Fr Charles Jerger CP

Fr Charles Jerger CP A Passionist Priest, Interned and Deported World War 1 by Fr Gerard Mahony CP March 2008 Charles Jerger 1 Charles Jerger 2 Rt. Hon. William Morris Hughes Prime Minister of Australia – 1915 -1923 Rt Hon. Sir George Foster Pearce, Minister for Defence, 1914-1921; Acting Prime Minister 1916 Sir Ronald Munro-Ferguson Governor General of Australia Charles Jerger 3 The Germany of Charles Jerger The man who was later to join the Australian Passionists and who was expelled from this country was born in Germany. His name was Charles (or more correctly in that country Karl) Adolf Morlock. His parents were Phillip Jacob Morlock and Wilhelmina Ellenwohn, a Catholic. The date of birth on the birth certificate was 5 January 1869. He was baptised in the Evangelical faith of his father. Charles’ father was a land surveyor but Charles was to know little about him because he died the same year Charles was born. Within a year or two, another man took over the reins of the family. He was John Jerger, born at Niedereschach in Germany but since 1862-1863 he had been a British subject. The place of birth is listed as St Blasien, Baden. (Aust. Dict. Of Biography). This is in the Black Forest of Germany in the south west of the country next to France and just above Switzerland. It is a beautiful area in the diocese of Freiburg and the main activity here as in Switzerland was watch making. Pre-war Germany had a great relationship with Australia. Germany supplied migrants and also trade. The migrants were encouraged to come to South Australia and Queensland. The character and industry of these Rhineland people were begged for by the Australian settlers. James Macarthur brought out vignerons to Camden, NSW; George Fife Angus was a promoter of the South Australian interests; Dr John Dunmore Lang was the apostle of the Queensland settlement. Four decades later the German population at Moreton Bay, 1878 was 12,000. The somewhat eccentric explorer Ludwig Leichhardt was subsidised by the Queensland migrants. The German pioneers were so successful that many more Germans offered to follow them to Australia. A Prussian pastor August Kavel read about the German settlement in South Australia in 1836 and took a journey to England to see Angus. He was quite excited and offered any settler a loan of £4,000. This was the beginning of Kapunda and similar places for 1849; the directors of the JB Company congratulated themselves on the fact that 1,500 Germans had settled in the colony. Besides the migrants from Germany who helped to populate Australia there was the trade business. Before World War 1 Australia did great trade with Germany. The USA was first in imports but Germany came close second and regarding imports into Germany, it was the 3 rd greatest buyer of wool. Charles Jerger and England When John Jerger decided to take his family to England (and he was already naturalised there) they came to live at Plymouth – aptly named because it was at the mouth of the river Plym – an old English word for ‘plum’. Charles would later learn (because he was only 2 or 3 years old when he arrived) that the motto of the city in Latin was: Turris Fortissimo Est nomen Jehovah from the Scriptures ‘Book of Proverbs’, “The name of God is the strongest tower.” He would have learned that the streets he walked on were from the 16 th century and, if he wanted, he could go to an Elizabethan tea house. Charles Jerger 4 The city, of course, had a famous port and, during most of Charles time at Plymouth a lot of dredging was going on because of the dregs of the mining going on further up the river. But the port was historically special. In the 16 th century Sir Francis Drake sailed from here to become the first Englishman to enter the Pacific. Here also he planned to defeat the Spanish Armada, according to popular legend, Drake played bowls as the Armada sailed into the English Channel. It was from Plymouth that the “Pilgrims” sailed in the “Mayflower” for the USA in 1620. Also, Captain James Cook departed from here on his three journeys to the Southern Hemisphere to Australia and New Zealand. In 1831 Charles Darwin left Plymouth for the Galapagos Islands, where he formulated his great theories of natural selection and the “Origin of the Species” and, I guess, Charles and his family sailed from here to go to Australia. Beaconsfield is a name made famous in these days in Australia and more specially Tasmania, where two miners were buried in a mine for many hours. Beaconsfield in England was the place where Charles went to school. Peter L’Estrange says that for some time Charles was a member of the Prince of Wales Volunteers in Devonport. So, it is interesting