Vote Yes pin for Australian conscription, October 28, 1916, with the flags of Australia and Great Britain. A tin badge or tie-back pin in support of the Australian referendum on conscription, October 28, 1916. Australia voted no on this occasion and again, by a wider margin, in December, 1917.
Oct 28, 1916Vote Yes
". . . the Canadian Prime Minister, Sir Robert Borden, having visited Britain and gained some idea of the magnitude of the task, called in his New Year's message on January 1 [1916] for 500,000 Canadians to join the fight, out of a population of eight million.In Britain itself, pressure was mounting for the introduction of conscription, which would add at least two million more men to the armed forces. On January 5, Prime Minister Asquith introduced the first Conscription Bill to the House of Commons."
By mid-1915 three million British men had volunteered for the war, but Britain did not have enough volunteers to man the army it planned to put into the field. The country was sharply divided on conscription, with Conservatives generally supporting, and Liberals and Labor opposing. Asquith's bill became effective on March 2, 1916, but not in Ireland outside of Northern Ireland. Britain conscripted 2,300,000 soldiers during the war.
The First World War, a Complete History by Martin Gilbert, page 224, copyright © 1994 by Martin Gilbert, publisher: Henry Holt and Company, publication date: 1994
1916-01-05, 1916, January, conscription, conscription bill
