8b. ANZACS Conscription & Propaganda [History]

THE ANZACS: CONSCRIPTION & PROPOGANDA

When Britain declared way, young Australians were eager to fight. Evening though Australia’s Federation as a country happened 14 years before, in 1901, Australian men rushed to enlist. Australia was still part of the British Empire and therefore had to support Britain and Australia filled the first quota of soldiers quickly – 20,000 men volunteered to pledge their support.

Many young men, and women (nurses etc) thought it would be a great adventure. Some were rejected because they had to be 5’6” (about 167cm), and have a chest sixe of 84cm and they had to have all their teeth and no fillings! They had to be 21 years old or 18 if a parent or guardian signed the forms. Men travelled hundreds of kilometers to enlist at different places if they were rejected before. But some were boys who lied about their age, like Jim Martin, I read a book about him. He was 14 and 3 months when he enlisted, his parents finally signed the form saying he was 18 because Jim threatened them that he would never contact them ever again. Jim was at Gallipoli and died there of typhoid (many men died of illnesses in Gallipoli because of the atrocious conditions they experienced. I’ll write about that later. 

There was no need for conscription to start with – every one volunteered, but by 1916 (jumping ahead past Gallipoli now, because it’s part of the history curriculum!), there had been so many casualties that the volunteers were less and less. The Prime Minister, William Hughes wanted to bring in conscription for men between 18 and 40 years but he couldn’t get the legislation (the law) through parliament so he called a plebiscite  in October 1916 when all Australians had to vote yes or no to conscription. The majority voted ‘no’. He did another plebiscite in December 2017 but the result was also no. So there was no conscription for armed service in World War 1.

To encourage Australians to volunteer there was recruitment posters, which are called propaganda posters which tried persude men by fear, guilt and accusation (that if they didn’t enlist they were cowards).

I saw some at the Gallipoli museum.