Bill Sutch
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William Ball Sutch | |
---|---|
Secretary of the Department of Industries and Commerce | |
In office 1958–1965 | |
Appointed by | Walter Nash |
Preceded by | George Clinkard |
Succeeded by | Jim Moriarty |
Personal details | |
Born | public servant | 27 June 1907
William Ball Sutch (27 June 1907 – 28 September 1975) was a New Zealand economist, historian, writer,
Early life
Sutch was born in Southport, England in 1907, but his family moved to New Zealand when he was eight months old. His father, Ebenezer (Ted) Sutch, was a journeyman carpenter, and his mother, Ellen Sutch (née Ball), a dressmaker. He grew up in the Methodist faith, which was to have a strong influence on him throughout his life.[1]
He went to Brooklyn primary school,
In April 1933, Sutch was one of four people that included Morva Williams, his future wife, who were reported missing in the Tararua Range during an attempt to be the first to follow a particular route during the winter season. The trip was scheduled to take two days, but they were delayed when two of the members were injured in a fall and all were forced to travel very slowly through some of the worst weather recorded, before finally making their way out more than two weeks later. Once noticed missing, the resultant search became the largest search and rescue operation in New Zealand up until that time, involving around 200 people.[3]
Career
Politically, Sutch was generally on the left, although his wide network of friends included people of all political persuasions, and perhaps the person he most admired was the centre-right politician Gordon Coates. He was involved in a number of left-leaning organisations and associations, and helped edit and publish literature connected with them. In 1939, he assisted the publication of "Psycho-pathology in Politics", written by Labour Party dissident John A. Lee which was an attack on the party's leader, Michael Joseph Savage. Sutch wrote numerous books. Among the first were: Poverty and Progress in New Zealand (1941, 1969), which echoed the work Progress and Poverty, by the Californian Henry George (1879), known as the "single [land] taxer"; and The Quest for Security in New Zealand (1942, 1966).[citation needed], which to Sutch was a related topic.
Early career
In 1933, following some teaching in Palmerston North Boys' High School, Sutch took up a position in the office of Gordon Coates, who was Minister of Finance. When the government changed, he continued on in the office of Coates's successor, Walter Nash of the First Labour Government. During this time he was elected as the first President of the newly formed New Zealand Association of Scientific Workers (now known as the N.Z. Association of Scientists).[4] He had considerable input into economic policy at the time. Eventually, Sutch's political activities were deemed incompatible with his official role, and he was transferred out of the economic sphere. He left the civil service to join the army, becoming an instructor. He returned to the Ministry of Supply arranging equipment and finance.[5]
Work overseas
At the end of the war, he took up a position with the new
Return to New Zealand
Upon returning to New Zealand in 1951, Sutch worked for the Department of Industries and Commerce, eventually in 1958 rising to be its Secretary. The
There he promoted the development of the
Sutch's promotion of industrialisation was anathema to much of the farming community, though many in the business community supported him. In March 1965 he was forced to retire after 40 years of public service employment. His dismissal letter said, "you do not enjoy the confidence of the business community and of the Government to the measure desired of the permanent head of your department."
Legacy
Sutch's writing provides one of the most comprehensive accounts of, and visions for, New Zealand. While his views were often original and independent, many that were rejected at the time are now accepted. He was a nation-builder who wanted to see an economically strong and socially fair New Zealand, free from colonial ties, whether economic or political. He was a committed nationalist, and on many matters ahead of his times.[7]
Economist Brian Easton has argued that: "The events surrounding the trial overshadowed the significance of what went before, and have muted subsequent recognition of his intellectual contributions."[1] The trial also overshadowed his role in the establishment of UNICEF.[citation needed] Sutch's daughter, Helen Sutch, said after the declassification of New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (SIS) documents in 2008 said: "Our family hopes that justice can now be done to that historic legacy, which has been overshadowed for so long by events in the last year of his life".[11]
Controversy
Charges under the Official Secrets Act
In September 1974, Sutch was arrested and charged under the Official Secrets Act 1951 following a series of clandestine meetings with KGB agent Dimitri Rasgovorov, an official of the Soviet Union's embassy in Wellington.[12][13] Sutch was the only New Zealander ever to stand trial under the espionage provisions of the Official Secrets Act, based on the British Act of 1951 and repealed in 1983.
The SIS aimed to catch Sutch passing on information during a meeting at night in a public park, but did not detain Sutch until after Rasgovorov had left. They assumed Sutch would co-operate once caught red handed. When he did not, they could not provide specific details of what information Sutch had passed to the Soviet diplomat (hence the curious charge that he faced, under the Official Secrets Act, of passing unspecified information to the Soviet Union). Sutch claimed his meetings with Soviet officials were after the Russian ostensibly approached him in his capacity as a stalwart of the NZ Friends of Israel, for information about who were the Zionists in New Zealand, and to discuss China.
At trial the SIS claimed that the retired Sutch had obtained official government information to give to the Soviets but was unable to provide details of what information. Following a high-profile trial, a jury acquitted Sutch of the charges in February 1975.
