Thirteen Minutes of National Glory The Warwick Egg Incident, 1917 by D. ]. Murphy, Dip. Phys. Ed., A. Ed., B.A., Ph.D. *

Warwick is situated on the southern Darling Downs 250 who adopted a very partisan and pro-conscription stand during the kilometres by rail from . It was one of the centres that War, seemed to develop an obsession about political opponents of produced the 'Darling Downs bunch' in politics. This Irish stock. Munro-Ferguson wrote to the British Colonial Secretary, was a group of liberals, associated with 1, who Bonar Law, in March 1917 : later were to be part of the lib-lab coalition formed in 1903 between The Irish Roman Catholics are particularly strong in New Sir Arthur Morgan 2 and William Browne 3, leader of the Labor South Wales and Queensland, the government of the latter Party. In the more fluid political environment before World War state being in their hands. 9 I, Warwick had numbered among its parliamentary representatives T. ]. Byrnes 4, a Premier and Attorney-General and Thomas Munro-Ferguson and Hughes collaborated more closely than O'Sullivan 5 also an Attorney-General. It was a place of some possibly any other Governor General and Prime Minister. From local importance in southern Queensland, with a higher percentage Munro-Ferguson's correspondence to Hughes, to the British of Irish Catholics among its surrounding farmers, and in its government and to the King, it is clear that he regarded Irish townspeople, than the State average and was one of the major Catholics as being not only disloyal to the Empire, but also sub­ stations on the Brisbane to Sydney railway line via Wallangarra. versive to Australia's support for the War. Even an Edwardian man Here the steam engines stopped to take on water while the of property, like Bishop James Duhig, 10 who supported conscrip­ passengers refreshed themselves at the bar or tea rooms or simply tion, was linked by Munro-Ferguson with the arch-fiend Mannix got out to stretch their legs. and with T. ]. Ryan, who had been the only Premier to oppose conscription in 1916. In May 1917, before the federal election, On Thursday, 29 November 1917, the mail train to Sydney Munro-Ferguson wrote that Duhig was 'undoubtedly on the same steamed in to Warwick at 2.59 p.m. It was scheduled to leave at mission' as Mannix and both 'have allies in the Queensland Govern­ 3.09 p.m. There was a large crowd waiting at the station since the ment especially in the person of the Premier Mr. Ryan.' 11 train contained the Australian Prime Minister and leader of the Nationalist Party, William Morris Hughes 6. He was returning to The political gulf between Ryan and Hughes that had formed Sydney for the final days of the second conscription referendum after the 1916 conscription referendum and the consequent split campaign and his supporters at Warwick had erected a dais on the in the Labor Party widened through 1917. Whether the issue was edge of the platform so that he could address the crowd on con­ sugar, meat, strikes or coastal shipping, the calm Ryan was well scription, while the engine was taking on water. When the train able to match the wily Hughes. It was becoming evident towards pulled out at 3.12 p.m., three minutes late, Warwick had be::ome the end of 1917 that Ryan was emerging as a political figure of the town of national consequence. To the supporters of con­ national significance and perhaps as the only politician capable of scription it had shown itself to be a centre of subversion, a hot bed standing up to the authoritarian Hughes. However, though he had of Sinn Fein and a lawless town where the Police condoned physical emerged as one of Australia's most skilled constitutional barristers, attacks on the Prime Minister and were undoubtedly acting on the and, was one of the most fervent supporters of Australia's prosecu­ instruction of that rebellious Queensland Labor Premier Thomas tion of the war in 1917, Ryan's political opponents painted him as Joseph Ryan 7, leader of the anti-conscriptionists and known to be a a Sinn Feiner, bent on destroying the Australian system of govern­ friend of the anti-British Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Daniel ment and reducing Australia's capacity to supply reinforcements Mannix. 