELD
Gerald Hensley
Penguin Viking, $65, hbk

New Zealand's experiences with its allies during World War 2 - which began 70 years ago - still form the foundations of the country's economic and diplomatic place in the world.

The author's life has been a preparation for writing this book.

Gerald Hensley studied history, was a diplomat for 20 years, was head of the Prime Minister's Department, and then was Secretary of Defence.

He writes with real relish, and some affection for the main persona.

What a tight-knit isolated little community New Zealand was during the 1930s, tied entirely to the struggling British economy.

It eventually produced a wartime Cabinet containing only three people of much talent - Peter Fraser, Walter Nash and Gordon Coates (who died in 1943). After that, Fraser and Nash ran things pretty much to suit themselves.

They drove their advisers and public servants to distraction, they were so disorganised.

They tried to follow the example of Britain by having a coalition government, but the animosity within the Federation of Labour and the Labour Party towards the National Party was too great to make that possible.

So nearly half of the Parliament was on the outer. It made Fraser and Nash very vulnerable and cripplingly cautious.

It is to National's credit that, while tormenting the Government, it hardly ever undermined it.

New Zealand's efforts were further hampered by the animosity that had grown up over 20 years between the Australian and New Zealand Labour governments.

While both sides tried to resurrect the Anzac spirit, Wellington's relations with Canberra were generally awful.

But they knew they had so much they ought to be co-operating over and both sides did try. It was just that what divided them seemed insuperable.

For example, how should they cope with the long-foreseen and rapidly approaching Japanese threat from the north? They never did find the answer.

Then, how should they respond co-operatively to their growing need to retain their own identities while shifting their dependency from Britain to the United States? They never got that right either.

All this sounds very human, and Hensley explains it in human terms.

He is judgemental, and has reason to be, but he is kind to Fraser and Nash because, in spite of their shortcomings and the difficulties these created, they managed to muddle through.

New Zealand's influence in shaping the post-war world was out of all proportion to its size, its wealth or its military contribution. That is greatly to the credit of the two men.

They were helped by the outstanding quality of the minute group of core public servants - especially Carl Berendsen and Alister McIntosh, but also backed by capable juniors.

Hensley knew Berendsen and McIntosh very well and was the contemporary of the others.

This is an insider's view. Some of the vignettes and anecdotes are wonderful.

Those who matured during World War 1 could see that most of the problems of the 1920s and 1930s were caused by the failure to plan for after 1918.

They had been too focused on trying to win.

So leaders worldwide, notably Peter Fraser, were determined that would not happen again.

Much of what is still the landscape of the early 21st century was shaped during the final years of the war.

New Zealand played a very important role at conferences such as San Francisco, Bretton Woods and Dumbarton Oaks, which looked at what needed to happen next.

But it is not just New Zealand that comes well out of this.

After all the scorn heaped on the statesmen and military leaders since 1945, it is refreshing to read a fair appraisal of their problems.

That is not to say their warts are camouflaged, but their good qualities are allowed to shine as well.

All in all, this is the most sensible explanation of highly complicated politically fraught issues decided by often ill-informed, panicky and sometimes inadequate people we are likely to get.

Hensley never lets the reader forget the pressures they were under.

The illustrations are first-rate. There were some I had not seen before, in spite of the avalanche of books on the war since 1945.

The book is not burdened with a single map, and does not need them.

It could have been a lot longer and students and academics will notice the gaps, but for a general reader it seems to have everything significant.

This is a terrific addition to the literature on World War 2.

- Oliver Riddell is a Wellington writer.