A Study Guide by Robert Lewis

http://www.metromagazine.com.au

ISBN: 978-1-74295-623-7 http://www.theeducationshop.com.au content hyperlinks click on arrow hyperlink click on arrow hyperlink click on arrow hyperlink click on arrow hyperlink

OVERVIEW Changed Forever (Serge Ou, 2015, 2x80 minutes) is a dramatised story of Australia and Australians during the years of the First World War. Through the experiences of the common soldier, the commander, the politician, the family, the working man, the journalist and the superstar the film weaves narratives which SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015 illustrate events in Australia, Europe, the Middle East and America. Changed Forever vividly recreates, in a most original way, years whose influence continues to resonate in the story of who we are and how we understand ourselves.

2 CURRICULUM APPLICABILITY

Changed Forever is an appropriate resource to use in History at secondary school levels (9-12) on the topic of investigating the Australian experience of World War 1.

Australian History Year 9 • Depth Study: World War 1 — The places where Australians fought a way of recording the change in stu- and the nature of warfare during dents’ knowledge and understanding World War I. of the war and empathy with the people involved. The same set of ques- English Year 9 and 10 tions should be given before starting • Analyse and evaluate how people, the unit, and again at the end. cultures, places, events, objects and concepts are represented The film covers the whole war period to create generalisations about the in texts, including media texts, and the subsequent peace treaty Australian experience of war, based on through language, structural and/ (1914-1919). It provides a comprehen- the disparate individuals. or visual choices. sive and quite detailed account of the period through the device of focusing (Note that Changed Forever does not Media Arts Year 9 and 10 on the experiences of a number of include characters who strongly op- • Evaluate how genre and media con- individuals. posed the war (as well as conscription). ventions and technical and symbolic Teachers might ask some students to elements are manipulated to make This approach means that it will be research this opposition through the on- representations and meaning. more efficient and practical for students line resource Investigating The Victorian to limit themselves to investigat- Experience of World War 1: An Inquiry Twentieth Century History Year 11 ing only one or two of the histori- Resource for Secondary Schools, • A study of World War 1 cal characters, and sharing their available on the Victorian Government findings by reporting back to the Centenary of World War 1 at http:// whole class. In this way students see www.anzaccentenary.vic.gov.au. Using Changed the full range of characters through Forever in the classroom their viewing of the film, and get de- This ATOM study guide suggests an tailed information and comments about innovative way to explore the general Changed Forever could be viewed in all of them, while only having to engage questions about the Australian experi- the classroom at the start of a unit as in a detailed study of one of them. ence of war — through a ‘community a way of creating an awareness of the meeting’ of the characters, who topic through the range of characters Once students have gathered infor- contribute their own perspectives to involved, or near the end of the unit as mation on all the characters through the questions under discussion. a way of bringing all the strands of the personal investigation or from reports unit together. by other students, they can discuss Additional activities included in the a range of key questions to bring Study Guide provide a way for stu- The introductory activity provides together their individual findings, and dents to investigate aspects of the war experience of their own community, and to research individual soldiers or nurses.

It also provides a way for students to compare Changed Forever as a rep- SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015 resentation of history with another version of the main character, WM Hughes, through a reference book account. By critically comparing the two different representations students can explore the way in which history is created and presented to audiences. 3 BEFORE WATCHING THE FILM

Activity: 1.1 Briefly summarise your 1 Recording your knowledge and ideas in the knowledge following table. Then, after you have watched and dis- What do you know about the cussed Changed Forever, Australian experience of World come back to this activity War 1? What is your image of and see what you would it? now change.

The Australian Experience of World War 1

ASPECT OF THE WAR YOUR KNOWLEDGE OR IMAGE OF THIS ASPECT

Why did Australia 1 join the war? Initial Responses to the war

How did Australians respond to the outbreak of war?

Who opposed it?

What sort of people volunteered for

the First AIF? SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015

4 ASPECT OF THE WAR YOUR KNOWLEDGE OR IMAGE OF THIS ASPECT

Why were Australians 2 at Gallipoli? Gallipoli

How long were they there?

What was the nature or characteristics of the fighting there?

What was the outcome?

Why did Australians go 3 to the Western Front? Western Front

How long were they there?

What was the nature or characteristics of the fighting there?

