4.1 Government controls

Task 1 - Popcorn Reading

At the start of the war, the government faced the same issue regarding conscription that it faced during World War I — it could not conscript men for service outside Australian territory. It responded by encouraging voluntary enlistment in the AIF, which could serve overseas, and calling up the 80 000-strong Citizen Military Force (CMF) to serve within Australia. It also introduced compulsory three-month military training for single males aged 21 years. 

From 1941 onwards, the government ordered all 18-year-old males to register in the expectation that they would be needed to defend Australia from the Japanese. In mid 1942, it began conscripting all men aged 18–25 and single men aged 35–45 years into the CMF. They were eligible for service in areas including Australian territory in Papua. 

By 1943, Australians had to face the reality: 

• of Japanese bombing and possible invasion threats

• that the nation’s fighting capability was weakened because 20 000 Australians had become POWs 

• that US conscripts were serving overseas to defend other countries and Australian conscripts were not.

Under the Defence (Citizen Military Forces) Act 1943 (Cwlth), the government extended the area where conscripts could serve to the South-Western Pacific Zone, which included all Japanese-occupied islands south of the equator (that is, an area beyond Australian territory that took in the major war zones in the Pacific). This law also resulted in women being conscripted for work in the auxiliary services.

Task 4 - Write a paragraph in your exercise books answering the following question - 'Was conscription justified in Australia in WW2?' - Refer to both sides of the argument

Suggested ideas:

• Defence of country

• Loss of life

• Impact of WW1

• Sense of duty