View source for 1917 Australian conscription referendum

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2020}}
{{Use Australian English|date=April 2018}}
{{infobox referendum
| date       = {{start date|1917|12|20|df=y}}
| title      = Are you in favour of the proposal of the Commonwealth Government for reinforcing the Australian Imperial Force oversea?
| country    = Australia
| yes        = 1,015,159
| no         = 1,181,747
| invalid    =    61,315
| electorate = 2,776,440
| outcome    =
| map        = Australian referendum results by states, 1917.png
| map_size   = 350px
| map_caption = Results by [[States of Australia|state]].{{col-start}}{{col-2}}{{legend|#0247FE|Yes}}{{col-2}}{{legend|#841B2D|No}}{{col-end}}
}}
The '''1917 Australian referendum''' was held on 20 December 1917. It contained one question.
* ''Are you in favour of the proposal of the [[Australian Government|Commonwealth Government]] for reinforcing the [[First Australian Imperial Force|Australian Imperial Force]] oversea?''<!--Per the refs, there is no "s" at the end of "oversea".--><ref>{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/239241088|title=The Question|newspaper=The Daily Telegraph|date=8 December 1917|page=10}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/15782340|title=A Quiet Polling Day|date=21 December 1917|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald|page=7}}</ref>
[[File:Poster for the Yes vote Australian Conscription referendum 1917.jpg|thumb|Poster for the Yes campaign 1917]]
==Background==
{{further|World War I conscription in Australia}}
The 1917 [[plebiscite]] was held a year after the highly contentious [[Australian plebiscite, 1916|1916 conscription plebiscite]]. The 1916 plebiscite had resulted in a surprise "no" vote, with voters in [[Queensland]], [[New South Wales]] and [[South Australia]], as well as a majority of electors nationwide, rejecting the proposal. The political fallout was swift and, by November 1916, had led to the collapse of the [[First Hughes Ministry]]. That was associated with a split in the ruling [[Australian Labor Party]], with Prime Minister [[Billy Hughes]] and some Labor MPs forming the breakaway [[National Labor Party]] which, by February 1917, had merged with the conservative [[Commonwealth Liberal Party]] to form the [[Nationalist Party of Australia]]. While the Nationalist Party was dominated by former Commonwealth Liberals, it retained Hughes as leader. After Hughes and the Nationalists scored a convincing victory at the [[1917 Australian federal election|1917 election]], Hughes announced that a second plebiscite on the question of conscription would be held on 20 December 1917.<ref>{{cite book|last=Connor|first=John|title=Anzac and Empire: George Foster Pearce and the Foundations of Australian Defence|year=2011|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=9781107009509|page=107|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IuLyEZQumAIC&pg=PP1}}</ref>
During the course of World War 1, 38.7% of eligible Australian men enlisted for service — around 420,000 out of an eligible population of a little over 1 million. During the war, the range of men eligible to volunteer was expanded, with the initial age range of 19–38 expanded to 18–45 in June 1915. At the same time, medical standards were lowered. For example, by April 1917 the minimum height had dropped from {{convert|5|ft|6|in|cm|0|abbr=on}} in August 1914 to {{convert|5|ft|cm|0|abbr=on}}.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/enlistment/ |title=Enlistment standards |publisher=[[Australian War Memorial]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161013140428/https://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/enlistment/ |archive-date=13 October 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref> Despite that, there was a marked decrease in the number of enlistments after 1915, with the average in 1917 being fewer than 4,000 per month:<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/enlistment/ww1/ |title=Enlistment statistics, First World War |publisher=[[Australian War Memorial]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161013201133/https://www.awm.gov.au/encyclopedia/enlistment/ww1/ |archive-date=13 October 2016 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |author=A.G. Butler |title=Special problems and services: the official history of the Australian Army Medical Services in the war of 1914–1918, vol. III |url=https://www.awm.gov.au/images/collection/pdf/RCDIG1069575--1-.pdf |via=[[Australian War Memorial]] |year=1943 |page=889 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220100959/https://www.awm.gov.au/images/collection/pdf/RCDIG1069575--1-.pdf |archivedate=20 December 2016 |df=dmy-all }}</ref>
* 1914: 52,561
* 1915: 165,912
* 1916: 124,352
* 1917: 45,101
==The 1917 plebiscite==
[[File:Keep Australia White.jpg|thumb|right|"Keep Australia White" poster used during the 1917 conscription referendum. The "No" campaign claimed that conscripted soldiers sent overseas would be replaced by non-white labour.]]