What were the main attitudes of the soldiers to the fighting?

What happened to the soldiers? SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015

What was the outcome?

5 ASPECT OF THE WAR YOUR KNOWLEDGE OR IMAGE OF THIS ASPECT

Why did Australians go to 4 the Sinai and Palestine? Sinai And Palestine

How long were they there?

What was the nature or characteristics of the fighting there?

What was the outcome?

Did Australians on the 5 home front stay united Home about involvement Front in the war or were they divided?

What happened to recruiting figures?

Why did Prime Minister Hughes want to introduce conscription?

What was the result?

How were people on the home front affected economically by the war?

What was Australia’s role 6 in the peace treaty? After the war SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015

How did the war change Australia?

6 EXPLORING IDEAS AND ISSUES

Activity: Responding 2 to the film the characters without having to do all Your task here is to test your answers the work for yourself. to the pre-viewing activity by following the lives of the characters focused on Look and report on such elements as: in the film. • What do we know about the char- There are 22 historical characters in acter’s background? the film whose experiences tell us • How is the character involved in about the Australian experience of the the war? war. • What happens to the character? 2.4 To finish your report to the class • How do they respond or react to summarise what you think this char- 2.1 Allocate these characters among the events? acter’s experience helps you to know class members — if possible one • What impacts do events have on and understand about the Australian each, or at the most two. them? experience of World War 1, and what it meant for people at the time. 2.2 Watch the film and summarise in the Australian Experience of World War 1 Characters (on the next page) what happened to the character you have beentable allocated. jump to page contents page 2.3 After you have finished watching both parts of the film, and have finished SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015 summarisinginfo information about your character, report your findings back to the whole class, who will complete the summary notes for that character. You do the same when you are listening to reports on other characters. In this way you will have a detailed summary of all 7 Australian Experience of WW1 Characters

CHARACTER WAR EXPERIENCE

Specify whether at Gallipoli, Western Front, Sinai/Palestine or Home Front — What happened to that character, and what the character tells us about the Australian World War 1 experience

Arthur Coles

George Coles

Jim Coles

Paul McGinness

James McGinness

Catherine McGinness

Herbert McGinness

Veronica McGinness

Kathleen McGinness SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015

Nellie Melba

8 CHARACTER WAR EXPERIENCE

Thomas Blamey

Andrew Fisher

Billy Hughes

Albert Jacka

Keith Murdoch

John Monash

James Pierce

Tom White

Vera Deakin

Mervyn Flanagan

Reginald Wearne SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015

Hudson Fysh

9 EPISODE 1 Families are being torn apart by the war. This episode takes us to about half- way through the war. There is growing industrial unrest at home, and this leads to a clash of We see Australia become involved in ideas about what ‘patriotism’ means the war, and many men volunteering. — does it mean bleeding Australia dry We see the attitudes of families to the to help the war effort, or does it mean outbreak of war, and the decision of putting the welfare of the nation and men to volunteer. its people first, and not the interests of Britain and its Empire? The Australian soldiers go to Gallipoli, and are involved in a bloody campaign. The conscription issue splits the Australian Labor Party, and Prime After Gallipoli Australian soldiers are Minister Hughes heads a new party sent to the Western Front, and to determined to win the war at all costs. as he fights Sinai. A new Prime Minister commits Propaganda is used to try and unite for Australia’s interests at the peace Australia to supporting the war fully, people in the war effort, and public conference. and people at home are put under figures raise money for the war, but pressure to contribute. Some start to conscription again splits the nation. The surviving soldiers come home, question the need for such an ex- some to move on to great achieve- treme commitment, particularly when A series of final great attacks forces ments after the war, others to suffer the Prime Minister tries to introduce the Germans to surrender, and Prime and fall as a result of the damage done conscription to make up the shortfall in Minister Hughes walks the world stage mentally by the war. recruiting numbers. 2.6 Watch the film and record any 2.5 Watch the film and record any information about your character. information about your character. SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015 2.7 Report to the class on what hap- EPISODE 2 pened to your character, and what it helps you understand about the The war is now at its most intense. Australian experience of the war. Australian Lighthorsemen fight well in Palestine, but the Western Front is a 2.8 Take part in a community meet- bloody stalemate. ing as your character. Discuss the 10 following questions, drawing on your character’s experience of the war (and not your own attitudes and beliefs today). You can do this by having the teacher or a community leader ask the questions, and then those who have an experience that is directly relevant can give their opinion or make a state- ment. Others may choose to agree or disagree, or call on the character to explain or justify their view. For example, with the first question about why people supported the war, soldiers will have an opinion, as will Billy Hughes, also soldiers’ families, Nellie Melba and more. As a result of hearing entering the war? a variety of responses, students will • Was Australia justified in taking understand that there were a number part in the war? of possible motives for enlistment — • Why did men volunteer to go to patriotism for Australia, empire loyalty, war? a desire for adventure, a sense of duty, • Why did many eligible men not and more. volunteer to go to war? • Should Australia have introduced Questions for the conscription? morality, patriotism, economic community meeting: • Why did people vote the way considerations?) they did on conscription? What • What harm did the war do? • Why was the Australian community factors most influenced an (Consider economic, political, generally so supportive of Australia individual’s decision? (For exam- social and personal impacts.) ple, was it religion, class, family, • What good did the war do? (Consider economic, political, social and personal impacts.) • Did the war make Australia an independent nation and give it a new sense of national identity? • How did the war unite Australia? • How did the war divide it? • Did everyone contribute equally to the war effort? Was everyone equally affected by the war? SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015

