ABSTRACT
When a thoughtful observer reflected on New Zealand’s position in the world in 1940, he saw Britain as the most important external relationship. Historian Frederick Wood had welcomed signs of ‘rebellion against British dominance’ after the election of the Labour government in 1935, but the declaration of war in September 1939 had reinvigorated New Zealand’s imperial ties. History, according to Wood, had ‘shaped New Zealanders into a people British in sentiment, tradition and economic interest’, and history, once again, in the form of global war, had reinforced that identification. As a result, Wood predicted that New Zealand might someday achieve a ‘modest independence in international affairs’, but only as a ‘small but not subservient member of the British Commonwealth’, rather than a fully independent nation. Wood clearly regretted this state of ‘psychological dependence on Britain’, but reluctantly recognized the importance of New Zealand’s ‘special relationship’ with Great Britain.1
