52744
- Title[Maslyn Williams collection of Marshall Islands photographs by Thomas J. McMahon]
- Creator
- Call numberPXB 293 (v.3)
- Level of descriptionseries
- Date
1916-1917 - Type of material
- Reference code52744
- Physical DescriptionPhotographs - 68 silver gelatin photoprints
- ADMINISTRATIVE/ BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY
"The photographs in the Marshall Island section were taken by Thomas J. McMahon, F.R.G.S., of Sydney. McMahon was an indefatigable traveller in Australasia and the Pacific region and a ceaseless contributor to learned, professional and 'upper class' journals both in Australia and overseas. He visited the Gilbert, Ellice, Marshall and Caroline Islands during and after the first world war and showed great concern that the behaviour of Australian planter, traders and entrepreneurs in those regions (and in New Guinea) were giving Australia a bad name, and that the administration of Pacific territories under Australian Governments was hopelessly incompetent when compared with that of the Germans or the Japanese.
He was particularly critical of Australian Prime Minister W.M. Hughes to who he obliquely referred in a public lecture in Sydney in 1919 as being one of 'the nondescript men who sprung up without merit, who have not fitness, but rise on the crest of public indifference and become the politicians of Australia'. Then, speaking directly of Hughes, he went on to say, 'I don't want to be personal or offensive but this is a time when you should know things, and I say that the one man who has been party to (Australia's) failure, and is still party to it because of his knowledge, is the man who is standing before the world on a pedestal of oratory - William Morris Hughes'. (Hughes, at this time, was making great waves at the Imperial Peace Conference at Versailles.)
McMahon spoke with horror of any of the Pacific Islands being 'handed over to the tender mercies of Australian Administration' and of the Pacific Islanders being 'saddled with the expense of restraining the fanciful and unprogressive fads of the party politicians of Australia'. He was equally critical of the administration of the Northern Territory, saying that ill-treatment of Aborigines was opening the road to Bolshevism.
He admired the way in which the Japanese, having taken over the Marshall and Caroline Islands from the Germans in 1914, were consolidating their position in the Pacific, saying that while Australian administration in the Pacific (specifically in New Guinea) was 'putting shackles on Australian traders the Japanese are encouraging theirs in every way'.
He also noted that the Japanese was compulsory in native schools and that Japanese dress was being adopted by the leading native women. He finally warned Australians that they should 'be up and doing' if they hoped to compete with the Japanese in the region." - Foreword to the contents list - Scope and ContentA contents list compiled by Maslyn Williams is available in the Mitchell Library Original Materials Reading Room at PXB 293
- General note
"At the outbreak of the 1914/18 war the Marshall Islands were part of the German Empire. The centre of German Administration and trade was the port of Jaluit. At the outbreak of war the British Government asked the Australian Governmetn to occupy German possessions in the Central Pacific - specifically New Guinea, the Marshalls, Carolines and Marianas. While the Australians (with a limited navy) were busy in New Guinea the Japanese decided to occupy the various islands as a precautionary measure to protect their own shipping routes. In 1917, to the annoyance of Australia, the British Government agreed to support a Japanese claim to retain possession of these islands when Germans had been defected.
The Photographs in this collection were taken in 1916/17 when the Japanese had been administering the region for more then two years." - Foreward to the contents list - Signatures / Inscriptions
Most are annotated and dated on reverse - Creator/Author/Artist
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