The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-1918 Volume Xi Australia During the War

THE OFFICIAL HISTORY OF AUSTRALIA IN THE WAR OF 1914-1918 VOLUME XI AUSTRALIA DURING THE WAR AUSTRALIA DURING THE WAR BY ERNEST SCOTT Pmfcsor of Histow in the Vniwuty of Mdhe With 67 illustrations Sezientli Edition AUSTRALIA ANGUS AND ROBERTSON LTD. 09 CASTLEREACH STREET, SYDNEY 1941 Printed and Bcund in Australia by Halstead Press Pty Limited, 9-19 Nickson Street. Sydney. Registered at the General Post Office, Melbourne, for trana- mission through the post as a book. Obtainable in Great Britain at Australia House and from all booksellers (sole agent for wholesale distribution-The Official Secretary for the Commonwealth of Australia, Australia House, Strand, London, W C.2); in Canada from the Australian Trade Commissioner, 15 King Street West, Toronto: in the United States from the Australian Government Trade Commissioner, International Building, 630 Fifth Avenue, New York; and in New Zealand from the Australian Trade Commissioner, D.1 C. Building, Wellington. First Edtliott . , . 1936 Srroitd Edition . , 1937 Third Editioii . , . 1938 Foiirth Edition . 1939 Fifth Edition . 1939 Sixth Edition . 1940 Sewnth Edition . 1941 PREFACE THISbook is a member of a series recording the participation of the Commonwealth of Australia in the Great European War, but it differs from its companion volumes in scope and subject-matter. They are concerned with battles-in Egypt, Gallipoli, France, and Palestine; with the activities of the young Australian navy; with medical services; with the occupation of territory formerly under German government. Substantially the greater part of those works relates to what was done by Australian soldiers, sailors, medical officers, and administrators outside their own country, though on duties vitally affecting Australia and the Empire to which she belongs. This book deals almost entirely with occurrences within Australia. It describes the background-political, social, industrial, economic-against which the war-eff ort of Australia was projected. In one sense the book is a necessary supplement to the military volumes; in another sense it may lay claim to a set of interests which are peculiarly its own. The outbreak of the war in I914 made a powerful emotional appeal to the Australian people. Complete unanimity is never attained among millions on any question which permits shades of difference, but it may safely be said that the response at the beginning of August in that year came as near to unanimity as was humanly attainable. That reaction and the later modifications of opinion, under stress of conflicts of an excep- tionally passionate character, dominate the political sections of the book. But the war extended its reach far beyond the sphere of politics in the common acceptation of the word. It touched every phase of the national life. It profoundly affected every industry and occupation. It shook the foun- dations of finance. It compelled governments to intervene in the production and marketing of metals, wool, wheat, foods of all kinds, and brought merchants and purveyors alike under the surveillance of authority. It materially altered the rela- tions between the dominions and the central government of vi PREFACE the Empire. The ways in which these manifold reactions of the war worked upon the life of Australia, it is part of the purpose of the book to describe. In one important feature the Australian people differed from all others who participated in the terrific struggle of 1914-18. Their country had never directly known the shock of war. To make plain this point and its significance, the author takes leave to quote two paragraphs from an earlier book; since, as a Greek critic observed, when a writer has once said a thing as well as he can, it is a mistaLe to say it again differently.’ Australia is the only considerable portion of the world which has enjoyed the blessed record of unruffled peace. On every other continent, in nearly every other island large in area, “war’s red ruin writ in flame” has wrought its havoc, leaving evidences in many a twinging cicatrice. Invasion, rebellion, and civil war constitute enormous elements in the chronicles of nations; and Shelley wrote that the study of history. though too important to be neglected, was “hateful and dis- gusting to my very soul,” because he found in it little more than a “record of crimes and miseries.” A map of the globe, coloured crimson as to those countries where blood has flowed in armed conflicts between men, would present a circling splash of red; but the vast island which is balanced on the Tropic of Capricyn and spreads her bulk from the tenth parallel of south latitude to the roaring forties,” would show up white in the spacious diagram of carnage. No foreign foe has menaced her thrifty progress since the British planted themselves at Port Jackson in 1788; nor have any internal broils of serious importance interrupted her prosperous career. This striking variation from the conimon fate of peoples is attribut- able to three causes. First, the development of a British civilisation