'Even though the 1931 Statute of Westminster had made Australia, Canada,
and New Zealand independent nations with autonomous foreign policies,
New Zealand and Australia nevertheless responded to the outbreak of the
Second World War as if they were still colonies, automatically at war as they
had been in 1914. Both relied upon Britain for strategic imperatives such as
security and defence, as well as for economic reasons. Further, sentimental
links between Britain and its former colonies meant many continued to call
Britain "home" and to regard the British as their "kith and kin." Within
hours of Britain's declaration of war on Germany, both New Zealand's Prime
Minister, Michael Joseph Savage, and Australia's Prime Minister, Robert
Menzies, rushed to offer the British government their support because they
believed it inconceivable to do otherwise. In Canada, although the
Anglophile, imperialist, and monarchist Prime Minister, Mackenzie King,
was in favor of supporting Britain once war was declared, he knew he had
to satisfy Francophone Quebec's concerns about the conscription issue that
had proved so divisive in the FirstWorld War; thus he informed the nation he
would 'let Parliament decide.'' (p 149)
