Queen briefed on political rows after Harold Holt disappearance

Governor-general Richard Casey felt the need to explain his actions to the Queen after the dis­appearance of PM Harold Holt.

Harold Holt with his daughters-in-law on Victoria’s Portsea Beach in 1966.

Governor-general Richard Casey felt the need to explain his actions to the Queen following the dis­appearance of prime minister Harold Holt and his improper intervention to mediate a political dispute between John McEwen and William McMahon.

Casey’s secret vice-regal correspondence between 1965 and 1969, which chronicles the resignation of Robert Menzies, Holt’s disappearance and the power struggle between McMahon and John Gorton, are open for access by the National Archives of Australia.

In a letter in January 1969, Casey wrote to Michael Adeane, the Queen’s private secretary, that he had summoned McMahon, the treasurer, to discuss his differences with deputy prime minister McEwen. This meeting took place a week before Holt’s death.

“My raison d’etre was the public and private feud that had existed for some time between (McEwen) and McMahon, which I believed menaced the relationship between the two parties constituting the federal government,” Casey wrote.

“I based my reason for sending for McMahon on my belief that one of my responsibilities was to endeavour to ensure the stability of government in Australia, whatever political party or parties were involved.” He argued that this was his “constitutional duty”.

Casey wrote to Holt about the meeting. This “personal and confidential” letter was in the prime minister’s briefcase when he vanished in the surf off Portsea in Victoria in December 1967.

Casey told Adeane he ensured the letter was “recovered” before it could be found.

This report to Buckingham Palace was prompted by the publication of journalist Alan Reid’s book The Power Struggle, which described Gorton’s ascendancy to the prime ministership. Reid referred to Casey’s letter in the book.

The correspondence provides new insights into the events following Holt’s disappearance. Casey defended appointing McEwen as prime minister rather than McMahon, the deputy Liberal leader. He said McEwen had agreed to resign when the Liberal Party met to elect its new leader.

In January 1968, Casey relayed a conversation with Holt’s shocked widow, who said her husband “must have known the danger when the tide is on the turn”, which added to the “mystery” of how he had disappeared.

Casey also explained that McEwen had vetoed McMahon’s elevation to prime minister because he was not trusted. This feud “complicated” the succession.

McMahon asked Casey to “umpire” a meeting with McEwen but he refused. The veto paved the way for Gorton to become Liberal leader.

The governor-general noted he had sought advice from chief justice Garfield Barwick “on the constitutional and legal question about presumption of death”. Barwick advised Casey to issue a statement saying Holt was “in all probability” dead. This enabled a successor to be appointed.

This correspondence, like that of his successors, provides candid assessments of politicians, events and issues. It is mistaken, as some academics assert, that John Kerr’s letters were somehow unique in offering unvarnished views to Buckingham Palace.

In January 1967, Casey reported that Labor’s problem was “they gave up thinking 30 years ago”.

In April 1966, he described deputy Labor leader Gough Whitlam as having “brains but is suspected of being deficient in character and balance”.

When Tom Thumb magazine satirised Prince Philip and Prince Charles, Casey wrote to Buckingham Palace in July and October 1967 reporting he had urged the Victorian and commonwealth governments to pursue the publisher for “seditious libel” but they declined. This attempted intervention was welcomed in London.

As with the vice-regal letters of Paul Hasluck and Zelman Cowen, the Casey correspondence also contains many redactions by the National Archives.