8 for the A.I.F. 12 Warwick deserved none of this blame. To appreciate how it On 7 November 1917, after a lengthy cabinet meeting, acquired these thirteen minutes of national glory one must go back Hughes announced that there would be a second referendum on to Australia's participation in the first World War and the two conscription. In the opinion of both Ryan and Donald McKinnon, referenda on conscription that divided Australia during the War a Nationalist member of the Victorian parliament who was then the and for a generation after. Australia had entered the first World Director General of Recruiting, a second referendum with its War filled with patriotism for the British Empire. There was also consequent splitting of the nation was likely to reduce still further a strong feeling that Australin's own pro'Le-::tion c1e')endd on con­ the level of recruiting. Hughes was determined that on this tinued loyalty to Britain and the Empire and on the provision of occasion the referendum would succeed. Electoral rolls were troops to ensure that Britain would remain under some debt closed on 10 November and naturalised British subjects, who had should war occur in the south Pacific. The long c::\sun1ty lists been born in an enemy country, or persons whose father had been resulting from the campaigns at Gallipoli and on the:: \Y!estern born in an enemy country, Yvere disqualified from voting. 20,000 Front, combined with the realisation that the war could drag on voters were disfranchised in Queensbnc!. In addition a partisan, for years, despite the theories of the generals, combined to sour draconian system of newspaper censorship was introduced which the enthusiasm of August 1914. This was to be exa::erb:.1td in was so bad as to be criticised by th~ heavily pro-conscription April 1916, when the centuries-old feeling of repression in Ireland Brisbane Courier and was to prevent the Labor evening paper in boiled over once again as the Sinn Feiners in Dublin rose in Brisbane, The Daily Standard, from reprinting material that had rebellion. For the following two and a half years of the war the already appeared in its rival The Telegraph. problems of Ireland and England were to bedevil Australian social and political life. The anti-conscription campaign opened in Brisbane on 19 November with Ryan as the principal speaker. However when After the defeat of the first conscription referendum in 1916, the report of his speech appeared in the Brisbane Courier and Hughes had written to the British Prime Minister, Lloyd George, Daily Mail on the following morning and in the Daily Standard asking him to settle the Irish problem quickly as this was essential and the Telegraph on the following afternoon, the Censors had cut to any improvement in recruiting in Australia. Throughout 1917, from the speech Ryan's analysis of the recruitment figures to make Hughes and the Governor General, Sir Ronald Munro-Ferguson, it appear as though he was supporting conscription. On learning

* Lecturer in History, University of Queensland.

Queensland Heritage Page Fifteen of the Censor's action, Ryan issued a press statement indicating that decidely disloyal to the Empire. It is a weakness of Ernest Scott's his speech had been censored in the interests of the conscriptionists. official history of Australia during the war that he accepted the The Censors refused to allow this statement to be published in the report in the Melbourne Argus as being correct and followed it press. In order to have the uncensored analysis of recruiting figures very closely in describing the incident. 22 Using the Police records, published, the Parliamentary Labor Party decided that Ryan should sworn statements of those closest to the Prime Minister and the repeat his speech in Parliament where it would be published in local newspaper descriptions, one can piece together a more Hansard. 13 There were to be 10,000 copies of this special Hansard accurate account of what occurred. 23 produced for free distribution through the State. However the first batch was confiscated at the Brisbane General Post Office and a Following the tumult in Brisbane, Senior-Sergeant Kenny, in special conference of Ryan, the Speaker W. McCormack, 14 the charge of the police at Warwick, had applied for extra police for Deputy Premier, E. G. Theodore, 15 and the Government Printer Hughes' short visit and had eight men including himself at the was hastily convened to consider the problem. station when the Prime Minister arrived at 2.59 p.m. A large crowd, which included railwaymen working on the maintenance of At this stage Hughes was leaving Sydney for Brisbane where the line and carrying hammers and spanners, normal working tools, he was to address a conscription meeting on 26 November. He was had gathered about a small dais erected off the station platform, informed of the special Hansard by the Queensland Censor. Despite from which Hughes would speak. As he approached the dais two the order to cease printing the Hansard, the Government Printer, eggs were thrown from the crowd, one of which dislodged the under Ryan's authority, went ahead. After addressing his conscrip­ Prime Minister's hat. A Nationalist official, who happened also to tion meeting, Hughes, with the local military commandant, the be a returned soldier, jumped from the platform into the crowd and Censor and a number of armed soldiers, raided the Government struck the assailant, Paddy Brosnan, about the face. The latter's Printing Office and seized 3,300 copies of the Hansard. But despite brother, Bart, joined in and the police broke up the fight and this being the most dramatic story of the referendum, newspapers removed the two Brosnans. Bart Brosnan did not return to the were forbidden to publish any report of the raid. meeting though Paddy did. When the egg hit his hat, Hughes rushed towards the crowd with Sergeant Kenny, in plain clothes, and C. E. McDougall, a grazier and Vice-President of the Rein­ The twelve months' battle between Ryan and Hughes was forcement Committee of Queensland, ( the conscriptionists' now reaching a peak of intensity. 