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Platypus diplomacy: animal gifts in international relations

2009; Routledge; Volume: 33; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14443050903079664

1835-6419

Nancy Cushing, Kevin Markwell,

International Maritime Law Issues

Abstract Making use of government archives, media coverage and family biography, this paper examines a little studied aspect of human-animal relations: the use of live native fauna as gifts for diplomatic purposes. Gifts of platypuses from the Australian government to their British and American allies in 1943 and 1947 reflect the status then enjoyed by iconic Australian fauna as a resource to be exploited in the national interest. The great scientific and popular interest generated by the platypus's distinctive characteristics imbued these animals with the cachet required to serve as a powerful statement of international goodwill. However, these same qualities made the platypus difficult to keep in captivity and its export a great challenge. This article examines the motives for platypus diplomacy, the process through which it was conducted and its significance for human-animal relations in Australia. Subsequent legislation has increased the protection of the platypus such that no further platypus diplomacy has been attempted and none have been exported for half a century. The use of the platypus to enhance Australia's standing with other nations marked a transitional stage in the evolution of attitudes to Australian native fauna. Keywords: Australian native faunacaptive animal husbandrynaturalistsAustralian–American relationsAustralian–British relations Notes 1. Alfred W. Crosby, Ecological Imperialism, The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900 – 1900, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1986, ch. 8, Animals. 2. Harriet Ritvo, The Animal Estate, The English and other Creatures in the Victorian Age, Harvard University Press, London, 1987, p. 205. 3. Thomas R. Dunlap, ‘Remaking the land: the acclimatization movement and Anglo ideas of nature’, Journal of World History, vol. 8, no. 2, 1997, p. 305. 4. Eric Baratay and Elisabeth Hardouin-Fugier, Zoo, A History of Zoological Gardens in the West, Oliver Welsh, trans. Reaktion Books, London, 2002, p. 21. 5. Thomas Veltre, ‘Menageries, Metaphors and Meanings’, in R.J. Hoage and W.A. Deiss, (eds) New Worlds, New Animals: From Menagerie to Zoological Park in the Nineteenth Century, Johns Hopkins Press, London, 1996, pp. 23–4. 6. See, for example, Erik Ringmar, ‘Audience for a giraffe: European expansionism and the quest for the exotic’, Journal of World History, vol. 17, no. 4, 2006, pp. 375–97. 7. Jan Melissen, Wielding Soft Power: The New Public Diplomacy, Netherlands Institute of International Relations, Clingendael, 2005, pp. 4, 8. 8. Ritvo, Animal Estate, p. 230. 9. Elizabeth Hanson, Animal Attractions, Nature on Display in American Zoos, Princeton University Press, Oxford, 2002, p. 74. 10. Susan Lumpkin and John Siedensticker, Smithsonian Book of Giant Pandas, Smithsonian Institution Press, London, 2002, p. 25. 11. William Bridges, ‘The Platypus and the Echidna’, Popular Series No. 9, New York Zoological Society, n.d. c. 1953, n.p. 12. Tom Grant and Dominic Fanning, The Platypus, 4th ed. CSIRO Publishing, Melbourne, 2007, p. 8. 13. Harriet Ritvo, The Platypus and the Mermaid and other figments of the classifying imagination, Harvard University Press, London, 1997, p. 3; Ann Moyal, Platypus, The Extraordinary Story of how a curious creature baffled the world, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 2002, p. 4. 14. Moyal, Platypus, pp. 6, 8. 15. Platypus skin rug, Powerhouse Museum Collection, 2004/71/1 Rug, platypus, skin/ felt, Australia, 1880-1930, photograph and description at http://www.powerhousemuseum.com/collection/database/?irn=343335.