# 1944 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference

The 1944 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference was the first Meeting of the Heads of Government of the British Commonwealth. It was held in the United Kingdom, between 1–16 May 1944, and was hosted by that country's Prime Minister, Winston Churchill.

## The conference
### Outline

The conference was attended by the Prime Ministers of all of the Dominions within the Commonwealth except Ireland and Newfoundland. Attendees included Prime Minister John Curtin of Australia, Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King of Canada, Prime Minister Peter Fraser of New Zealand and Prime Minister Jan Smuts of South Africa. Also attending was Prime Minister Sir Godfrey Huggins of the self-governing colony of Southern Rhodesia, and representing India was The Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir. Members of the Churchill War Cabinet and the High Commissioners of the Dominions also attended.
Ireland did not participate although at the time the British Commonwealth still regarded Ireland as one of its members. Ireland had not participated in any equivalent conferences since 1932.
The British Commonwealth leaders agreed to support the Moscow Declaration and reached agreement regarding their respective roles in the overall Allied war effort.
Prior to the conference, Robert McIntyre and Douglas Young, the leaders of the Scottish National Party, lobbied King, Fraser, Smuts, Huggins, and Curtin, asking them to raise the issue of Scottish independence at the conference and to invite Scotland to take part in it and all future Commonwealth Conferences. Curtin viewed it as an internal matter for the British government, King was sympathetic, and the remainder simply voiced their acknowledgement of the communiques.

### Participants
#### Ministers

| Nation | Name | Portfolio |
| United Kingdom | Winston Churchill | Prime Minister (chairman) |
| United Kingdom | Clement Attlee | Deputy Prime Minister |
| United Kingdom | The Lord Beaverbrook | Lord Privy Seal |
| United Kingdom | Sir John Anderson | Chancellor of the Exchequer |
| United Kingdom | Anthony Eden | Foreign Secretary |
| United Kingdom | Herbert Morrison | Home Secretary |
| United Kingdom | The Viscount Cranborne | Dominions Secretary |
| United Kingdom | Oliver Stanley | Colonial Secretary |
| United Kingdom | Leo Amery | India and Burma Secretary |
| United Kingdom | Sir Percy Grigg | War Secretary |
| United Kingdom | A. V. Alexander | First Lord of the Admiralty |
| United Kingdom | Sir Archibald Sinclair, Bt | Air Secretary |
| United Kingdom | Sir Stafford Cripps | Minister of Aircraft Production |
| United Kingdom | Brendan Bracken | Minister of Information |
| United Kingdom | Ernest Bevin | Minister of Labour and National Service |
| United Kingdom | Oliver Lyttelton | Minister of Production |
| United Kingdom | The Lord Woolton | Minister of Reconstruction |
| United Kingdom | The Lord Cherwell | Paymaster General |
| Australia | John Curtin | Prime Minister |
| Australia | Stanley Bruce | High Commissioner |
| Canada | William Lyon Mackenzie King | Prime Minister |
| Canada | Vincent Massey | High Commissioner |
| India | Hari Singh | The Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir |
| India | Sir Feroz Khan Noon | Delegate |
| New Zealand | Peter Fraser | Prime Minister |
| New Zealand | Bill Jordan | High Commissioner |
| South Africa | Jan Smuts | Prime Minister |
| South Africa | Deneys Reitz | High Commissioner |
| Southern Rhodesia | Sir Godfrey Huggins | Prime Minister |

#### Military

| Service | Head | Name |
| Army | Chief of the Imperial General Staff | Field Marshal Sir Alan Brooke |
| Navy | First Sea Lord | Admiral of the Fleet Sir Andrew Cunningham |
| RAF | Chief of the Air Staff | Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Charles Portal |
* AUS General Sir Thomas Blamey
* UK Lieutenant-general Sir Hastings Ismay
* NZL Lieutenant-general Edward Puttick

#### Diplomats and civil servants

* AUS Sir Frederick Shedden Secretary, Department of Defence
* CAN Norman Robertson
* UK Sir John Stephenson
* UK Sir Richard Hopkins Permanent Secretary to the Treasury