Billy Hughes increasingly dominant in public affairs with the rise of Fascism in Europe and militant Japan in Asia. From 1938, Prime Minister Joseph Lyons had Hughes head a recruitment drive for the Australian Defence Force. On 7 April 1939, Lyons died in office. The United Australia Party selected Robert Menzies as his successor to lead a minority government on the eve of World War Two. Australia entered the Second World War on 3 September 1939 and a special War Cabinet was created after war was declared – initially composed of Prime Minister Menzies and five senior ministers including Hughes. Labor opposition
The Prime Minister Was a Spy that he had been acting in bad faith. The Prime Minister Was a Spy The Prime Minister Was a Spy is a 1983 book by British writer Anthony Grey. The book's premise is that Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia from 1966 to 1967, was a lifelong spy for the Chinese government, under both the Nationalist and Communist regimes. Its most famous claim is that Holt faked his own death – rather than drowning, he boarded a Chinese submarine stationed off the Australian coast and lived the rest of his life in Beijing. The book was widely ridiculed upon its