Japan And The Defence Of Australia (1935) By Albatross
 
The Author was the Director of Military Intelligence for Australia in the early twentieth century. 
 
His duties included drafting and enforcing War Precautions Act regulations, postal and press censorship, counter-espionage, surveillance of enemy aliens and even sometimes of allied aliens, notably the Japanese. The problem of Japan's intentions, with which he had long been troubled, and Australia's Pacific policy became almost an obsession. Japan had expanded into China, Siberia and the former German North Pacific islands. In October 1918 Piesse warned the minister for defence, (Sir) George Pearce, that the Japanese seemed bent on an imperial course, and that they might drive southward towards Australia.

In the early 1930s, however, the re-emergence of Japanese imperialism and the rise of fascism in Europe persuaded Piesse of renewed danger for Australia. With the encouragement of the secretary of the External Affairs Department, W. R. Hodgson, and the chief of the General Staff, Colonel John Lavarack, he published his pamphlet, Japan and the Defence of Australia (1935), directed at 'Professors who believe in collective security in the Pacific' and at 'Admirals who believe in Imperial Defence for Australia'. He was impatient with the Lyons government's blind faith in British assurances of naval protection and campaigned in the press and on the radio to secure a greater share of the defence budget for the army and air force. By 1937 Piesse's arguments had to a large extent carried the day in the local Round Table group and his article on 'The Defence of Australia' was published in the Round Table (London). This was the only occasion that he attempted publicly to change government policy.
 
Published in Melbourne by Robertson & Mullens in 1935 and is extremely scarce.
 
Hard Cover
56 Pages
In Good Condition