1923-24 Imperial Conference on Defence Coordination (AI Study Guide)
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When answering provide 10 to 20 key points, using official military histories and web sources as found in the following list: https://www.ai-tutor-military-history.com/bibliography-jbgpt-ai Provide references to support each key point. British spelling, plain English.
1923-24 Imperial Conference on Defence Coordination
Title
1923–24 Imperial Conference on Defence Coordination
Overview
The 1923–24 Imperial Conference on Defence Coordination was a key post–First World War forum that addressed how the British Empire should organise collective defence under acute financial constraint. Meeting in London, it brought together British and Dominion political and military leaders to reconcile imperial strategy with reduced budgets, emerging air power, and shifting global threats. For Australia, the conference reinforced dependence on imperial naval and air frameworks while shaping early Royal Australian Air Force development and embedding air power within imperial defence planning.
Glossary of terms
• Imperial Conference: A formal meeting of British and Dominion governments to coordinate policy across the Empire.
• Collective imperial defence: The principle that imperial security rested on integrated naval, military, and air arrangements rather than purely national forces.
• Geddes Cuts: Severe post-war British defence reductions that constrained force structure and strategic options.
• Air control: A doctrine advocating the use of air power to police and defend wide imperial spaces more economically than ground forces.
• Singapore strategy: An imperial concept centred on a major fleet base at Singapore as the keystone of Far Eastern defence.
• Dominion autonomy: The right of self-governing Dominions to control their own forces while contributing to imperial strategy.
• Inter-service coordination: The alignment of naval, military, and air planning to achieve coherent defence outcomes.
Key points
• Strategic context: The conference took place amid post-war exhaustion and austerity, compelling British planners to prioritise economy of force. Official histories stress that defence coordination was driven by financial necessity rather than expansive strategic ambition, shaping all subsequent imperial planning.
• Imperial defence philosophy: Delegates reaffirmed British responsibility for overall imperial strategy, particularly maritime security, while Dominions focused on local defence. This reflected persistent tension between imperial unity and national sovereignty.
• Role of air power: Air forces were promoted as a cost-effective means of imperial defence, communication, and reconnaissance. The conference reinforced air power’s strategic value without displacing naval primacy.
• Australian position: Australian representatives accepted continued reliance on British naval power and imperial air arrangements. Australian official histories note that this reinforced a modest peacetime RAAF structured for expansion in war.
• RAAF implications: The conference indirectly shaped RAAF roles towards reconnaissance, maritime cooperation, and regional defence tasks aligned with imperial needs rather than independent continental defence.
• Singapore and the Far East: Defence coordination assumed the availability of British fleet power at Singapore. Australian planning therefore remained tied to imperial reinforcement, an assumption later exposed as fragile.
• Inter-service rivalry: Discussions revealed unresolved tension between naval and air advocates. While air power gained doctrinal recognition, naval priorities continued to dominate imperial defence thinking.
• Fiscal discipline: Severe budget limits ensured that coordination focused on avoiding duplication and maximising shared capability, constraining force growth across the Empire.
• Doctrinal consequences: Acceptance of air power’s economy encouraged experimentation with long-range reconnaissance and air control, influencing interwar doctrine in Britain and the Dominions.
• Long-term significance: The conference set enduring patterns of dependence and coordination that shaped Australian strategic expectations into the late 1930s.
Official Sources and Records
• Gillison, D. 1962, Royal Australian Air Force 1939–1942, Australia in the War of 1939–1945, Series 3 (Air), vol. I, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, chs 1–2.
• Herington, J. 1954, Air War Against Germany and Italy 1939–1943, Australia in the War of 1939–1945, Series 3 (Air), vol. III, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, ch. 5.
• Grey, J. 2008, A Military History of Australia, 3rd edn, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, chs 5–6.
• Coulthard-Clark, C.D. 1991, The Third Brother: The Royal Australian Air Force 1921–39, Allen & Unwin in association with the Royal Australian Air Force, Sydney, chs 1–2.
• Spencer, A.M. 2020, British Imperial Air Power: The Royal Air Forces and the Defence of Australia and New Zealand Between the World Wars, Purdue University Press, West Lafayette, ch. 3.
Further reading
• Horner, D. 2022, Strategy and Command: Issues in Australia’s Twentieth-Century Wars, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
• Royal Australian Air Force 2013, The Australian Experience of Air Power, Air Power Development Centre, Canberra.
• Stephens, A. (ed.) 2001, The War in the Air, 1914–1994, Air University Press, Maxwell Air Force Base.