If Australia sent more men it would demonstrate our loyalty to Britain and hopefully increase our already strong relationship. If Australia helped Britain in its time of need they would probably return the favour if we ever needed help. For example if Australia was to help win the war for Britain by sending more men they would be more likely to send men and help us if we were ever under threat. This clearly shows that if we sent more men to help Britain we would be in away securing our safety for the future.
Most people believed that the war would be over in less than 10 years; some people took this information and said if Australia was to send more men it would help win and finish the war quicker. If Australia was to send more men to help in the war it was thought it would mean we would win and potentially those men would be back even quicker. As an example say the enemy has 50000 men and we have 40000 if 50000 more were conscripted it would be 50000 to 90000. Clearly if we had 50000 more men than we did without conscription we would be in with a higher chance of victory.
The main groups who were apposed to conscription were the Labour Party, trade unions, Roman Catholic Church leaders and farmers
If we sent men over seas war would be seen as something to be encouraged it wasn’t; peace was, and conscription would only continue the war. If conscription was brought in by the government the public would see it as the government supporting the war also if we had conscription more men would be sent into war and then the enemy would do the same causing the war to continue for countless extra years than was necessary. For example if we sent an extra 5000 men because of conscription the enemy would send 10000 then we would send 15000 and it would keep escalating from there until we both ran out of men. It can be seen that if we introduced conscription we would be extending the period of time the war went for and increasing the number of casualties
If Australia sent the majority of our men overseas because they were conscripted we would have to bring in cheap foreign. If next to all working class men went overseas to fight in the war Australia would not have been able to support its growing economy and would have to bring in workers from overseas. Say 500 farms had there men taken to go overseas and fight the enemy that would be 500 less farms that were working in Australia. Obviously if we didn’t have enough workers it would have meant we could not sustain our population and we would not be able to produce enough food to feed the country
It was widely seen that to force any man to serve in a war was immoral and stupid, as the men you would be sending probably were used to the quite out back where not much went on except farming. If the only gun you’ve ever fired was to protect the sheep and the only ground you’ve ever seen was grassy farmland, you would have next to no chance of surviving after being thrown into a trench and told to shoot at other humans .If you for example had lived your whole life in the outback farming and you were suddenly thrown into an area where shells were exploding every minute and blood was flying every where you would have no idea what to do. You can clearly see that by conscripting men into war you are being very immoral and stupid.
Between 1916 and 1918 it would have been considerably hard for everybody to decide wether or not conscription should have been introduced.
The main reasons groups thought conscription should be brought in were that; the current voluntary enlistments were not enough, sending more men would demonstrate our loyalty to Britain and more men would help win and finish the war quicker. The main reasons groups used against conscription were that; war was not to be encouraged, cheap foreign labour would be brought in to make up for the lack of workers and to force any man to serve in war was immoral. The issue of conscription between 1916 and 1918 was basically a matter of the individual’s opinion.