in Australia has synchronised with the attainment and unimpaired mainten- ance of dominant sea-power by the parent nation. The supremacy of Great Britain upon the blue water enabled her colonies to grow to strength and wealth under the protection of a mighty arm. Secondly, during the same period a great change in British colonial policy was inaugurated. Statesmen were slow to learn the lessons taught in SO trenchant a fashion by the revolt of the American colonies; but more liberal views gradually ripened, and Lord Durham’s Report on fhi, State of Clnlada issued in 1839 occasioned a heneficent new era of self- government. The States of Australia werc soon left with no grievance which it was not within their own power to remedy If they chose, and virtually as they chose. Thirdly, these very powers of self-government developed in the people a signal capacity for governing and being governed. The constitutional machinery submitted the Executive to popular control, and made it quickly sensitive to the public will. Authority and subjects were in sympathy because the subjects created the authority. Further, there was no warlike native race in Australia. as there was iii New Zealand and in South Africa, to necessitate armed 1 Trrre Nepol&w~ (1910). pp. 1-3. PREFACE vii conflict. Thus security from attack, chartered autonomy, and governing capacity, with the absence of organised, pugnacious tribes, have combined to achieve the unique result of a continent preserved from aggression, disruption, or bloody strife for over one hundred and twenty years. To all the European nations which took part in the war it was a new chapter in an old book. The French thirsted for revenge for the humiliation they suffered in 1870-71. The Germans owed allegiance to a State which had been built from the spoils of previous wars. The Austrian Empire traced its origin to wars through which it had expanded,and the possi- bility of further expansion in the Balkans seemed now to be presented. Italy as an united kingdom was a consequence of wars. Europe seethed wikh the resurgence of ancient hatreds, compounded of ingredients as unsavoury as those in the hell-broth of the witches in Macbetla. But the Australian people kept up no simmering of animosities, nor had cause for any. The call to them was from a different clarion. Their entire endowment of soil, freedom, tradition, language, nurture, and protection came to them as a heritage from the Empire to which they belonged. A menace to that imperial integrity threatened their life; and they took up arms to bear their share, not in refurbishing some antique grudge, or chastising some historic enemy, or acquiring more territory, but in vindicating obligations which were theirs because they were those of the sovereignty under which they had acquired and maintained their political existence. The aim which has been kept in view in the writing of this volume has been to describe the experience of Australia during the war. History may be presented in many ways-as plain chronicle, as a series of word-pictures, as a philosophical con- sideration of facts, as a commentary on tendencies, as illustrat- ing theories. The nature of the subject here presented seemed to call for no one of those methods; but rather for treatment as a recc rd of national experience. Here was a country which had never known war; which was suddenly under an obligation to wage war; and which thereby under- went certain unforeseen, acute, and often agonizing ordeals, together with the glory of heroic achievement and the pride of a victorious culmination. How did this country react to those pressures? How did she equip herself for her de? viii PREFACE What political and economic developments occurred ? Aus- tralia had never had to face such an ordeal before; she may never be conipelled to sharpen her weapons again, if hopes bear fruit. Whatever her destiny may be, here was a stirring and straining run of experience which required to be studied and recorded; and it is narrative actuated by that guiding principle which is attempted in these pages. There ha?. to be sclection, and the whole story had to be presented with a due regard to proportion. The book was therefore carefully planned and sketched in outline before any of it was written. The design, the architecture, represents what appeared to the author to give a measured and balanced presentation of the subject. The material studied consisted priiicipally of the nianuscripts in the personal collection of Lord Novar, who was Governor-General of Australia during the war period ; the official papers of the Governor-General ; other manuscripts in the Prime Minister’s Department and the Department of External Affairs, Canberra, and at the Victoria Barracks, Melbourne, where the headquarters of the Australian military forces were located during the war; the printed Parliamentary Papers of the Comnionwealth and States, as far as these were relevant ; the Parlm~irentary Debates, which often embodied valuable documents and information ; newspaper files ; books and pamphlet literature.

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