50,000 copies of a four page organisation) . Government Gazette Extraordinary were published setting out Ryan's case against Hughes' censorship. 16 No newspaper censorship Both thought Hughes was running back to his carriage. could prevent such a story being published. Telegraph wires ran Kenny grabbed Hughes and yelled that he was a Sergeant of Police hot as the news was flashed to all the capital city papers. Hughes and would guarantee him a hearing. McDougall grabbed Kenny's carefully prepared his defence and at the conclusion of his rally arms and the three struggled with Hughes screaming 'arrest those on 27 November Hughes issued a threat which the Courier reported men'. Having convinced Hughes that he was in no physical danger, as : 'I am inviting Mr. Ryan to repeat outside the House what he Kenny accompanied him back to the dais where he asked the said in "Hansard" and if he does so within forty-eight hours I will crowd to give the Prime Minister a fair hearing. As Hughes began have him.' 17 Tension in Brisbane was reaching breaking point. It to speak, Paddy Brosnan interjected and was immediately was apparent that Hughes was losing his grip on the political arrested. Yelling 'arrest that man', Hughes jumped down from situation. Ryan's political associates suggested, seriously, that Ryan the dais and shouted at Kenny, 'If you don't, I'll have you reduced.' should have Hughes arrested on suspicion of being of an un­ Kenny and two Nationalist officials restrained Hughes and returned sound mind and held for specialist medical examination. 18 Others him, untouched, once more to the dais where he addressed the in the Nationalist Party throught that the crowd for five minutes. Returning to his carriage he kept calling was preparing to secede from the Commonwealth and establish a 'Where's the sergeant, where's the sergeant?' and when Kenny republic. 19 Neither point of view carried any weight with Ryan. appeared, Hughes commanded, 'Have those men arrested!' On the Sergeant's asking for the charges, Hughes replied that he was the On his return trip to Sydney, Hughes addressed meetings at federal Attorney-General and had ordered their arrest. Kenny's Ipswich and Toowoomba. At both he was noticeably upset. His reply, that he was under instructions from the Government of Ipswich speech bore all the signs of a man not fully in control Queensland, was not exactly the remark to assuage Hughes in of himself. He spoke of putting those who opposed his authority his emotional state. 'Very well, I'll deal with you' was Hughes' as Prime Minister against a white wall and being shot. 20 By the brief comment. McDougall and the manager of the Bank of New time he reached Toowoomba he was claiming that Queensland was South Wales tried to smooth matters over with Hughes, but to no in the grip of Sinn Fein and pro-Germans. On the night that avail. At 3.12 p.m. the train pulled out of Warwick bearing a Hughes spoke in Toowoomba, Ryan repeated to a crowd in Albert highly excited, though physically unhurt Hughes and leaving a Square the censored parts of his earlier speech which had been stunned citizenry behind. published in Hansard. The report of the incident which most people read next It was against this background that the 'Warwick egg incident' morning told of the Prime Minister's arriving in Warwick and must be seen. Between 2.59 p.m. and 3.12 p.m. on 29 November having his hat knocked off by an egg and of subsequent events. A the small country town of Warwick achieved its national notoriety. returned soldier had jumped off the dais and fought the assailant. But it was notoriety based on consciously biased reporting and on The Prime Minister too, was in the fight, striving to get at his the Prime Minister's seeing the tactical advantage he could gain opponent, one of the biggest men in the crowd. Even though he from demonstrating that the leading anti-conscriptionist in was badly jostled and emerged bleeding from the melee the Prime Queensland was the head of a government that was in alliance with Minister was undaunted. He asked the police officer in charge (an disloyal Sinn Feiners and revolutionaries. Irishman) to arrest the man who had assaulted him but this was refused. It was a flagrant case of flouting the authority of the The non-Labor newspapers in the capital cities printed the Commonwealth. Hughes then attempted to speak, blaming the report of the Courier and the Melbourne Argus representative IWW and Sinn Fein for the disturbance, but most of his words accompanying Hughes. 