The Australian Prime Minister John Curtin then called on America for help. The British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made it clear that, if forced to choose, he would use English troops and equipment to defend England itself, rather than helping to protect Australia against the Japanese in the Pacific. But by 1942, the fighting of a global war meant that even allies had to make hard choices. At the beginning of World War II, most Australians still believed that their first loyalty outside Australia was to England.
