Britain,South African gold,and the sterling area, 1945–50

This article examines New Zealand's role in the British/Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition (TAE, 1955–58), the first mechanised crossing of Antarctica. Despite much interest in New Zealand's evolving relationship with Britain, the Commonwealth and the United States after 1945, the Antarctic dimension has received little attention. New Zealand's participation in the TAE, alongside activities attached to the International Geophysical Year, strengthened its claims to sovereignty in the Ross Dependency. Instead, popular and media interpretations of the TAE concentrated on perceived rivalries between the two leaders, Vivian Fuchs and Edmund Hillary, thus severely straining Anglo-New Zealand polar relations despite the successful crossing of Antarctica. The fortieth anniversary celebration of the TAE at Scott Base failed to consider critically how New Zealand's relationship with the Antarctic was (and is) imagined and represented.     

Economic Tensions and Conflict in the Commonwealth, 1945-c.1951

In the immediate aftermath of the Second World War, economicrelations between Britain and the Commonwealth were very close,and the Empire was of greater economic importance to Britainthan at any previous time. International economic conditionswere dominated by the dollar shortage, and especially afterthe sterling crisis of 1947 most of the sterling area membersof the Commonwealth were drawn into even closer interdependence.But, in contrast to the expectations of many policy makers,the world economy after the war was characterized by buoyantdemand and limited supply. In particular, the demands placedon British production and finance highlighted the limitationsof capacity. Development in both the independent and ColonialCommonwealth was frustrated. The inadequacies of the closedsystem revealed in the late 1940s encouraged Commonwealth countriesto push for the restoration of currency convertibility and ofmultilateralism in the 1950s.