Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Honours) at Macquarie University. / Thesis (MA (Hons))--Macquarie University (Division of Humanities, Dept. of Asian Languages), 2006. / Bibliography: leaves 137-160. / Introduction -- Anglo-Japanese relations and World War One -- Fear of Japan in Australia -- William Morris Hughes -- Japan's proposal and diplomacy at Paris -- Reasons for rejection : a discussion -- Conclusion. / Japan as an ally of Britain, since the signing of Anglo-Japanese Alliance in 1902, entered World War One at British request. During the Great War Japan fought Germany in Asia and afforded protection to Australia. After the conclusion of the War, a peace conference was held at Paris in 1919. As a victorious ally and as one of the Five Great Powers of the day, Japan participated at the Paris Peace Conference, and proposed racial equality to be enshrined in the Covenant of the League of Nations. This Racial Equality Bill, despite the tireless efforts of the Japanese delegates who engaged the representatives of other countries in intense diplomatic negotiations, was rejected. The rejection, a debatable issue ever since, has inspired many explanations including the theory that it was a deliberate Japanese ploy to achieve other goals in the agenda. This thesis has researched the reasons for rejection and contends that the rejection was not due to any one particular reason. Four key factors: a) resolute opposition from Australian Prime Minister Hughes determined to protect White Australia Policy, b) lack of British support, c) lack of US support, and d) lack of support from the British dominions of New Zealand, Canada and South Africa; converged to defeat the Japanese proposal. Japanese inexperience in international diplomacy evident from strategic and tactical mistakes, their weak presentations and communications, and enormous delays in negotiations, at Paris, undermined Japan's position at the conference, but the reasons for rejection of the racial equality proposal were extrinsic. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / xii, 188 leaves

My doctoral dissertation examines the delimitation of the Slovak - Polish border in the interwar period and the impact of the cession of the parts of the Slovak districts in Orava and Spiš to Poland on the relations between Czecho-Slovakia and Poland, Czechoslovakia and Poland, and Slovakia and Poland. The Tešín question dominated the border delimitation and the relations and the Orava and Spiš questions and the delimitation of the Slovak - Polish border received much less scholarly attention. While acknowledging the complexity of the issue under consideration, this work attempts to make small contribution towards filling existing gap in historiography. The majority of research work occurred at the diplomatic archives in Prague, Paris and Warsaw (Archives of the Foreign Ministry, Archives diplomatiques and Archiwum Akt Nowych). Some primary research also took place in Bratislava, Warsaw, Washington and Ottawa. This work seeks to interpret primary sources in an innovative way which demonstrates influence exerted by the Orava and Spiš questions on the relations between Czecho-Slovakia and Poland, Czechoslovakia and Poland, Slovakia and Poland, Slovaks and Poles, Slovaks and Czechs, and Czechs and Poles. Effectiveness of the Orava and Spiš questions to carve out their own constituencies and to communicate the message of their populations were limited or enhanced by contemporary configuration of international and internal factors. The Orava and Spiš border delimitations in the Slovak-Polish border and their consequences for the Slovak-Czech-Polish relations, remain largely neglected by the scholars in the English and French historiographies. The Orava and Spiš border delimitations play an important role in understanding of Slovak-Polish-Czech relations and international relations in the interwar and post World War II periods. The questions posed by examining the Orava and Spiš border delimitations are as relevant in Schengen Europe as they were almost a century ago.

Lusatia in the plans of building the new Czechoslovakia. Great expectations and early disillusionment of the Czech Slavists. During the Great War, especially in the last year of the war, a number of representatives of Czech political and cultural life reflected upon an idea of a renewal of the Czech state in a historical borders of the former Czech crown lands. The independence of Czechoslovakia was proclaimed on October 28, 1918, by the Czechoslovak National Council in Prague. Only several years before, an independent Czechoslovakia had been a dream of a small number of intellectuals and politicians. The transformation of the dream into reality was a formidable task. While the creation of Czechoslovakia was based on certain historical precedents, it was, nevertheless, a new country carved out of disparate parts of the old Hapsburg Empire. This study deals with the matter of how Czechoslovak scientists, first of all slavists, intervened in the forming of Czechoslovak political programme. Slavists' role in the communal life of Czechoslovakia has been transforming due to changes that took place in both local and international politics. For a long time before they had no chance to participate at official state politics as there was not a sympathetic for Slavonic cooperation on an international level...

