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Most labor unions actively opposed conscription. Many Australians thought positively of conscription as a sign of loyalty to Britain and thought that it would also support those men who were already fighting. However, trade unions feared that their members might be replaced by cheaper foreign or female labour and opposed conscription.
The New Southern Cross by Claude Marquet. The 1916 Australian referendum, concerning how conscripted soldiers could be deployed, was held on 28 October 1916. It was the first non-binding Australian referendum (often referred to as a plebiscite because it did not involve a constitutional question), and contained one proposition, which was Prime Minister Billy Hughes' proposal to allow ...
There was widespread opposition to this so-called "boy conscription", [5] but the major conscription controversy began in 1916, after Prime Minister Billy Hughes had visited the war front. On his return to Australia, he declared his view that conscription was needed to supply the Australian forces with a sufficient number of soldiers.
During the course of World War 1, 38.7% of eligible Australian men enlisted for service — around 420,000 out of an eligible population of a little over 1 million. During the war, the range of men eligible to volunteer was expanded, with the initial age range of 19–38 expanded to 18–45 in June 1915.
Soldiers from the 4th Division near Chateau Wood, Ypres, in 1917. In Australia, the outbreak of World War I was greeted with considerable enthusiasm. Even before Britain declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914, the nation pledged its support alongside other states of the British Empire and almost immediately began preparations to send forces overseas to engage in the conflict.
Speakers at the event were D. J. McGuire and Austin Elliott who spoke about conscription for World War I. [2] In 1917, ahead of the 1917 Australian conscription referendum, the campaign published a leaflet calling upon mothers to vote against conscription. [3] The campaign's pamphlet Wholesale Slaughter read "Maintain ‘White Australia ...
During the conscription referendums of 1916 and 1917, a regulation that banned statements likely to prejudice recruiting was used to hamper the anti-conscription campaign. Almost any anti-conscriptionist speech could be construed as offending, and a number of prominent anti-conscriptionists were charged, including John Curtin .
In Australia, Irish Catholics mostly opposed conscription; in Canada (and the US), Irish Catholics supported conscription. [citation needed] The threat of conscription resulted in a plan, proposed by Cathal Brugha, to assassinate British cabinet members in April 1918, before they could vote on conscription (or as reprisal for having done so).