\;Brett J. Stubbs, ‘From “useless brutes” to national treasures: a century of evolving attitudes towards native fauna in New South Wales, 1860s to 1960s’, Environment and History, vol. 7, no. 1, 2001, p. 30. 16. Richard White, ‘Symbols of Australia’ in Martyn Lyons and Penny Russell (eds) Australia's History: Themes and Debates, University of NSW Press, Sydney, 2005, p. 123. 17. See the applications for registration of a trademark in the National Archives of Australia (NAA), Series A11731 and A1337, for example, from the Tasmanian Eucalyptus Oil Company in 1892 (A11731, 3220) and from Olivia Goldstein for a toy handbag in the shape of a platypus (A1337, 16201). 18. Stubbs, ‘From “useless brutes” to national treasures’, p. 51. 19. Grant and Fanning, The Platypus, p. 111; Wildlife Preservation Society of Australia, 1921–22 Annual Report, The Society, Sydney, 1922, p. 5; Stephen Jackson, Koala, Origins of an Icon, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 2007, p. 118. 20. Australian Wild Life, the Journal of the Wild Life Preservation Society of Australia reported with disgust examples of these exports: 200 birds and animals despatched on Port Montreal 11 March 1939 (no. 2, 1946, p. 51); a thousand animals at a time exported, some by plane, (no. 2, 1949, p. 60); 2000 caged animals sent on the Cymric for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and 200 destined for the US on the Sierra (no. 2, 1955, p. 2). 21. Adrian Franklin, Animal Nation, The True Story of Animals and Australia, University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 2006, p. 17. 22. R. Malamud quoted by Rebecca Bishop in ‘Journeys to the urban exotic, embodiment and the zoo going gaze’, Humanities Research, vol. XI, no. 1, 2004, p. 107. 23. Moyal, Platypus, p. 4.; Ritvo, The Animal Estate, p. 208; Stephen Phillips, ‘The Koala and Mankind’, in Leonard Cronin (ed.), Koala, Australia's Endearing Marsupial, Reed Books, Sydney, 1987, p. 123; Stephen Jackson, Melody Serena and David Middleton, ‘Platypus’ in Stephen Jackson (ed.), Australian Mammals, Biology and Captive Management, CSIRO, Melbourne, 2003, p. 1. 24. G. P. Walsh, ‘Burrell, Henry James (1873–1945)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography On line, http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A070497b.htm?hilite=burrell (accessed 1 July 2008); Moyal, Platypus, p. 174–5. 25. Jackson, Serena and Middleton, ‘Platypus’, p. 1. 26. Harry Burrell, The Platypus [1927], Rigby, Sydney, 1974, pp. 212–14. 27. Quoted by William Bridges in Gathering of Animals: An unconventional history of the New York Zoological Society, Harper & Row, New York, 1974, p. 355. 28. See a discussion of Hornaday's attitude to the lives of individual animals and the need for sufficient return on investment in them in Nigel Rothfels, Savages and Beasts, The Birth of the Modern Zoo, Johns Hopkins University Press, London, 2002, pp. 67, 181 and n 246. 29. Raymond L. Ditmars and Lee S. Crandall, Guide to the New York Zoological Park, New York Zoological Society, New York, n.d., p. 104.; Bridges, Gathering of Animals, p. 356. 30. Melissen, Wielding Soft Power, p. 8. 31. Graham Freudenberg, Churchill and Australia, Pan Macmillan, Sydney, 2008, p. 451. 32. Confidential Memorandum, JHL Cumpston, Director-General, Department of Health, Canberra, 29 March 1943 to Official Secretary, Australia House, Stuffed Mounted Specimen of the Platypus also regarding a living specimen, NAA, Series No. A2908/13, V23/2; Freudenburg, Churchill and Australia, p. 456. 33. Australian Government, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, ‘218 Note by [Stanley Melbourne] Bruce of Conversation with Churchill, [London] 10 June 1943’, NAA, Series No. M100, June 1943. 