[Editor: This article, regarding the issue of conscription during the First World War (1914-1918) and its possible impact on White Australia, was published in The Daily Standard (Brisbane, Qld.), 20 November 1917.]
White Australia.
Exit with conscription.
The following statement has been issued by the No-Conscription Council of Sydney:—
“Prime Minister Hughes says it is a wicked lie to say that thousands of Chinese will flood this country if conscription is carried. This abusive little man in his arrogance cannot see the difference between a statement of fact and an expression of opinion.
“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.’”
J. Walker, 51 Elizabeth-st., Sydney.
Source:
The Daily Standard (Brisbane, Qld.), 20 November 1917, p. 4 (Second Edition)
Also published in:
The Daily Herald (Adelaide, SA), 27 November 1917, p. 6
Editor’s notes:
Hughes = William Morris (Billy) Hughes (1862-1952), one of Australia’s longest-serving federal parliamentarians (1901-1952); he was Prime Minister of Australia 1915-1923 (which included the First World War, 1914-1918); he was born in Pimlico (London, England) in 1862, came to Australia in 1884, and died in Lindfield (Sydney, NSW) in 1952
See: 1) L. F. Fitzhardinge, “Hughes, William Morris (Billy) (1862–1952)”, Australian Dictionary of Biography
2) “Billy Hughes”, Wikipedia
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