At the end of this meeting discuss your personal answer to the key question posed by Changed Forever: How was Australia changed forever by the war?

11 Activity: is 3.1 Consider the way the follow- 3 Changed Forever ing elements are used in Changed a good historical Forever. Summarise your ideas in reconstruction film? this table.

The historical reconstruction genre 3.2 Do you think Changed Forever uses a variety of elements and an effective historical reconstruc- strategies to have an impact. tion film? Justify your view

ASPECT COMMENTS

Structure of the episodes

Role of the narrator

Historical characters and reconstructions

Use of experts

Use of music

Editing

Lighting

Sound

Cinematography

Special effects or computer SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015 graphics

Any other features that you notice

12 Activity: Investigating your local4 memorial

Every community in Australia is close to a local war memorial. This is true even if your community is a very new one — it has been carved out of a much FIG 1 older community that would have expe- rienced the war 100 years ago, and for which there is almost certainly a war memorial built nearly 100 years ago. ADDITIONAL The local war memorial is one of the FIG 2 ACTIVITIES most important sources of information about the war, because it can tell The most significant aspect of the war us about the number of people who 4.2 To help you with your investiga- for Australia was the death of 60,000 enlisted and died, the relationships tion of your own local memorial first Australians. that existed between the men and the consider this example of one com- community, and attitudes and values munity, its war memorial, and the story What happened in your own commu- of the time. that emerges when you investigate nity? The best way to explore this is that memorial. through your local war memorial. This Your task is to investigate your own can involve two main tasks: war memorial. It is Briagolong, about 270 kilometres east of Melbourne, in Gippsland. • Investigating your local memorial, 4.1 Photograph or sketch it and sum- and marise the aspects in the table A local The setting – Anzac Park • Researching an individual soldier war memorial on the next page. or nurse. See Figure 1

1 What is the setting?

2 What does this setting tell us about that community and its connection to the war?

The dedication

See Figure 2

3 What information does this give us?

4 What can we say about the probable attitudes and emotions that existed in that community at that time?

One face (or side) of the memorial

See Figure 3

5 Who are the people in this list? SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015

6 What powerful information does this give us?

7 What can we say about the probable attitudes and emotions that existed in that community at that time? FIG 3

13 A local war memorial

FEATURES OF A YOUR NOTES ABOUT MEMORIAL YOUR MEMORIAL

Location of it

Style/ Description

Words on it

Names on it

Dates on it

Places mentioned

Symbols on it

Values expressed

Relationships revealed

Stories associated SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015 with it

Any other features

14 A second face of the memorial

See Figure 4

8 Who are the people on this list?

9 What does this list tell us?

10 What can we say about the probable attitudes and emotions that existed in that community at that time?

11 Why would this list be included?

12 Who do you think is excluded from this list?

13 Would this be likely to unite or divide the community?

A dedication

See Figure 5

14 What other aspect of the impact of the war on the home front does this dedication suggest?

A related cemetery headstone

See Figure 6 FIG 4 15 Look back at the list of names on the memorial. How many Whitelaws are there?