The central focus of this Master's thesis was to provide a concise overview of the academic work of the contemporary Spanish interpreter and interpreting historian, Jesús Baigorri Jalón. We carried out an in-depth analysis of his work, accompanied by the critical reception of his two key publications. In the introductory part of our thesis, we focused on the author's methodology and placement in Spanish and Czech academic contexts. Then, we elaborated a comprehensive, chronological overview of the author's two main monographs and outlined the main topics discussed in Baigorri's studies. We also focused on the author's contribution to the translation and interpreting studies, his research methodology and its potential to serve as an inspiration to Czech researchers.

v anglickém jazyce The present thesis deals with the life and activities of Hanuš Jelínek (1878-1944), one of the most prominent figures of the Czech-French relations of the first half of the 20th century. Based upon studies of archive documents, press and literature, its aim is to explain his activities namely during the period of the First Republic which has not been much reflected in the literature so far. This is mainly due to the fact that the primary source on Hanuš Jelínek - his memoirs called Zahučaly lesy ("Forrest Murmurs") end in 1919. The thesis is divided into three bigger parts. The first one recapitulates Jelínek's youth, formation of his personality and political views and last but not least the birth of his Francophilia. The second, pivotal part, places emphasis on his effort to get himself established in the nascent Czechoslovak diplomatic services. It analyses the eleven year period Jelínek spent at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as well as other activities stemming from his position there. The final part deals with Jelínek's cultural life and influences, however, it only gives a general overview necessary in order to understand Jelínek's personal life and has no ambition to review his extensive literary work. It accentuates, though, his work in Lumír journal that Jelínek...

Dès 1919, la France et l’Italie se tournent vers l’espace balkanique et danubien, issu de l’effondrement des empires multinationaux, pour assurer leur sécurité et leur puissance. Alors que la question adriatique éloigne les deux pays, ils trouvent un consensus provisoire sur l’Europe danubienne : ni Anschluss, ni confédération danubienne. Ce modus vivendi va cependant voler en éclats à partir de 1924, lorsque la volonté française de mieux organiser son système d’alliances rencontre le révisionnisme fasciste. L’une et l’autre puissance tentent de surmonter les difficultés internationales créées par le mouvement pour l’Anschluss, l’opposition de la Petite Entente et de la Hongrie, le statut de la Yougoslavie, mais la divergence de leurs représentations sur ce que devait être un concert européen rénové empêcha toute collaboration. Leur confrontation favorisa la déstabilisation de l’Europe balkanique et danubienne : le lien entre les deux phénomènes éclata au grand jour lors des négociations économiques pour la reconstruction de l’Europe entre 1931 et 1933. Dans le sillage de ces dernières, le Pacte à quatre fut conçu par la diplomatie française comme une occasion d’arrimer l’Italie à la vision française de l’organisation du continent, tandis que Mussolini en faisait la première étape d’un bouleversement de l’ordre issu des traités de paix : l’Europe balkanique et danubienne fut le grand enjeu tacite du Pacte à quatre. / By 1919, France and Italy look to the Balkan and Danubian Region, shaped by the collapse of multinational empires, to ensure their safety and power. While the Adriatic question drives away the two countries, they find a temporary consensus on Danubian Europe: neither Anschluss, nor Danubian confederation. This modus vivendi is however shattered in 1924 when the French desire to better organize its system of alliances meets fascist revisionism. Both powers try to overcome the difficulties created by the international movement for the Anschluss, the opposition of the Little Entente and Hungary, the status of Yugoslavia, but their divergent representations of what should be a renovated European concert prevent any collaboration. Their confrontation promotes the destabilization of the Balkans and the Danubian Region : the link between the two phenomenons breaks out in the open during the negotiations for the economic reconstruction of Europe between 1931 and 1933. In the wake of these, the Four Power Pact was designed by French diplomacy as an opportunity to tie Italy to the French vision of the organization of the continent, while Mussolini figures it as the first step in the disruption of the order created by the peace treaties: the Balkans and Danube was the great unspoken issue of the Four Power Pact.

No events of international consequences likely to bring Japan to Australia’s attention occurred before the Sino-Japanese war (1894-5). Japan had as yet shown no sign of her military power. Probably as far as Australians felt any insecurity, their anxieties centred on the expansion of European powers into the Pacific, the might of Russia and the Chinese hordes. In such conditions they were free to think of Japan chiefly as a country of cherry blossom and quaint people. Only the question of Japanese immigration which began to assume large proportions after about 1890 gave any basis for feelings of hostility.

The master thesis focuses on a more detailed analysis of the premises of British politics in relation to the Middle East after the First World War. Attention is focused especially on the territory of Mesopotamia, which is the center of all actions of neighboring states and the interests of the great powers. The thesis also includes the events of the war and the subsequent diplomatic negotiations held mostly at the Paris Peace Conference. Everything is viewed mainly from the perspective of British Empire and it's leaders. The finall goal of the work is to anchor the British mandates in the geographical area of the Middle East to the Ankara Agreement.

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