Author: COLIN NETTELBECK
Explorations No 19 (Dec 1995): 3-30
https://doi.org/10.62586/DMJO9523
In a short introduction the author recalls the accidental discovery in the late 1980s of some of the pre-war archives of the Melbourne French Consulate and describes a specific 1898 document, namely a report sent by Georges Biard d’Aunet, the then French Consul General in Sydney, to his Minister, Théophile Delcassé, a copy of which ended up on the desk of Léon Dejardin, the French Consul General in Melbourne. This introduction and a summary of the report are followed by the reproduction of the full text of Biard d’Aunet’s paper, preceded by a covering letter sent to Consul General Dejardin by the Minister.
Keywords: Georges Biard d’Aunet, Léon Dejardin, Federation in Australia, protectionism, bi-lateral trade, social protection, expansion of Australian influence in the Pacific, recommendations relating to the protection of French interests in the Pacific