The following is an edited version of an article to be published in the upcoming issue of the EIR’s European Strategic Alert:
July 17 (EIRNS)—Newly released correspondence between Queen Elizabeth and Her personal representative, the Governor General of Australia Sir John Kerr, confirms the Queen’s personal involvement in the controversial dismissal by Kerr of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam of the Australian Labor Party, on November 11, 1975.
The move forced an election which threw the Australian Labor Party into the opposition. It also ended a policy of economic nationalism that Whitlam had been pursuing, including intentions to nationalize the mining companies which had exploited the huge mineral resources of Australia, companies considered the “Crown jewels” of the British Royal family who held substantial shareholdings in them — such as Rio Tinto. Whitlam was also cooperating with Japan, which at the time was pursuing a policy of developing the infrastructure and industrialization of the countries of the Asia-Pacific region, a policy for which Japan itself came under attack by Anglo-American imperial policy.
Although there has never been a successful challenge to Kerr’s decision, and the conspiratorial manner in which he carried it out, nonetheless it has always been seen as controversial, especially his decision to use “reserve powers” granted to the Queen in the monarchical system (although Australian sources denied he had this power) to dismiss the Prime Minister. The big question has always been whether the Queen herself was directly involved in the decision. If she had been, it would be seen as a violation of the strict neutrality the Queen supposedly maintains on such political questions.
Thanks to the determination of Australian historian Jenny Hocking, professor at the National Center for Australian Studies, Monash University, the proof of the Queen’s personal role has been revealed, through the newly released correspondence between Kerr and the Queen, through her Personal Secretary, Sir Martin Charteris. Although these letters should have been released from the archives years ago, the Royal Household had blocked their release on the spurious claim that they were Her Majesty’s personal property . Earlier this year Hocking won a court case that ruled that the letters were the property of the Australian government since, far from being “personal,” they were the official correspondence of the state, between the Queen as head of state, and her representative, Governor General Kerr.
In a July 16 opinion article in the Guardian, Hocking demonstrates that the letters show the close coordination of Kerr’s decisions with Queen Elizabeth, through her private secretary, Charteris, right up to a week before Kerr made his decision to dismiss Whitlam. Hocking wrote: “On 4 November 1975, Charteris tells Kerr in no uncertain terms that the contested and controversial reserve powers do exist. There was no mention of the advice Kerr had received from the law officers, the solicitor general and attorney general, against that view. In a letter the next day, Charteris makes an even more direct reference to the use of the reserve powers, specifically assuaging Kerr’s concern that any decision he made might affect the monarchy: ‘If you do, as you will, what the constitution dictates, you cannot possibly do the Monarchy any avoidable harm. The chances are you will do it good.’”
Hocking further observed, “What is absent throughout these letters is any recognition from either Charteris or Kerr of the governor general’s most fundamental duty, to act on the advice of elected government, specifically the prime minister. Instead, government is simply side-stepped as Kerr asks for and is given advice by the Queen, through her private secretary, at times contrary to Whitlam’s advice, even on the existence and use of the reserve powers. These letters, with their clear and direct political prescription, make a mockery of the claim that the Queen played ‘no part’ in the decision that Kerr then made just days later." https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/17/letters-of-an-insecure-and-indiscreet-john-kerr-make-a-mockery-of-the-claim-that-the-queen-played-no-part
We thus see that Lyndon LaRouche’s insistence over these past 50 years that the Queen of England is not a mere figurehead, but is the lead actor of the continuing evil known as the British Empire, has been fully confirmed.
