Conscription is a system of compulsory enrolment of men and women into the armed forces. Conscription was a major issue in Australia between 1914 and 1918, due to the war at this time. There were different people on both sides of the issues who were and weren’t in favour for conscription. Most countries fighting in the war including Britain fought with conscripted military forces except for Australia who heavily relied on voluntary enlistment. At first there were many volunteers who wanted to enlist which greatly exceeded the numbers in which the army could accept, this however soon changed.
During 1916, two years into the war soldiers numbers stared declining, and the need for more recruitments was required. At this time recruitment campaigns did no he
At this time Australia’s prime minister was Labours W.M. ‘Billy’ Hughes. He returned from Britain and the western front, completely for conscription and the need for it. He turned against his party’s policies and wanted a referendum in order to win the publics support for conscription. This however was to no success. Both referendums in 1916 and later in December 1917 were defeated.
The people who were in favour for conscription were those such as conservative politicians, the Universal Service League, Protestant church leaders and businessmen. These people urged the Australian government to follow Britain in introducing conscription. They argued that ‘eligible men should not be allowed to avoid their duty while others who had volunteered were dy
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