SOMERTON MAN: 'V' THE ASSOCIATION

THE ASSOCIATION
AUSTRALIA 1947 to 1952

BRIGADIER GENERAL COLIN HALL SIMPSON

Named by Dr Evatt as the leader of The Association

The Association was to all accounts established by Brigadier Colin Hall Simpson and it was effectively Australia's 'Standby' Government, lead by some of Australias most senior and respected people including ex-military officers from each branch of the services, senior Media figures and high profile members of certain political parties, worked on the establishment of The Association was commenced within months of the cessation of hostilities in the Asia Pacific region.

Brigadier General Simpson recruited and had trained some 4000 AWAS personnel as wireless operators, AWAS was first raised in 1941 with the radio and signals operators training taking place at Ivanhoe Grammar School just North of Melbourne in Victoria.

Menzies words:
“On the day immediately following the passing of the [Communist Party] Dissolution Act…Menzies ordered the establishment of a secret organization under military command, identified by the code name “Alien”, which would rally mainly civilian forces to counter the effects of possible industrial actions and demonstrations in protest against the banning legislation.…”

Senior, National, members included Sir Thomas Blamey (Field Marshall), a Brigadier Rogers and two other Colonels who were one time members of the Special Branch of Blamey's Victorian Police, Provost Corps.

This from John Hetherington, another Blamey Biographer:
 “The Association”, also known as “The White Army”, had peak strength at 100,000 war veterans, including blue-collar and Labor men. They were prepared to hold the line against any coup d’etat by Communist irregulars, pending counter-attack by the slower-moving constitutional forces. Serving officers were excluded, but army intelligence was well aware of what was going on.

Administration devolved to State and then area and sub-area commands or secret cells, such that meetings were generally kept under 20 men. Even then, they parked their cars in scattered places and walked to their venue. Senior officers did not know their opposite numbers in other States, although they had the “keys” to communication channels in any emergency.

POLICE SUPPORT:
The NSW police were thick with The Association. Commissioner MacKay wanted Association members as special constables in any emergency. He addressed a meeting of The Association in January, 1948, claiming he had dossiers on 45,000 Communists [total party membership at the time was only about 6000].[24] The Chief of the General Staff, Lt Gen Sturdee, said at the same meeting that he expected war with Russia in 18 months. Liberal politician Richard Casey (later Governor-General) was another bigwig lending The Association high-level support.

With a reputed membership in excess of 100,000, it's purpose was to temporarily take over Government in the event of a Communist-inspired uprising.

This was an extraordinarily serious undertaking, from recruiting to training to active service, 'The Association' set out to destroy the efforts of the Communist Party whenever and wherever it was perceived as being a threat to Australia.

More on this here:

ORGANISATION

Whilst there was an overriding National Body that Governed the activities of the organisation, Section heads were appointed for NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia:

QUEENSLAND

Major General Allan Steele, Byrne Hart, Chairman of the National Bank. Byrne also had a military background including as Commanding Officer of the 2nd Australian Water Transport group on Thursday Island. Another senior person, a Colonel Charles Burton Withy, was part of the Queensland leadership team.

Brigadier Alan Steele

NEW SOUTH WALES

Commander Long seved as head of AIB, MI6 and other Intelligence organisations and George Proud, General Sir Leslie Morshead, one-time member of the New Guard in the 1920s, rich military history of bravery and service, Major General Windeyer and Brigadier FB Hinton, read aricle here:
According to a Blamey Biographer, NSW had 55000 men ready to serve

Commander Long

Sir Lesley Morshead

Major General Windeyer

VICTORIA

Brigadier Charles Spry, Director of Military Intelligence, Army, and later to become head of ASIO. Lieutenant General Sir Edmund Herring served at Papua and New Guinea and was involved in the recapture of Lae as was Michael Thwaites later to become Director of ASIO

It was estimated that there were 73000 men registered with the Association in Victoria.

Sir Charles Spry

Sir Edmund Herring

Michael Thwaites

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

Headed up by Brigadier Eric George Henderson McKenzie. Sir Charles Court, ex WA Premier and a wartime Lieutenant Colonel had this to say about the organisation's birth:

“The Communist Party in Australia was strong, having built up tremendously during the war. A great number of men and women throughout Australia who had held positions in the armed forces and had the training, experience and understanding of what subversive elements meant, were very concerned that the Communist Party was seeking to undermine the elected government.

A group of us came together. Most of us were politically conservative, but we were just as determined to do what we could to protect Ben Chifley as the elected Prime Minister as we would have been had it been Menzies…

There were kindred groups in other States. We had clandestine meetings with people who were prepared to go to extreme lengths to defeat the Communists. We had reason to believe that Chifley knew what was going on and did nothing to stop our covert activities. In fact it was reported to us that he said, ‘You know I can’t condone it, but don’t stop it’…

Not all the people concerned about Communism were from the forces. Some were senior in industry and commerce and hadn’t been able to go to the war. There were no paid positions. It was a watchdog type of organization to make it clear that if the Communists moved in any way to upset the elected government, there were plenty of people in Australia who would be prepared to go to the barricades to defend the right of the elected government to govern.”

Brigadier Sir Kenneth Wills

SOUTH AUSTRALIA

Brigadier Sir Kenneth Agnew Wills. There were, without doubt, other senior people in South Australia and Sir Kenneth was an extraordinarily well-connected man, he had, for example, been a member of The Adelaide Club since 1924. 

In 1940, he had been tasked with the rounding up and internment of Nazi sympathisers in South Australia and later, in 1944, he was appointed to the rank of Brigadier and made the head of the Allied Intelligence Bureau.

Sir Kenneth was assisted in South Australia by Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Pope.

Lt Colonel Pope seated centre.

Of interest, in South Australia, it was estimated that there were 1000 active members of The Association in total. A list would be amazing.

INFILTRATION

It almost goes without saying that, given the qualifications of most of the senior leadership including time with various Intelligence organisations, many unions and political parties had been penetrated with special agents occupying positions whereby they could access sensitive information and pass it on to the leadership.

Sir Thomas Blamey

GENERAL SIR THOMAS BLAMEY, 1942
Later to become Field Marshall 1950

There's much to be said about Sir Thomas Blamey but we will stick to what is relevant. His service as Commissioner of the Victorian Police from the mid-1920s to early 1930s, was outstanding. 

Regardless he was forced to resign for two main, though similar,  reasons.

On one occasion it was in relation to the finding of his Police badge in a house of ill repute, however, it transpired that the person who had borrowed Blamey's badge had actually et him down but Blamey, being very much old school, would not reveal the man's name.

On the second occasion, it related to a far more serious matter involving the cover up the shooting death of a Detective Superintendent. Once again Blamey had stepped in but this time to keep confidential the names of two ladies who were in the Detective's car at the time. Blamey paid the price for his loyalty and was forced to resign.