1944 Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference

1st Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference
Host country	Vereinigtes Konigreich Vereinigtes Königreich
Dates	1 May 1944– 16 May 1944
Cities	London
Heads of Government	6
Chair	Winston Churchill (Prime Minister of the United Kingdom)
Follows	1937 Imperial Conference
Precedes	1946
Key points
Supporting the Moscow Declaration Coordination of war effort

The "Commonwealth Prime Ministers' Conference of 1944” was the first meeting of the heads of government of the British Commonwealth. It took place from May 1 to 16, 1944, in the United Kingdom and was hosted by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

The Conference

Overview

The conference was attended by the prime ministers of all Commonwealth dominions except Ireland and Newfoundland. Participants included Australian Prime Minister John Curtin, Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King, New Zealand Prime Minister Peter Fraser, and South African Prime Minister Jan Smuts. Also present was Prime Minister Sir Godfrey Huggins from the self-governing colony of Southern Rhodesia, and India was represented by the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir. Members of Churchill's War Cabinet and the high commissioners of the Dominions also attended.

Ireland did not participate, although it was still a member of the British Commonwealth at the time. Ireland had not participated in any comparable conference since 1932.

The heads of state and government of the British Commonwealth agreed to support the Moscow Declaration and agreed on their respective roles in the overall Allied war effort.

Before the conference, Robert McIntyre and Douglas Young, the leaders of the Scottish National Party, lobbied King, Fraser, Smuts, Huggins, and Curtin to raise the question of Scottish independence at the conference and to invite Scotland to participate in this and all future Commonwealth conferences. Curtin considered this an internal matter for the British government, King was sympathetic, and the other participants merely reaffirmed their agreement to the communiqués.

Participants

Ministers

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

• AUS Sir Frederick Shedden Secretary, Ministry of Defense
• CAN Norman Robertson
• UK Sir John Stephenson
• UK Sir Richard Hopkins Secretary of State for the Treasury