Talk:World War I conscription in Australia

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Military history: South Pacific / World War I Start‑class

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Change name of article[edit]

Given that Australia did not actually have conscription during WW1, perhaps the article name needs to change. Mitch Ames (talk) 13:29, 12 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Possibly we should consider merging this article with (or into one of) Australian plebiscite, 1916, Australian plebiscite, 1917. Mitch Ames (talk) 12:16, 13 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

While the referendums proposing conscription for overseas service were unsuccessful, there actually was conscription for the home defence forces. These men typically underwent a short period of full-time training, and then were part of an Army Reserve-type arrangement where they had to attend occasional training camps. PM Hughes controversially activated all the conscripted reservists ahead of one of the referendums (the first, I think), and this is sometimes given as a reason which contributed to the failure of Hughes proposal. The question people were asked to vote on in the first referendum was actually "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?". See also pages 349-352 of the official history of the home front here. Nick-D (talk) 23:34, 15 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

I've update the lead section to mention compulsory military service within Australia. I still think there may be merit in renaming or merging this article with the plebiscite articles, but perhaps we need to clarify the scope of this article.

Is it intended to cover the conscription that we had in Australia during WW1 (as its name implies) - even though that conscription was introduced in 1911 well before WW1
Were any of the conscripts compelled to serve in WW1? Ie was there any military action in Australian territories, or did the conscription cover British "Commonwealth" territory as well as Australian?

It seems to me that the article(s) should be about the debate, the referenda and the political consequences, rather that the actual "conscription to fight in WW1" which we don't appear to have actually had. Mitch Ames (talk) 03:22, 16 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]

In regards to point 1, as I understand it the conscription (and other defence preparations) introduced in 1911 formed part of the preparations for the war which was expected to be waged with either Germany or Japan in the near future at the time. In regards to point 2, the conscripts were only compelled to serve within Australian territory, though they were activated at various times (in 1914 when it was feared that German warships might attack Australian ports, ahead of the referendum in 1916 and then in 1918 some conscripts were called up when the German raider Wolf entered Australian waters. Given that there are articles on the referendums, I'd suggest that this article cover the World War I-era domestic conscription, as well as the proposals to extend this to force conscripts to serve overseas. Nick-D (talk) 07:12, 16 June 2013 (UTC)[reply]