[[File:The Death Ballot (1917 Plebiscite).jpg|thumb|right|"The Death Ballot", a campaign poster for the "No" vote.]]
The proposal for the 1917 plebiscite was less far-reaching than that of the 1916 poll, eschewing full conscription of able-bodied men and instead proposing to conscript men between the ages of 18 and 44 through a ballot system, and only in months where voluntary enlistments fell below 7,000 men.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W8PUBuw4idYC&pg=PP1|title=Australia's Prime Ministers: From Barton to Howard|last=Carroll|first=Brian|publisher=Rosenberg Publishing|year=2004|isbn=9781877058226|page=93}}</ref>
[[File:Facts for Farm Workers (1917 Plebiscite).jpg|thumb|right|"Facts for Farm Workers", a campaign poster for the "Yes" vote.]]
The plebiscite was held due to the Australian Government's desire to increase the recruitment of forces for overseas service to a total of 7,000 men per month. It was conducted under the ''War Precautions (Military Service Referendum) Regulations'' 1917.<ref name="Regulations">{{cite web |url=https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/C1917L00290 |title=''War Precautions (Military Service Referendum) Regulations'' 1917 |publisher=Commonwealth of Australia |date=10 November 1917 |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20161220121130/https://www.legislation.gov.au/Series/C1917L00290 |archivedate=20 December 2016 |df=dmy-all }}</ref> It formed part of the larger debate on [[Conscription in Australia#World War I|conscription in Australia]] throughout the war.
All of the historical documentation refers to the ballot as a referendum,<ref name="Regulations"/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.naa.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-05/fs-161-conscription-referendums-1916-and-1917.pdf <!--https://www.naa.gov.au/help-your-research/fact-sheets -->|title=Conscription referendums, 1916 and 1917 – Fact sheet 161 |publisher=[[National Archives of Australia]] |access-date=2022-02-03 }}<!--https://www.naa.gov.au/help-your-research/fact-sheets --></ref> even though it did not involve a proposal to amend the Australian Constitution. Because it was not an amendment to the constitution, (1) it had no legal force, (2) it did not require approval in a majority of states and (3) residents of federal territories were able to vote.<ref name="Regulations"/>{{efn|People in the territories were not able to vote at a referendum to alter the Constitution until after the [[Australian referendum, 1977 (Referendums)|1977 referendum]].}} Such a ballot is now usually referred to as a plebiscite to distinguish it from a referendum to alter the Constitution.<ref name="Handbook"/>
The campaign was notable for an incident in which [[Egg Throwing Incident|a protester threw an egg]] at Prime Minister Hughes, in [[Warwick, Queensland|Warwick]], Queensland,<ref>{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article82836079 |title=Senior Sergeant Kenny entirely exonerated. |newspaper=[[Warwick Examiner and Times]] |location=Qld. |date=5 December 1917 |page=4 |via=National Library of Australia}}</ref> and for a [[raid on the Queensland Government Printing Office]] by Hughes, accompanied by a party of soldiers, who seized 3,300 copies of the Queensland Parliamentary [[Hansard]] which Hughes deemed to contain subversive anti-conscription speeches.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Fitzgerald|first1=Ross|title="Red Ted": The Life of E. G. Theodore|date=1994|publisher=University of Queensland Press|isbn=9780702226496 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kOoXdE16jA8C&pg=PA96 |page=96}}</ref>
==Results==
Despite the fact that the 1917 plebiscite was less far-reaching than the 1916 one, the anti-conscription vote won by a larger margin than it had in 1916. Every state and territory was less supportive of conscription in 1917 than it had been in 1916 with the sole exception of South Australia, which had become more supportive of conscription (although a majority still opposed it).
