Conscription in Australia , or mandatory military service also known as National Service, has a controversial history dating back to the first years of nationhood. Australia currently has no conscription.
Boyhood conscription
The government of prime minister Alfred Deakin and other non-Labor governments had introduced a form of conscription for boys from 12 to 14 years of age and for youths from 18 to 20 years of age between 1905 and 1909.
An Australian Labor Party government instituted a system of compulsory military training for all males aged between 12 and 26 from January 1, 1911.
John Barrett, in his study of boy conscription, Falling In , noted:
There was also extensive opposition to boyhood conscription resulting in, by July 1915, some 34,000 prosecutions and 7,000 detentions of trainees, parents, employers or other persons required to register.
World War I
Under Labor prime minister Billy Hughes, full conscription was attempted during WWI through two referenda.
The first plebiscite was held on the 28 October 1916 and narrowly rejected conscription with a margin of 48% for and 52% against. The plebiscite of 28 October 1916 asked Australians:
Are you in favour of the Government having, in this grave emergency, the same compulsory powers over citizens in regard to requiring their military service, for the term of this War, outside the Commonwealth, as it now has in regard to military service within the Commonwealth?A second plebiscite was held on 20 December 1917, and was defeated by a greater margin. The question put to Australians was:
"Are you in favour of the proposal of the Commonwealth Government for reinforcing the Commonwealth Forces overseas?"After the failure of the first plebiscite, Billy Hughes left the Australian Labor Party parliamentary caucus taking with him most of the Parlimentary talent, and promptly crossed the floor with about half of the parliamentary party and became Prime Minister of a conservative Nationalist government. The divided Labor Govenement under their new leader of Frank Tudor, then saw fit to expel Hughes and all who followed him after they had already left. Following the split, Labor stayed out of office for ten years.
After the first plebiscite the government used the War Precautions Act and the Unlawful Associations Act to arrest and prosecute anti-conscriptionists such as Tom Barker, editor of Direct Action and many other members of the IWW. The young John Curtin, at the time a member of the Victorian Socialist Party, was also arrested. Anti-conscriptionist publications (in one case, even when read into Hansard), were seized by government censors in police raids.
Other notable opponents to Conscription included Melbourne Catholic Archbishop Daniel Mannix, Queensland Labor Premier Thomas Ryan, Vida Goldstein and the Women's Peace Army. Most trade unions actively opposed conscription.
Many people 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. Some groups argued that the whole war was immoral, and it was unjust to force people to fight.
Divided Nation
The conscription issue deeply divided Australia with large meetings held both for and against. The Women's vote was seen as important with large women's meetings and campaign information from both sides aimed at women voters. The campaigning for the first plebiscite was launched by Hughes at a huge overflow meeting at the Sydney Town Hall where he outlined the Government's proposals. This was followed by a huge pro-conscription meeting at the Melbourne Town Hall on September 21.
Anti-conscriptionists, especially in Melbourne, were also able to mobilise large crowds with a meeting filling the Exhibition Building on September 20; 30,000 people on the Yarra bank on Sunday October 15, and 25,000 the following week; a "parade of women promoted by the United Women's No-Conscription Committee - an immense crowd of about 60,000 people gathered at Swanston St between Guild Hall and Princes Bridge, and for upwards of an hour the street was a surging area of humanity". An anti-conscription stop work meeting called by five trade unions held on the Yarra Bank mid-week on October 4 attracted 15,000 people.
The first referendum bill was passed on September 21, 1916, and mandatory registration and enrollment commenced while the first plebiscite campaign was underway. By October 5 The Age reported that of 11607 men examined, 4581 were found fit, approximately 40 per cent.
The Age noted, in an article Influence of the IWW , that "the great bulk of the opposition to conscription is centred in Victoria.". Many meetings in inner Melbourne and Sydney were disrupted by anti-conscriptionists with speakers being howled down from the audience in what The Age described as "disgraceful exhibition" and "disorderly scenes".
The issue deeply divided the Labor party, with ministers such as Hughes and George Pearce, vigorously arguing the need for conscription for Australia to help the Allies win the war. They were supported by many within the party, including Labor's first prime minister, Chris Watson and NSW Labor Premier William Holman. Hughes denounced anti-conscriptionists as traitors, and a climate of bitter sectarianism (with most Catholics opposing conscription and most Protestants supporting it) developed.
On 1 November 1929, the mandatory provisions of the Defence Act were suspended and after 18 years conscription had come to an end.
World War II
In 1939, at the start of World War II all unmarried men aged 21 were to be called up for three months’ Militia training. These men could serve only in Australia or its territories.
Conscription was effectively introduced in mid-1942, when all men 18-35, and single men aged 35-45, were required to join the Citizens Military Forces (CMF). Volunteers with the Australian Army scorned CMF conscripts as "chocolate soldiers", or "chockos", because they were believed to melt under the conditions of battle. However, CMF Militia units fought bravely under difficult conditions and suffered extremely high casualties during 1942, in slowing the Japanese advance on the Kokoda Track in New Guinea. New Guinea was then an Australian territory.
By 1943, Australia had been bombed; 20,000 Australians were prisoners of war. The Commonwealth Government changed the Defence Act to extend the definition of areas to which conscripted servicemen could be sent to include now all areas south of the Equator in South-East Asia under the Defence (Citizen Military Forces) Act (1943). This included all major war zones in the Pacific area. In effect, Australian conscripts could now for the first time be sent overseas to fight in the same areas as volunteers. The changes caused some public resentment and there was some public protest – but most people seemed to support conscription during World War II.
Compulsory military service ended in 1945, and most Australian personnel had been demobilised by the end of November 1946.
National Service in the 1950s
In 1951, during the Korean War, National Service was introduced under the National Service Act (1951). All Australian males aged 18 had to register for 176 (later 140) days of training and five years of service in the CMF. The regular military forces were kept as voluntary. In 1957 the system was changed to emphasise skill rather than numbers. The system was ended in 1959.
National Service from the 1960s
Vietnam War
In 1964 compulsory National Service for 20-year-old males was introduced under the National Service Act (1964). The selection of conscripts was based on date of birth, and conscripts were obligated to give two years’ continuous full-time service, followed by a further three years on the active reserve list. The full-time service requirement was reduced to eighteen months in 1971.
The Defence Act was amended in May 1965 to provide that National Servicemen could be obliged to serve overseas, a provision that had been applied only once before—during World War II. In March 1966, the Government announced that National Servicemen would be sent to Vietnam to fight in units of the Australian Regular Army and for secondment to American forces. Men who wished to avoid National Service could join the Citizen Military Forces and serve only inside Australia, claim a student deferment, or attempt a conscientious objection application. In order to be exempted on the basis of conscientious objection, an applicant needed to demonstrate objection to 'all' war, not me
Australia and the Vietnam War | Conscription
The Vietnam War was the longest conflict in which Australians have been involved; it lasted ten years, from 1962 to 1972, and involved some 60,000 personnel. A limited initial ...
Conscription in Australia - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Conscription in Australia, or mandatory military service also known as National Service, has a controversial history dating back to the first years of nationhood.
Conscription in Australia
Pin back buttons supporting 1 side or the other in the 1916 conscription referendum.
Australian War Memorial encylopedia
Encyclopedia Conscription. Conscription, compulsory military service for young men, has been a contentious issue throughout Australia's history.
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Table of Contents. 1 Boyhood conscription; 2 World war i; 3 World war ii; 4 National service in the 1950s; 5 National service in the 1960s. 5.1. Vietnam War