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Conscription

Conscription. WW1. What was conscription. It was in 1916 that the prime minister of the time Hughes wanted more Australians who opposed war and were unwilling to go to war to go and fight in the war.

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Conscription

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  1. Conscription WW1

  2. What was conscription • It was in 1916 that the prime minister of the time Hughes wanted more Australians who opposed war and were unwilling to go to war to go and fight in the war. • However the defense act only stated that the government could get Australians to fight only in Australia and they were not allowed to go and fight overseas • So the government then had to change the defense act in order to allow this.

  3. But there was a problem. Some members of the Labor Government were against conscription. Hughes knew that he had enough supporters of conscription among the Labor and Liberal parties to have a majority in the House of Representatives; but he was a few short of a majority in the Senate.

  4. Why were people opposed of it • The people opposed conscription because they thought that it was not fair that they were forced to fight in the war and they just wanted to stay in Australia and continue on with their lives. The reasons for this include the fact that they saw people dying and the increasing numbers. This had changed from the initial 1914 when posters were promoting the adventure of war.

  5. Dates of Referendums • There were two referendums that went to Australia during the war to encourage people to enlist. The first referendum was in 1916, the question was: 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? 1,087,557 were in favour and 1,160,033 were against.

  6. The second referendum • It was in 1917 that in order to get more people to sign up to the war the government started another referendum. The referendum said this: Are you in favour of the proposal of the Commonwealth Government for reinforcing the Commonwealth Forces overseas?' The numbers were 1,015,159 in favour and 1,181,747 against.

  7. CONCLUSION From these two referendums this is why conscription did not get passed, because the Australian public did not want to go to war. The government therefore had no right to approve conscription.

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