21 As later statements of eyewitnesses were drowned out by the lawless mob which contained a man showed (among them local Nationalists and conscriptionists), and with a hammer and another with a heavy spanner. the report of the Nationalist-supporting Warwich Argus confirmed, this report was notoriously inaccurate and was written to present As he journeyed back to Sydney, Hughes addressed meetings a picture of a generally lawless state where the Police were under at every town. He emphasized the lawlessness of the Queensland the control of a government unable to maintain law and order and Government and the supremacy of his authority as Prime Minister

Page Sixteen Queensland Heritage and federal Attorney-General. At Stanthorpe, further on from press had grossly and deliberately exaggerated the reports of the Warwick, he was reported as saying: alleged assault on the Prime Minister. However Hughes kept to his story, rejecting any claims of political censorship and promising to A scene which I hope is unparallelled in the history of start a Commonwealth police force which would station one of its this country had just taken place at Warwick. I have been officers at Warwick. assaulted in a most cowardly fashion, and the police there, apparently acting under instructions from a Government The second conscription referendum was defeated by a which is entirely opposed to the principles on which larger majority than the first. So far as many Nationalist leaders Australia and the Empire stand, so far from assisting to were concerned, Hughes' hysterical behaviour in Queensland was preserve order actually connived at the assault upon me considered a factor in the defeat. Ryan became something of a and lent their aid to it. 24 national hero among the anti-conscriptionists. Warwick returned to being a Queensland country town untroubled by its thirteen His accounts of the assault and those of his followers in other minutes of national glory. parts of Australia became more lurid as he went through New South Wales. The 'Warwick egg incident', they claimed, further proved the depths to which the opponents of the Nationalists and the conscriptionists would go to bring about the downfall of the ENDNOTES Empire. Quite co-incidentally the Courier was able to report three incidents of egg throwing by pro-conscriptionists and anti­ 1. Samuel Walker Griffith (1845-1920), M.L.A. East Moreton conscriptionists throughout the state. 25 As an old campaigner, the 1872-73, Oxley 1873-78, Brisbane 1878-93, Attorney-General Prime Minister knew that if a charge was made often enough in 1874-76, Attorney-General and Secretary for Public Instruction politics, there was a good chance of some of it sticking. At 1876-78, Secretary for Public Works 1878-79, Colonial Sec­ Tamworth, in northern New South Wales, Hughes repeated his retary 1883-86, Chief Secretary 1886-88, Chief Secretary and earlier accusation: Attorney-General 1890-93; Chief Justice of Queensland 1893­ 1903, Chief Justice, High Court of Australia 1903-19; The forces arrayed behind the campaign against the K.e.M.G. 1886, G.e.M.G. 1895. Government's proposals could be divided into three sections, the Germans in Australia, the Sinn Fein and 2. Arthur Morgan (1856-1916), M.L.A. Warwick 1887-96, the IWW. 1898-1906, M.L.e. 1906-1916; Speaker, Legislative Assembly 1899-1901; President, Legislative Council 1906-16; Chief Hughes was not detered by the lack of truth in the accounts Secretary and Secretary for Railways 1903-06; Lieutenant­ that he had been assaulted at Warwick. He was obviously in a Governor 1908. Mayor of Warwick 1886-89, Proprietor highly excited state at Warwick and very likely imagined that Warwick Argus 1878. when Sergeant Kenny grabbed his arm he was abour to be physically assulted. However by the time he reached Glen Innes, 100 kilometres inside New South Wales and 200 kilometres from 3. William Browne (1846-1904), M.L.A. Croydon 1893-1904; Warwick, he had had six hours to go over the event and to plan Secretary for Mines and Public Instruction 1899, Secretary his tactics. He sent to Ryan and to the Brisbane and national for Mines and Public Works 1903-04. press a telegram claiming to have been assaulted at Warwick 'by a number of men'. Senior-Sergeant Kenny, he reported, had refused 4. Thomas Joseph Byrnes (1860-98), M.L.e. 1890-93, M.L.A. to arrest the two ring-leaders, had connived at the disgraceful Cairns 1893-96, Warwick 1896-98; Solicitor-General 1890-93, proceedings and had refused to obey the Commonwealth law. Attorney-General 