Evatt, Herbert Vere

(vĭr ĕv´ət), 1894–1965, Australian statesman. He became (1940) a Labor member of the House of Representatives, before being appointed (1941) attorney general and then minister of foreign affairs. During World War II, Evatt was the Australian member of the Pacific War Council and a delegate to the UN Conference in 1945, where he championed the rights of the smaller nations and urged international control of atomic energy. In 1948–49 he was president of the UN General Assembly. He later led the Labor opposition in Parliament. Among his many books is The Task of Nations (1949).

See biography by K. Tennant (1971).