34. John Oldham to V.C. Duffy, MVO Australia House, 27 July 1943, Stuffed Mounted Specimen of the Platypus also regarding a living specimen, NAA, Series No. A2908/13, V23/2; Robert Eadie, The Life and Habits of the Platypus: with sidelights on ‘Splash’ the tame platypus (cover title: The Platypus, Australia's Amazing Animal), Stillwell and Stephens, Melbourne, 1935; Moyal, Platypus, p. 184. 35. David Fleay, Paradoxical Platypus: Hobnobbing with Duckbills, Jacaranda, Brisbane, 1980, p. 53. 36. David Fleay, ‘Notes No. 1, 2 and 3’, Attachments to JHL Cumpston, Memo to Official Secretary, High Commissioner's Office, Australia House, 23 June 1943, Stuffed Mounted Specimen of the Platypus also regarding a living specimen, NAA, Series No. A2908/13, V23/2. 37. JHL Cumpston to Official Secretary, High Commissioner's Office, Australia House, 23 June 1943, Stuffed Mounted Specimen of the Platypus also regarding a living specimen, NAA, Series No. A2908/13, V23/2. 38. GM Vevers to VC Duffy, 1 November 1943 and Telegram, 5 November 1943, Stuffed Mounted Specimen of the Platypus also regarding a living specimen, NAA, Series no. A2908/13, V23/2. 39. A copy of the meticulous log book documenting the platypus's care is filed with Stuffed Mounted Specimen of the Platypus also regarding a living specimen, NAA, Series No. A2908/13, V23/2. 40. Moyal, Platypus, p. 184. 41. W.J. Enright, Master Port Phillip to Messers Pt Line Ltd, 12 November 1943; and V.C. Duffy to Mrs Hill, Private Secretary to Winston Churchill, 17 November 1943, Stuffed Mounted Specimen of the Platypus also regarding a living specimen, NAA, Series No. A2908/13, V23/2. 42. Winston Churchill to H.V. Evatt, cablegram, 22 November 1943, 357, NAA, Series no. A989, 43/300/4/3. 43. JHL Cumpston memo to Official Secretary, High Commissioner's Office, Australia House, Stuffed Mounted Specimen of the Platypus also regarding a living specimen, NAA, Series no. A2908/13, V23/2. 44. High Commission's Office, London cablegram to Dr. Evatt, Col. Hodgson and Dr Cumpston, 11 November 1943, 11 371, 43/300/4/3?/08. 45. Freudenburg, Churchill and Australia, p. 459. 46. For example, see ‘First Duck-bill Platypus Born in Captivity’, Illustrated London News, 25 March 1944, p. 357. 47. Rosemary Fleay-Thomson, Animals First, The Story of Pioneer Australian Conservationist and Zoologist Dr David Fleay, Petaurus, Gold Coast, p. 139. 48. Hanson, Animal Attractions, p. 71. 49. Fleay-Thomson, Animals First, p. 139. 50. Fleay-Thomson, Animals First, p. 142. 51. See Export Committee, Minutes of Meetings, 14 January 1946–5 May 1947, NAA Series CP 24/3, Control Symbol 1. 52. David Stead, ‘Brief history of the Wild Life Preservation Society of Australia’, Australian Wild Life, no. 2, 1949, p. 60; ‘Export of Australian fauna’, Australian Wild Life, no. 2, 1946, p. 51; ‘Platypuses sail for New York’, Wild Life, 1947, p. 190. 53. A.S. LeSouef, ‘How the Australian fauna is faring’, Journal of the Society for the Preservation of the Fauna of the Empire, no. LIV, 1946, p. 34. 54. Fleay, Paradoxical Platypus, p. 65; McMullin, The Light on the Hill, p. 238. 55. Glen St John Barclay, Friends in High Places, Australian-American Diplomatic Relations since 1945, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1985, pp. 13, 15. 56. The recognition of Indonesia was announced on 25 March 1947. Barclay, Friends in High Place, p. 26; McMullin, Light on the Hill, p. 242; W. David McIntyre, Background to the ANZUS Pact: Policy-making, strategy and diplomacy, 1945–55, Canterbury University Press, Christchurch, NZ, 1995, pp. 173–4. 57. Fleay, Paradoxical Platypus, p. 53. 58. Sally K. May, ‘The Last Frontier? Acquiring the American-Australian Scientific Expedition Ethnographic Collection, 1948’, BA (Hons) thesis, Flinders University, 2000, p. 32. 