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 British decision [to implement conscription] set a precedent for the Dominions, New Zealand introducing compulsory military service in July 1916. Yet Canada did not follow suit until the last year of the war, and in Australia the government lost two referendums on the issue in October 1916 and December 1917, the first narrowly but the second by a wider margin. Opposition came partly from radicals and socialists but also from a portion of the Irish community and the Catholic hierarchy, antagonized by the suppression of the Easter Rising in Dublin in 1916. Even in Britain itself conscription failed to solve the 'manpower' problem (a term that entered the political lexicon at this time). Fewer soldiers were recruited in 1916 with conscription than in 1915 without it."
In January 1916 Great Britain introduced conscription for single men aged 18 to 41 with the Military Service Act, extending it to married men in May, in both cases excluding Ireland outside of northern Ireland. The Dominions and colonies of the British Empire gave it access to a large pool of men including those of India and the Union of South Africa. The Easter Rising took place in April, 1916. Support for it grew enormously after the executions of 16 of its leaders in May and August.
Cataclysm: The First World War as Political Tragedy by David Stevenson, pp. 165–166, copyright © 2004 by David Stevenson, publisher: Basic Books, publication date: 2004
1916-10-28, 1916, October, conscription, Australia
