The Kerr Brothers in New Hebrides: Book 3 — Vichy France and Financial Ruin
Series: The Kerr Brothers in New Hebrides, Book 3
Publisher: Stringybark Publishing
Published: 2020
Place of publication: Canberra, Australia
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 258
ISBN-13: 9780648538691
Copyright date: July 2020
Description: The book focusses on Graham Kerr, Katherine’s father, and the tragic personal consequences of business failure for his direct and extended family. It asks what caused the Kerrs’ businesses to fail? Was it the unremitting harassment of the Kerr family and its businesses from 1927 to 1952 by the French company Société Française des Nouvelles Hébrides? Was it the effects of the unpredictable role of Vichy France
in the Second World War? Was it Australia’s role in creating difficulties for Kerr companies? Was it the decline of the Pacific franc relative to the Australian and British pound so the Kerrs had no money to afford the comfortable life in Australia they had worked so hard to achieve? Was it the unwise management by the Kerrs of their business interests?
In telling the story, the book provides a uniquely personal picture of the Western Pacific in the wider context of world politics—the War in the Pacific,
the discord in the Pacific created by a divided France, the role of the war and its aftermath on the Kerrs’ friends in France, the role of tariff barriers in preventing British settler traders in New Hebrides from selling produce within Australia, and the relative merits of communism and capitalism and the countries adopting these ideologies.
Katherine’s books have been characterised as ‘national treasures for Vanuatu’ for their contribution to Vanuatu colonial history.
Table of contents: title: Kerr Family Tree iv; title: Editor’s Introduction vii Acknowledgments xvii; title: Illustrations xviii Abbreviations xxii; title: Chapter 1 1940: Vichy and Free France in the Condominium and; title: New Caledonia 1; title: Chapter 2 1941: A Year when Just About Anything Could Happen and Did 27; title: Chapter 3 1942: This was the Year when the War Seemed Lost for the Allies. 57; title: Chapter 4 1943: What the War did to a Civilian Trying to get on with his; title: Everyday Life and Support his Family. 82; title: Chapter 5 1944: The Threat of Japanese Invasion has Receded but Everyday; title: Life is Still Restricted. 96; title: Chapter 6 1945: The Year that the War Ended; Would 1946 Bring a Semblance; title: of Normality to Everyday Life? 107; title: Chapter 7 1946: Will the End of the War Mean the End of the Kerr Brother’s; title: Case with the SFNH? 114; title: Chapter 8 1947: Peacetime did not Bring an End to Graham Kerr’s Troubles. 125; title: Chapter 9 1948: Graham Kerr goes to Live in Auckland, New Zealand and; title: Family Home in Sydney Sold. 147; title: Chapter 10 1949: N.Z. not a Good Idea, Kerr Family Returns to Noumea; title: to Live on Pacific Francs not Sterling 157; title: Chapter 11 1950: Continuing Efforts by the Société Française des Nouvelles-; title: Hébrides to Ruin the Kerr Family. 169; title: Chapter 12 1951: Nothing Solved—the SFNH Have Too Much to Lose; title: to let Kerr Off the Hook. 186; title: Chapter 13 1952: Revealed — The Plans Thought up in Paris to Counter; title: Kerr’s Appeals. 199; title: Chapter 14 1953: With Aupied Dead who Really Won? 216; title: Chapter 15 1954–1960: The Final Years that Bought no Final Resolution. 224; title: Epilogue 243; title: Appendix 1: Ships Register 245; title: Appendix 2: Name List 247