RMS Maloja, Sydney, Australia

RMS Maloja, Sydney, Australia

The interwar ‘age of internationalism’ was, comparatively, quite slow. Traversing the land, sea and air lanes between nations was laborious, but often productive, work. Ocean liner companies exploited the urge to international travel, whether for officials, workers or, increasingly, tourists. The journey from Bombay to London took roughly two weeks, often the last leg of a journey from Sydney, as it was for ten Round Table Conference delegates in 1931 aboard the RMS Maloja. The Maloja was a Peninsular and Orient (P&O) liner, ordered in 1918 and launched in 1923. It formed part of an international infrastructure that sustained the commercial, social and political networks of both imperialism and internationalism. The ocean liner is one of the paradigmatic spaces of internationalism, one of glamour and boredom for the elite, and of toil and discomfort for the ship workers. For Round Table delegates, who could claim a first class return berth, the journey to Britain was comfortable. They used this time to prepare their negotiating tactics and to size up their adversaries and friends over meals, cocktails, and deck-top dancing through the Arabian, Red and Mediterranean Seas, and in the train carriages across France between Marseilles and Calais. Gandhi received a great deal of press coverage for his decision to forego his first class ticket and to spend his time on the second-class deck.

Australian National Maritime Museum, Object number 00011856