| Robert Menzies was conservative Prime
Minister of Australia from 1939 to 1941 and again from 1949 until his retirement
in 1966. Menzies provoked a variety of responses during his political career.
Views Ⅰ to Ⅳ below summarize some of those responses. View Ⅰ The supreme twentieth-century statesman and politician, presiding with ease over the nation, and representing Australia abroad with dignity and aplomb. View Ⅱ Authoritarian despite his professed liberal beliefs, he was the enemy of the workers, who stayed in office for seventeen years through a combination of unscrupulous opportunism, remarkable good luck, and the gullibility of the Australian people. View Ⅲ Menzies imposed the values of a bygone age on Australia, with his devotion to Britain and the British monarchy, and his cautious conservatism. He suppressed a new, creative, energetic generation by cultivating smugness, fear and indifference in the Australia of the 50s and 60s. View Ⅳ Downright democratic, something new and different but with an easy-going manner and aggressive independence. |