1893-98, Chief Secretary and Attorney­ Hughes requested Ryan to suspend Kenny and to prosecute him General 1898. under Commonwealth law. The telegram, when substantiated by the newspaper reports published with it on the following morning, 5. Thomas O'Sullivan (1856-1953), M.L.A. Warwick 1906-08, once more gave Hughes a tactical advantage over his most M.L.e. 1903-06, 1908-15. Secretary for Public Works 1906­ prominent adversary. Just how strong a tactical advantage the 07, Secretary for Public Works and Agriculture 1907, Prime Minister felt he had gained may be judged from a letter he Secretary for Agriculture 1908, Attorney-General 1908-15. wrote to Munro-Ferguson soon after the incident: 6. William Morris Hughes ( 1864-1952) M.L.A. Lang (N.S.\V.) The Warwick incident has done much good; everywhere 1894-1901, M.H.R. West Sydney 1901-22, North Sydney I have had splendid meetings: there's going to be a great 1922-49, Bradfield 1949-52. Prime Minister 1915-23. fight. (Hughes emphasis) Glory to God for that! I am trying to make Ryan, Fihelly and Co. realise that 7. Thomas Joseph Ryan (1876-1921) M.L.A. Barcoo 1909-19 M.H.R. West Sydney 1919-21; Chief Secretary, Attorney: this is not Ireland as Sinn Fein would have it. 26 General and Secretary for Mines 1915, Chief Secretary and Ryan was reticent about discussing Hughes' telegram with Attorney General 1915-19. the press until he learnt that they also had received a copy. He had already initiated an enquiry which on first reports suggested 8. Daniel Mannix (1864-1963) Archbishop of Melbourne that Hughes' account was exaggerated. He replied to Hughes in 1917-1963. these terms and told him there was no conflict between State and Commonwealth law in the matter. Chief Inspector Short of 9. Governor General to Secretary of State for the Colonies 2 Toowoomba was sent to Warwick to carry out a full investigation March 1917 (Novar Papers, MS 696/1788, National Libr~ry and to take sworn statements from police and reputable eye of Australia). wit.n~sses. These, taken from the local police magistrate, Nationalist offICIals and conscription supporters confirmed the exaggeration of 10. James Duhig (1871-1965) Bishop of Rockhampton 1905-12 the press reports. By then, other events had taken the headlines Bi~hop Co-Adjutor of Brisbane 1912-17, Archbishop of and these later statements never quite replaced the original press BrISbane 1917-1965; e.M.G. 1954, K.e.M.G. 1959. reports as the accepted account of the incident. 11. Governor General to Secretary of State for the Colonies 8 Slowly the result of the investigations at Warwick were May 1917 (Novar Papers, MS 696/1795 National Library' of confirming Ryan's earlier belief that Hughes and the non-Labor Australia) . '

Queensland Heritage Page Seventeen 12. Refer D. ]. Murphy, T. 1 RYdl!. A Political Biography (Bris­ 18. Randolph Bedford, Labor Call, 30 June 1921. bane, to be published by University of Queensland Press late in 1975). 19. This view was held by E. H. Macartney, one of the leaders of the Nationalist Party, by the journalist M. H. Ellis, and 13. Queensland Pdr/lLII11l'l11"r,r Debates, CXXVIII, 1917, pp. even by Munro-Ferguson as late as July 1918. It was a view 3132-79. entertained only by the most conservative and reactionary supporters of the conscriptionists. 1-1. William McCormack (1879-1947) M.L.A. Cairns 1912-30, 20. Brisbane Courier, 29 November 1917. Speaker, Legislative Assembly 1915-19; Home Secretary 1919-23; Secretary for Public Lands 1923-25, Premier, Chief 21. Refer Lloyd Dumas, The Story of a Full Life (Melbourne, Secretary and Treasurer 1925-29. 1969) .

15. Edward Granville Theodore ( 1884-1950) M.L.A. Woothakata 22. Ernest Scott, Australia during the War, v. VII of Official 1909-12, Chillagoe 1912-25, M.H.R. Dalley (N.S.W.) 1927­ History of Australia in the War of 1914-18 (c. E. W. Bean 31; Treasurer and Secretary for Public Works 1915-19, ed.) (Sydney, 1936), pp. 415-6. Premier, Chief Secretary and Treasurer 1919-20, Premier and Chief Secretary 1920-22, Premier, Chief Secretary, Treasurer 23. File 1918/1268M. (Q.S.A. PRE/A576). and Secretary for Public Works 1922, Premier, Chief Secretary and Treasurer 1922-25. 24. Brisbane Courier, 30 November 1917.

16. Queensland Government Gazette CIX, 213, 27 November 25. Brisbane Courier, 1 December 1917. Murwillumbah and 1917, pp. 1715-17. Cairns reported egg throwing by anti-conscriptionists, Too­ woomba (the target being the wife of the Home Secretary) 17. Brisbane Courier 28 November 1917. Newspaper reports of by pro-conscriptionists. what Hughes said vary. It would seem that he was more concerned with an anti-conscription pamphlet of Theodore and 26. Prime Minister to Governor-General, 2 December 1917. Fihelly. This had also been censored. (Novar Papers, MS 696/2683, National Library of Australia).

Page Eigliteen Queensland Heritage