to note that he wasn’t altogether against military activity. The War Made Strange Things Happen Many strange things came to Australia with the war. CENSORSHIP Australia jumped the gun by a few days to establish censorship. On August 2 nd the Secretary of State called the Governor General; forbidding publication of news likely to be useful to the enemy. The next day, the Commonwealth Gazette proclaimed the establishment of censorship. There were three different Chief Censors appointed in the next fortnight. As many as 187 staff was employed in the censorship staff. Because there was no previous experience in this field all the staff had to be trained. The newspapers tried to follow censorship rules but, at least in the beginning no clear guide-lines were available. Gradually the government produced war precaution acts – six in all. The first forbad publishing movement of ships or military forces; fortifications etc; 2 nd forbidding disloyalty to the cause of the Empire; 3rd forbad false reports, likely to effect recruiting; 4 th allowed with written authority to enter-search any property; 5th forbad printing matter forbidden by the censorship staff; 6 th forbad publication of any criticism of directions of censorship board. RUMOURS Many “loyal” Aussies were watching out for enemy spies. In 1915 there were rumours that mysterious flash lights were blinking in the Dandenong Ranges in Melbourne. People with a little knowledge of morse code thought it was someone sending a message to a German ship somewhere in Bass Strait. When nothing seem to be done about it, the people demanded action. They wanted a battalion Charles Jerger 5 to scour the Ranges from one end to the other. An intelligence officer came to investigate. The lights turned out to be a fellow advertising a cinema show by going around the dark streets with a 30,000 candle power-lamp shining at intervals over the hills and on to the clouds. Another case of spies signalling to the enemy was from the same area. One man was positive the words sent out were : “Send me …” the remainder was unreadable from where the man was positioned. An officer discovered a rabbit trapper going round the traps with a hurricane light. A third in the same general area, accused of signalling. He found a house with a kerosene lamp and in front of the window a small bushy tree which on windy nights looked like a signal. Even a flight of migrating birds was thought to be a line of aeroplanes and some whales disporting themselves at a seaside resort was declared to be German submarines and so it went on. NATIONALISM At the beginning of WW1, nationalism came to the fore as never previously. The war was seen as binding Australians together even more than Federation. Even though Germans had contributed so much to the growth of the colony, because the war was with Germany there was a great anti-German feeling. So much so that people got angry if they had to listen to music composed by German composers at concerts. The great part of the people of German descent were loyal to the flag under which they lived. When the war began there was a great rush of applications for naturalisation, which was granted freely. Under war authority, the parliament produced a law that said that German names should be abolished. In South Australia, names like Hahndorf, Barossa, German Town, Kapunda, etc were given new names. Another authority said that Germans could be interned without any need for a court case. By October 1916, all aliens had to register. Every hotel had to record when an alien arrived and when they left. (ERNEST SCOTT, “Official History of Australia in the War of 1914 – 1918” Vol X1 P. 149). The “Kapunda Herald” of 13 th August 1915 had this article : “I am amazed at the extreme bitterness and mistrust of the Lutherans by some people at Kapunda. There are Lutheran boys at the front; some are killed and some are fighting, while others are rejected, of whom my brother was one. Kapunda has raised in me bitterness almost beyond control to know that, because I have German blood, I am first branded as disloyal, then watched at every turn and looked upon with suspicion and mistrust. Untruths are circulated as to meetings with closed doors and churches are damaged. In spite of this, we are, in return, to love and to send money to our fighting men. “Can anyone imagine the bitterness of it all? If Australia is not our home, where is our home?” Immediately after declaration of war 4 th August 1914 Pastor Theodore Nickel (head of the Lutheran Church) sent a telegram to the Governor General, Mungo – Ferguson assuring him of the loyalty of the German – Australian people.

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