[Editor: This chapter is part of The White Australia Policy: The Rise and Fall of Australia’s Racial Ideology (2025).]
Conscription and the White Australia Policy
The White Australia Policy was tied to various other issues, such as economics, defence, imperial federation, tariffs, and trade.
Another example of how White Australia was tied to other issues is that of conscription for wartime military service during the First World War (1914-1918).
Interestingly, both sides in the debates over conscription used the defence of a White Australia as an argument in favour of their viewpoint.
An advertisement for the “No-Conscription Campaign” was published in The Australian Worker (Sydney, NSW), 5 October 1916, stating:
“The management of the No-Conscription Campaign, on behalf of the Labor movement, has been re-arranged.
Bodies representing all shades of political opinion, as well as non-political organisations, are invited to join together in the great fight to maintain Australia and its industries for the white race.
Australia must not be bled dry of its home defenders and industrial workers. Conscription for Australia means race suicide.”[1]
The No-Conscription Council of Sydney, arguing against the conscription policy of Prime Minister Billy Hughes, issued a statement, an extract of which was published in The Daily Standard (Brisbane) on 20 November 1917, which said:
“If the man-power of Australia is conscripted and perishes on the battlefields of Europe, then Australian industries must be wiped out or labor imported from elsewhere to replace our exiled white citizens. There is no labor available in any white man’s country in the world, so that we can only choose between black, brown, and yellow. What is more our white Australian girls must marry these colored immigrants or mostly go without husbands, and thus the white race will die out altogether in a few generations.
Mr. Hughes distinctly calculates on his conscription proposals supplying fighting men for two and a half years more warfare. If carried into effect there is nothing more humanly certain than that the White Australia policy will be gone forever, and in a few years the whole continent will be an Asiatic dependency. Every vote for “Yes” says ‘Good-bye, White Australia.’”[2]
On 29 November 1917 The Sydney Morning Herald reported on the pro-conscription comments of Francis Edward McLean (a Free Trade politician):
“Mr. F. E. McLean, speaking at Port Kembla, said that the no-conscription leaders had raised a bogey about the White Australia policy being in danger.
It was only the strength of Britain behind us which made it possible to maintain the White Australia policy. If the Allies were defeated, and the protecting arm of Great Britain was withdrawn from us, what chance would there be of Australia remaining white?
If Germany should succeed in defeating Britain, she would develop this territory according to her own ideas. If she wanted black labour, she would use it, being exceedingly careful that all the best jobs went to her own people.
… The fight for the “Yes” vote in the referendum was a clear and definite struggle for the maintenance of a White Australia”.[3]
The Daily Standard (Brisbane), on 12 December 1917, reported that a resolution was passed by an executive meeting of the United Canegrowers’ Association (Innisfail, Qld.) against conscription. The resolution stated:
“That this association enters an emphatic protest against the introduction of conscription, and considers that the denudation of our white manhood, which is so essential to the successful carrying on of the prosecution of this war, would seriously prejudice our White Australia policy, and, while subverting our highly treasured and time-honored national, racial, and social ideals, would also militate against Australian activity in this war.
Knowing as we do that the jam and other important industries, which depend on sugar for their existence, and are so necessary for the supply of food to soldiers, would be paralysed, the industries of the Commonwealth stagnated, and the financial strain become unbearable, while our only alternative appears to be that of the importation of aliens, or otherwise sugar grown by colored labor”.[4]
An article written by Percy Allen, published in the The Sydney Morning Herald on 17 December 1917, called for Australians to vote “Yes” for conscription, to ensure the continuance of White Australia Policy:
“The real defender of the White Australia policy — the Power that has made it possible — is Great Britain.
If Great Britain is defeated who will defend a White Australia, with the control of this huge continent by 5,000,000 people — less than the population of little Belgium?
… If Germany is ever in a position to dictate terms to Great Britain not only a White Australia but Australia itself is lost.
White Australia is certainly at stake, but only because Australia herself is at stake in the war.
Vote “Yes.””[5]
The Bulletin took a similar view; in its issue of 13 December 1917, it said:
“If we don’t win, Germany will; and Germany wants Australia. Do the Antis know one German colony that is white?
This is the first time Australia ever had to fight for its white principles; and some of the very people who might have been expected to spend the last drop of their blood in that fight cave in and squeal about the sacredness of human life.”[6]
The subject of conscription is a prime example of White Australia being used as an argument by both sides of an issue. That this occurred is an indication that White Australia was a popular idea in the early days of the Australian Commonwealth.
References:
[1] “No-Conscription Campaign” (advertisement), The Australian Worker (Sydney, NSW), 5 October 1916, p. 4
[2] “White Australia: Exit with conscription”, The Daily Standard (Brisbane, Qld.), 20 November 1917, p. 4 (Second Edition)
[3] “White Australia”, The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, NSW), 29 November 1917, p. 8
See also: 1) “Biography for McLEAN, the Hon. Francis Edward”, Parliament of Australia
2) “Mr. Francis Edward McLean”, The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW), 13 July 1894, p. 5
3) “Deaths”, The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, NSW), 8 April 1926, p. 10 [includes a death notice for Francis Edward McLean]
[4] “White Australia policy: Menaced by conscription”, The Daily Standard (Brisbane, Qld.), 12 December 1917, p. 6 (Second Edition)
[5] Percy Allen, “White Australia: Vote “Yes”: Australia’s stake in the war”, The Sydney Morning Herald (Sydney, NSW), 17 December 1917, p. 7
[6] “Political points”, The Bulletin (Sydney, NSW), 13 December 1917, p. 30, column 3
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