{| class="wikitable"
|+ Results{{hsp}}<ref name="Handbook">Handbook of the 44th Parliament (2014) {{cite web |url=http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22handbook%2Fnewhandbook%2F2014-10-31%2F0050%22 |title=Part 5 - Referendums and Plebiscites - Plebiscite results |publisher=[[Parliamentary Library of Australia]] |url-status=live |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180415002615/http://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/search/display/display.w3p;query=Id%3A%22handbook%2Fnewhandbook%2F2014-10-31%2F0050%22 |archivedate=15 April 2018 |df=dmy-all }}.</ref>
|-
| style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:180px" rowspan="2" | '''State'''
| style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:70px" align=center rowspan="2" | '''Electoral roll'''
| style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:70px" align=center rowspan="2" | '''Ballots issued'''
| style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:140px" align=center colspan="2" | '''For'''
| style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:140px" align=center colspan="2" | '''Against'''
| style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:70px" align=center rowspan="2" | '''Informal'''
|-
| style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:70px" align=center | '''Vote'''
| style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:70px" align=center | '''%'''
| style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:70px" align=center | '''Vote'''
| style="background-color:#E9E9E9; width:70px" align=center | '''%'''
|-
! style="text-align:left;"|[[New South Wales]]
| align=center | 1,055,883
| align=center | 853,894
| align=center | 341,256
| align=center | 41.16
| align=center | 487,774
| {{no|'''58.84'''}}
| align=center | 24,864
|-
! style="text-align:left;"|[[Victoria, Australia|Victoria]]
| align=center | 807,331
| align=center | 678,806
| align=center | 329,772|| align="center" | 49.79
| align="center" | 332,490
| {{no|'''50.21'''}}
| align="center" | 16,544
|-
! style="text-align:left;"|[[Queensland]]
| align=center | 378,378
| align=center | 310,164
| align=center | 132,771
| align=center | 44.02
| align=center | 168,875
| {{no|'''55.98'''}}
| align=center | 8,518
|-
! style="text-align:left;"|[[South Australia]]
| align=center | 261,661
| align=center | 197,970
| align=center | 86,663
| align=center | 44.90
| align=center | 106,364
| {{no|'''55.10'''}}
| align=center | 4,943
|-
! style="text-align:left;"|[[Western Australia]]
| align=center | 162,347
| align=center | 135,593
| align=center | 84,116|| {{Yes|'''64.39'''}}
| align="center" | 46,522
| align="center" | 35.61
| align="center" | 4,955
|-
! style="text-align:left;"|[[Tasmania]]
| align=center | 106,803
| align=center | 78,792
| align=center | 38,881||{{yes|'''50.24'''}}
| align="center" | 38,502
| align="center" | 49.76
| align="center" | 1,409
|-
! style="text-align:left;"|[[Northern Territory]] and [[Australian Capital Territory|Federal Capital Territory]]
| align=center | 4,037
| align=center | 3,002
| align=center | 1,700||{{yes|'''58.22'''}}
| align="center" | 1,220
| align="center" | 41.78
| align="center" | 82
|-
! style="text-align: left;" | Total<sup>†</sup>
| style="background-color: #f2f2f2" align=center | 2,776,440
| style="background-color: #f2f2f2" align=center | 2,258,221*
| style="background-color: #f2f2f2" align=center | 1,015,159
| style="background-color: #f2f2f2" align=center | 46.21
| style="background-color: #f2f2f2" align=center | 1,181,747
| {{no|'''53.79'''}}
| style="background-color: #f2f2f2" align=center | 61,315
|-
| style="text-align: left; border-right: none; font-size: small" colspan="8" | <sup>†</sup>Including 199,677 votes by members of the Australian Imperial Force, of which 103,789 were for, 93,910 against, and 1,978 informal.
|-
! style="text-align:left;"| Results
| colspan="7" | Obtained an overall minority of 166,588 votes.{{efn|As this was a plebiscite not a referendum to amend the [[Australian Constitution]], there was no requirement for a majority of states.}} '''Not carried'''
|-
|}
==See also==
*[[1916 Australian conscription referendum]]
==Notes==
{{notelist}}
==References==
{{reflist|30em}}
{{Australian Referendums|year=1917}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Australian referendum, 1917 (Conscription)}}
[[Category:1917 referendums]]
[[Category:1917 in Australian law|Plebiscite]]
[[Category:1917 elections in Australia|Plebiscite]]
[[Category:Plebiscites in Australia|1917]]
[[Category:1917 in international relations]]
[[Category:Australia in World War I|Referendum]]
[[Category:Conscription in Australia]]
[[Category:Conscription referendums]]
[[Category:December 1917 events]]