Sutch began to suffer ill health at about the same time as he was arrested and died from liver cancer six months after the trial on 28 September 1975 at Wellington, shortly after holding his just-born first grandson, Piers.[1]
Subsequent contemporary debate
Debate over his guilt or innocence continued long after his death. A book published in 2006 by C.H (Kit) Bennetts, the SIS officer who had first observed Sutch, reasserted the claim that he was guilty.
On 9 May 2008, most of the SIS file on the Sutch and the trial were declassified. The files contained no new material information. On the other hand a Top Secret 1976 report by chief ombudsman Sir Guy Powles found that SIS actions had been unlawful when they burgled and bugged his office.[11]
In August 2014, the
Personal life
On 12 January 1934 at Wellington, Bill Sutch married Morva Milburn Williams, a schoolteacher. There were no children of the marriage. His marriage to Morva was dissolved on 2 February 1944, and he married Shirley Hilda Stanley Smith (1916–2008), a lecturer and later a lawyer, in Auckland on 2 June that year. They had one daughter, Helen, who was economic adviser to Prime Minister David Lange and rose to a prominent position with the World Bank.[19] In 1953 Bill and Shirley commissioned a house (the Sutch House) in the Wellington suburb of Brooklyn designed by the prominent Austrian architect Ernst Plischke who lived and worked in New Zealand from 1939 to 1963.[20]
Two biographies have been published of Shirley and her marriage to Sutch; Shirley Smith: An Examined Life Sarah Gaitanos 2019 was shortlisted for the Ockhams award. In 2020 her son in law, Keith Ovenden, published "Bill and Shirley – a memoir" which does not mention Gaitanos' biography (the family had withdrawn cooperation during the writing of it). [21]
References
- ^ a b c d e Easton, Brian (26 February 2014). "Story: Sutch, William Ball". Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand. Archived from the original on 9 January 2015. Retrieved 9 January 2015.
- ^ Easton, Brian. "Bill Sutch: 1907-1950 (-1975)". Brian Easton’s Website. Brian Easton. Retrieved 14 August 2022.
- ISBN 978-0-473-02613-4. Archivedfrom the original on 27 February 2020. Retrieved 13 January 2012.
- ^ Gregory, G., 2013. Not to be forgotten: New Zealand Association of Scientific Workers. New Zealand Science Review, 70(1), pp.10-19.
- ^ Sinclair 1976, p. 128.
- ^ "Fresh twist in 40-year-old Cold War spy mystery". 10 August 2014. Archived from the original on 22 March 2015. Retrieved 20 March 2015.
- ^ a b Sinclair 1976, p. 342.
- ^ Sinclair 1976, p. 343.
- ^ "PRESSURE TO RETIRE DR. SUTCH DENIED. PRESS". paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. 19 November 1964. Retrieved 27 March 2022.
- ^ Christopher Thompson, 'Modernizing for trade: institutionalizing design promotion in New Zealand, 1958-1967', Journal of Design History, vol 24, no 3 (2011), pp. 223-239.
- ^ a b "SIS file on Cold War spy scandal vindicates Sutch". The New Zealand Herald. 6 June 2008. Archived from the original on 26 January 2016. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
- The Sunday Star-Times. 7 June 2008. Archivedfrom the original on 25 October 2012. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
- Television New Zealand. Archivedfrom the original on 14 October 2012. Retrieved 20 September 2011.
- ^ "Sutch was a traitor, insists agent who exposed him". The New Zealand Herald. 2 October 2006. Archived from the original on 21 October 2012. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
- ^ "Spy catcher reveals his cover in Qld". The Age. 12 November 2006. Archived from the original on 10 June 2008. Retrieved 12 November 2006.
- ^ "Editorial: Enduring study in treachery". New Zealand Herald. 4 October 2006. Archived from the original on 9 January 2015. Retrieved 3 August 2012.
- ^ Kitchen, Phil (11 August 2014). "Fresh twist in 40-year-old Cold War spy mystery". The Dominion Post. Archived from the original on 6 March 2016. Retrieved 10 January 2016.
- The Dominion Post. 12 August 2014. Archivedfrom the original on 29 August 2014. Retrieved 9 January 2016.
- ^ "Helen-Sutch – Wellington Girls' College". Archived from the original on 13 September 2017. Retrieved 13 September 2017.
- ^ Linda Tyler. 'Plischke, Ernst Anton', Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, first published in 2000, updated November, 2007. Te Ara - the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/biographies/5p31/plischke-ernst-anton (accessed 29 December 2022)
- ^ "Book of the Week: Aro Valley confidential". October 2020.
Further reading
- Bennetts, C.H. (Kit) (2006). Spy. Auckland: Random House N.Z. ISBN 978-1-86941-831-1.
- ISBN 978-0-7900-1140-0.
- Ovenden, Keith (2020). Bill and Shirley – a memoir. Auckland: Massey University Press. ISBN 978-0-9951318-3-5
- Sinclair, Keith (1976). Walter Nash. Auckland, New Zealand: Oxford.