16 Here is the headstone of Annie number of Whitelaw boys who Whitelaw. ‘paid the supreme sacrifice’? • What attitude does the headstone • What story does it tell? suggest she had towards their • How do you explain the apparent service? contradiction between her head- • What other emotions can we de- stone and the memorial about the duce from this headstone? SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015

FIG 5 FIG 6

15 • Roll of Honour (if the person died Every soldier and nurse had a service during the war) file. The World War 1 files have been • First World War Embarkation Roll digitised and are available online at no (if they went overseas) cost. • Nominal Roll (if they survived and were returned to Australia) Go to the National Archives of • Honours and Awards Australia website www.naa.gov.au. • Red Cross Wounded and Missing (if a search was requested by a Choose Discovering Anzacs and enter family member for more informa- the name. See FIG 8 tion about a missing person) FIG 8 • Prisoner of War (if taken POW) This will give you his file details. Click and you will see the Attestation Activity: Then also try a general search for your (enlistment) page for that person. Investigating an person on the AWM site – this might Click Order this record to go to the full individual5 soldier provide you with a photograph. digital file.

There are names on memorials, but STEP 2 The first page will look like this(see how do you find out more about these FIG 9) individuals? Get the person’s service file This file will give you the history of that The most personal commemoration that can be carried out is to remember a real person who went to war.

That person might be a member of your family. Or it might be someone from your community 100 years ago.

Many of you did not have relatives in Australia 100 years ago. That’s OK, you can research that connection through your own family sources. But you still have a connection to Australia now, and can still research the life of an individual who lived in Australia 100 years ago.

5.1 We can learn a lot about the individuals who went to war from Australia. Here are the steps you can take.

Step 1

Choose one of the soldiers from Changed Forever — see the list of names on the Australian Experience of World War 1 Characters Page.

Go to the Australian War Memorial www.awm.gov.au and Family History, SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015 then Search for a person.

There may be information on that FIG 9 person from: 16 Search Find war dead. Enter the name and you will be told where the person is buried (if there is a known grave) or commemorated (if the body was never identified).

You will find where the cemetery is, see a photograph of it, be able to see the registration details of the person, and read what the family put on the headstone (if they chose to).

STEP 4

If your soldier survived the war

If your soldier survived the war you can try to find out more about his after-war life. Do a search on the Trove website www.trove.nla.gov.au for any person from the day they enlisted to memorial walls in Belgium, France or mention of the person in newspapers. the day they died or were discharged Gallipoli. Search using the soldier’s name, and from the Army. It will include such go to the newspaper list if any appear. documentary information as: Go to the Commonwealth War Graves Commission website www.cwgc.org. A local historical society or library may • Their personal details on enlist- have more detail of a local soldier. ment (name, age, address, next of The CWGC has records of the If your family has a subscription to kin) 1,700,000 men and women of the a genealogical search site such as • Personal appearance (height, Commonwealth forces who died in the ancestry.com, or if you are able to weight, scars) two world wars. It is also responsible access such a site through your local • Details of the unit/s they served in, for maintaining Commonwealth War library, you can search a variety of including places where they served Cemeteries in all countries where the other records to find out more about • Details of any medical history — ill- forces were buried. the soldier’s after-war life. ness, wounds • Details of any punishments for breaking military rules. There may also be other docu- ments — correspondence from family members, records of any court martial (military trial), details of changes of family members (for example if they married during leave).

You can also Browse gallery to see if there are any photographs of your person on file.

STEP 3

If your soldier died during the war you will be able to find where he is buried (if he has a known grave), or where his name is commemorated on the main 17 Minister Hughes. Below is a time code guide to these scenes, as well as a transcript of them.

Look at what is said about his leadership, achievements, motivations, successes and failures, foreign influence, personal qualities and weaknesses. Summarise these in the appropriate column in the Comparing representations of WM Hughes table on the next page.