59. May, ‘The Last Frontier?’, p. 43; C.P. Mountford, Records or the American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land, 4 vols, Melbourne University Press, Melbourne, 1956. 60. ‘Situation Vacant’, Time, 7 July 1947. The article reported that a brochure written for distribution in the US appealed to servicemen's memories of ‘those high, clear skies, the rollers at Bondi's and the surfers’ paradise, the hurly-burly of King's Cross.’ 61. Ken Buckley, Barbara Dale and Wayne Reynolds, Doc Evatt, Patriot, Internationalist, Fighter and Scholar, Longman Cheshire, Melbourne, 1994, pp. 264–5. 62. David Fleay to Senator Courtice, 3 May 1947, NAA, Exportation of Australian Animals part 2, Series A425, Item 1960/8705; Fleay Thomson, Animals First, p. 146. 63. Richard H. Manville, ‘Concerning Platypuses’, Journal of Mammalogy, vol. 39, 1958, p. 582. 64. Bridges, Gathering of Animals, p. 359. A captive platypus has subsequently lived to 21 years of age, at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Queensland. (Jackson, Serena and Middleton, ‘Platypus’, p. 3.) 65. Fleay-Thomson, Animals First, p. 148. 66. Dated 26 April 1947, reprinted in Fleay-Thomson, Animals First, p. 148. 67. Fleay, Paradoxical Platypus, p. 57. 68. David Fleay to Senator Courtice, 3 May 1947. 69. Fleay, Paradoxical Platypus, p. 75; ‘The Duckbills still draw’, Animal Kingdom, September – October 1947, p. 167.; Lee S. Crandall, ‘We are attempting to breed the platypus’, Animal Kingdom, no. LIV, 1951 reprinted in Fleay, Paradoxical Platypus, p. 80. 70. ‘Platypuses to come out to play in debut at the Bronx Zoo today’, New York Times, 30 April 1947. 71. For example, ‘Strange travelers’, True Comics, no. 65, 1947; Inez Hogan, Read to Me: About Peter Platypus, E.P. Dutton, New York, 1948. GB-Animation, a British film studio established by American animator David Hand, made an animated film The Australian Platypus in 1949. (Toonhound, ‘David Hand's Animaland, 1948–49’, http://www.toonhound.com/animaland.htm (accessed 1 July 2008)). 72. ‘Important Australian shipment’, Animal Kingdom, May–June 1947, p. 102; ‘Tasmanian devils horrify the zoo, Boris Karloff of quadrupeds’, New York Times, 5 May 1947. 73. David Fleay to Senator Courtice, 3 May 1947; Barclay, Friends in High Places, p. 25. 74. Fleay-Thomson, Animals First, p. 148; Fleay, Paradoxical Platypus, p. 72. 75. Fleay-Thomson, Animals First, p. 154. 76. Fleay, Paradoxical Platypus, pp. 96 and 108. 77. Australia. Parliament. Senate. Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee. Commercial Utilisation of Australian Native Wildlife, The Report of the Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport References Committee, The Committee, Canberra, 1998, p. 350. 78. Sydney Morning Herald, 13 July 1989. 79. Australian Government, Attorney General's Department. Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Amendment Regs 2001 (No 3). http://frli.law.gov.au/vtopic.vts?action=View&VdkVgwKey=2001B00567&DocOffset=1&DocsFound=1&QueryZip=platypus&Collection=FRLI&SearchUrl=http%3A%2F%2Ffrli%2Elaw%2Egov%2Eau%2Fvtopic%2Evts%3Faction%3DFilterSearch%26QueryZip%3Dplatypus%26Filter%3Dfrliqflt%252Ehts%26ResultTemplate%3Dfrliresult%252Ehts%26Collection%3DFRLI%26ResultStart%3D1%26ResultCount%3D50&&ViewTemplate=frliview.hts (accessed 29 June 2008); Jackson, Koala, p. 129. 80. Australia. Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, ‘Guide to the import and export of wildlife specimens for non-commercial purposes’, Environment Australia, 2002 http://www.environment.gov.au/biodiversity/trade-use/publications/noncommercial-guide/index.html (accessed 18 June 2008); Jackson, Koala, p. 128. Platypus exports were permitted for non-commercial purposes under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999.