Editing Earle Page (section)

==World War II==
In March 1940, Archie Cameron led the Country Party back into coalition with the UAP. However, he resigned as party leader on 16 October, following the [[1940 Australian federal election|1940 federal election]]. Page attempted to regain the party's leadership, but was deadlocked with [[John McEwen]] over multiple ballots. As a compromise, the party elected [[Arthur Fadden]] as acting leader; he was confirmed in the position a few months later. Page replaced Cameron as [[Department of Commerce (Australia)|Minister for Commerce]] in the reconstituted ministry.{{sfn|Wilks|2017|p=256}}

[[File:Earle Page, 1940-1941 (Fred Leist).png|thumb|upright|left|[[Parliament House, Canberra|Parliament House]] portrait of Page by [[Fred Leist]], 1940–41]]
Fadden replaced Menzies as prime minister in August 1941. A few weeks later, cabinet decided to send Page to London as [[resident minister]], with the intention that he would be granted access to the [[British War Cabinet]]. While he was en route to England, the Fadden government lost a confidence motion and was replaced by an ALP minority government. The new prime minister [[John Curtin]] nonetheless allowed Page to take up the position, declining his offer to return to Australia.{{sfn|Wilks|2017|p=260}} The [[attack on Pearl Harbor]] in December changed the dynamic of Anglo-Australian relations, as the [[War in the Pacific]] became the primary concern of the Australian government. Page assisted in the creation of the [[Pacific War Council]] early the following year. He later recalled [[Winston Churchill]]'s frustration in war cabinet meetings with Curtin's decision to withdraw troops from the Middle East and North Africa and return them to Australia. He credited himself with helping negate the tensions between the two men, but in February 1942 mistakenly advised Churchill that the Australian government was amenable to diverting the [[7th Division (Australia)|7th Division]] to Burma rather than return it directly to Australia. He was heavily rebuked by Curtin and external affairs minister [[H. V. Evatt]] for his error.{{sfn|Wilks|2017|p=261}}

Page wrote to Curtin in April 1942 that since January he had been through "the worst period of acute mental distress of my whole life".{{sfn|Wilks|2017|p=261}} His tenure was not regarded as a success, and he was said to have suffered from a lack of experience in diplomacy.{{sfn|Wilks|2017|p=262}} Field Marshal [[Alan Brooke, 1st Viscount Alanbrooke|Alan Brooke]], the [[Chief of the General Staff (United Kingdom)|Chief of the Imperial General Staff]], recalled that in war cabinet meetings he had "the mentality of a greengrocer".{{sfn|Wilks|2017|p=263}} Page left London in June 1942 following a severe bout of pneumonia.{{sfn|Wilks|2017|p=261}} He had been made a [[Member of the Order of the Companions of Honour]] (CH) before his departure.<ref name="CH">{{cite web|url=https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1065988|title=It's an Honour – CH|publisher=Itsanhonour.gov.au|date=26 June 1942|access-date=4 November 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190223074136/https://honours.pmc.gov.au/honours/awards/1065988|archive-date=23 February 2019|url-status=live}}</ref> He returned to Australia in August, travelling via the United States,{{sfn|Wilks|2017|p=264}} and quickly turned his attention to planning for post-war reconstruction.{{sfn|Wilks|2017|p=265}}

Page spent the remaining years of the Curtin and [[Chifley government]]s on the opposition backbench.<ref name=naainop>{{cite web|title=Earle Page, In Opposition 1941–49|work=Australia's Prime Ministers|publisher=[[National Archives of Australia]]|url=http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/page/after-office.aspx#section3|access-date=19 March 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100718002452/http://primeministers.naa.gov.au/primeministers/page/after-office.aspx#section3|archive-date=18 July 2010|url-status=dead}}</ref> He served on the [[Advisory War Council]] and was a delegate to the constitutional convention in Canberra in late 1942, which included members of all major political parties. However, he was frustrated by the government's failure to offer him any formal role in developing post-war policy, which he believed was due to him given his past work.{{sfn|Wilks|2017|p=271, 274}} Page's brother [[Harold Page|Harold]] and nephew [[Robert Page (soldier)|Robert]] were killed by the Japanese during the war.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/page-harold-hillis-7942|title= Page, Harold Hillis (1888–1942)|first=A. J. |last=Sweeting|year=1988|volume=11|work=[[Australian Dictionary of Biography]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/page-robert-charles-11328|title=Page, Robert Charles (1920–1945)|first=Shirley|last=Lithgow|work=[[Australian Dictionary of Biography]]|year=2000|volume=15}}</ref>