Conscription

At the outbreak of the First World War, the number of people volunteering to enlist for the
Australian Imperial Force was so high that recruitment officers were forced to turn people
away. However as the war progressed the number of casualties increased and the number of
volunteers declined. This meant that by the 1916 the AIF were short of men. Australians began
to realise that war was not going to be a short glorious affair.

In 1916 it was argued that Australia needed to provide reinforcing of 5500 men per month to
maintain its forces overseas at the operation level. Advertising clearly was not working as the
number of people joining was still extremely low. The current Prime Minister William Hughes
decided to ask the people in a referendum if they would agree to a proposal requiring men
undergoing compulsory training to serve in the army. The campaign to establish conscription
for overseas service began, supported by various bodies such as the Universal Service League
and many politicians including Labor leader and later Prime Minister, William Morris Hughes.
On 31 August, Prime Minister William Morris Hughes announced that the question of
compulsory overseas service would be put to the people in a referendum.

The question in the referendum 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? The referendum was held on 28 October 1916 and resulted
in 1 087 557 votes for and 1 160 033 against. New South Wales, Queensland and South
Australia voted ‘No’. After the vote failed to succeed Billy Hughes was expelled from the Labor
Party. In early 1917, Great Britain sought a sixth division to support the planned operations in
Europe. The plan was to conscript for overseas service only enough men to make up a total of 7
000 men a month.  Hughes’ new proposal was that voluntary enlistment should continue, but
that any shortfall would be met by compulsory reinforcements of single men, widowers, and
divorcees without dependents between 20 and 44 years, who would be called up by ballot. The
referendum asked;

Are you in favour of the proposal of the Commonwealth Government for reinforcing the
Commonwealth Forces overseas?' The campaign was very divided as people had a range of
opinions. The proposal was again rejected, by a larger majority than before; voting being 1 015
159 in favour and 1 181 747 against.
During the early 1900’s conscription was a serious solution to the problem. The problem was
that there was a shortage of men in the army after the people finally realized what war was
actually about. After hearing about the deaths of Australians on the battlefront the others
stopped signing up. This was one of the most common posters used during this time. The
poster is mainly targeting females with husbands. It creates sympathy between the wife and
husband. This persuaded the wife to vote no as she doesn’t want to lose her husband. The fact
that the message is being said by a child shows that they want to keep the family safe.

This is a poster made to support conscription during the

time in WW1 when there was a shortage of men joining the
army. The poster is targeting mainly women by saying
“Women of Australia”. This political advertisement aims to
strike fear in the hearts of the female population of Australia.
They do this by telling them false information that the people
will be under attack if they don’t go and fight. This is
commonly known as propaganda. The fear that this put into
many women forced them to vote yes in the referendum.