page_title: Henry Gullett
section_title: Lyons Government
hierarchical_section_title: Henry Gullett / Political career / Lyons Government
caption_attribution_description: Henry Gullett, Australian politician
context_page_description: Sir Henry Somer Gullett KCMG, known as Harry Gullett, was an Australian journalist, military historian and politician. He was a war correspondent during World War I and co-authored the official history of Australia's involvement in the war. He later served in federal parliament from 1925 to 1940 and held senior ministerial office.
  Gullett grew up in country Victoria. He left school at the age of 12 but began a career in journalism through family connections. During World War I he was attached to Australian units on the Western Front and the Sinai and Palestine campaign, and also did work for the War Records Section. He contributed a volume to the Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918. Gullett was elected to parliament in 1925 as an "independent Nationalist". He joined S. M. Bruce's government as Minister for Trade and Customs and then became deputy opposition leader after the government's defeat. Gullett held a series of senior portfolios in the United Australia Party governments of the 1930s, serving as Minister for Trade and Customs, External Affairs, Information, and Scientific and Industrial Research.
context_section_description: Gullett was re-appointed Minister for Trade and Customs when the Lyons Government took office in January 1932. He lobbied Lyons against including the Country Party in the ministry, predicting "they will prove filthy foes and will stab you all the way from the corner". Later in 1932, Gullett and Stanley Bruce represented Australia at the British Empire Economic Conference in Ottawa, which attempted to establish Imperial Preference, a system of tariff concession within the British Empire. He suffered from poor health on his return and resigned from the ministry in January 1933. In the same month he was made a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George for his work at the Ottawa Conference.
  In October 1934, Gullett was re-appointed to the ministry as a minister without portfolio with responsibility for trade treaties. In early 1935, he presented a draft trade treaty with Japan to cabinet. He travelled to England with his wife later that year to attend the Silver Jubilee of King George V, and to discuss trade with representatives of Britain and the other Dominions. In 1936, Gullett continued his work on the proposed trade deal with Japan, which was tentatively titled the Treaty of Friendship, Commerce and Navigation. However, negotiations broke down and a trade war commenced, with Australia increasing duties on Japanese clothing and artworks and Japan doing likewise on Australian agricultural products. Jay Pierrepont Moffat, the U.S. Consul in Sydney, observed in his diaries that Gullett "looked ill and tired" and was "constantly leaving his desk and taking some medicine at a cupboard in the corner". His health forced a second retirement from the ministry in March 1937. However, Moffat believed that his resignation was actually due to a disagreement on trade policy.
caption: Undated photo (Dickinson-Monteath Studio)
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