6.2 Then read the version repro- Activity: Investigating judgements or interpretations of those duced from the oxford Companion to 6 Changed Forever as facts. A representation has to make a Australian History, and summarise your a representation of history selection of facts to include, facts to findings in the appropriate column. – W M Hughes case study leave out, and what sort of comments it will include. All this creates a mes- 6.3 Then discuss these questions sage or meaning that the representa- about the two representations: Representations of history tion presents to the audience. a. What are the main similarities Every account of history that you read This task asks you to compare the between the two representations? or see is a representation of the event way Changed Forever presents Billy b. What are the main differences? — that is, it is somebody’s version of Hughes with the way he is presented c. Which do you think is the more what happened. The person who creat- in the Oxford Companion to Australian accurate version? Explain your ed the account chose what to include, History. In both representations you reasons. and what to exclude, what to empha- need to: d. Which do you think is the more sise, and what to play down. Every critical representation? Explain account is influenced by the creator’s • Identify the facts that are included your reasons. own knowledge, understanding, values, • Identify any commentary or judge- e. How does the medium used in attitudes and the messages or mean- ments or opinion creating the representation (filmed ings he or she wants to get across. • Decide what the overall image be- reconstruction compared to ing presented is. academic writing) influence the Changed Forever is a representation representation? of history. This does not mean that it Your task f. Why do you think different repre- is wrong or biased, it just means that sentations of the same person or the creator has presented this version, 6.1 Watch the main scenes in event in history are possible? which might be different from, but Changed Forever involving Prime equally as valid as, somebody else’s account or version.

But it does mean that to be a good and believable representation of history the version must be fair and rea- sonable in what it chooses to include, leave out and emphasise. We can test Changed Forever as a representation of history by comparing how it presents one aspect of its story with the SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015 way another historical representation presents the same aspect.

The main character in Changed Forever is undoubtedly William Morris Hughes. The depiction of Hughes involves key facts, and opinions or 18 Comparing representations of WM Hughes

ASPECT OF AS REPRESENTED IN AS REPRESENTED IN THE OXFORD WM HUGHES CHANGED FOREVER COMPANION TO AUSTRALIAN HISTORY

Leadership

Personality

Attitude to the war

Attitude to conscription

Attitude to the soldiers

Successes

Hughes Main message about or image of Hughes presented

19 Historical representation of WM Hughes 1: Changed Forever

EPISODE 1. SEGMENT 1

Approximate timecode 00.00.20-00:02:11

NARRATOR COLIN FRIELS: At the end of the First World War the leaders of the victorious nations met at Versailles to draw up a peace treaty. people on a remote southern continent. COLIN FRIELS: The War Precautions Billy Hughes took his place as the Act would give the government unprec- Australian Prime Minister. BILLY HUGHES: That’s about the edented power to sensor and regulate. strength of it. Well put, Mr. President. Billy Hughes from humble beginnings, NARRATOR COLIN FRIELS: He would working mixed trades and speaking on be arguing for Australia’s right to be WOODROW WILSON: Five million street corners, was ambitious. He was heard on the world stage. In his delega- people, for whom you claim to speak. energised by the war and the oppor- tion was the journalist Keith Murdoch. tunities it presented. He had risen to BILLY HUGHES: I speak, sir, for Attorney-General. In his mind, he was BILLY HUGHES: I shall oppose his 60,000 dead. the Prime Minister in waiting. peace babble. SEGMENT 2 BILLY HUGHES: Oh my god, man, KEITH MURDOCH: Will you, sir? there’s enemies in our midst! Because if you refuse to yield he will Approximate timecode walk out. 00:18:47-00:20:38 ANDREW FISHER: Who?

BILLY HUGHES: Good riddance. KEITH MURDOCH: My brothers are to BILLY HUGHES: Aliens! enlist and I feel that perhaps it is my KEITH MURDOCH: And the confer- duty- ANDREW FISHER: Well, what do you ence will collapse. want to do about it, William? ANDREW FISHER: In my opinion you BILLY HUGHES: Look, it is intoler- should stick to the news business. You BILLY HUGHES: Lock them up! able that Wilson dictate to us how the may be of some service there. But you Lock up anyone who’s even been to world is to be governed. would make an indifferent soldier. Germany for a holiday. And then there’s these naysayers on street corners. I KEITH MURDOCH: Mr. Wilson is the BILLY HUGHES: Andy, look, we- Oh, I mean we cannot have this in times of President of the United States of I’m sorry. You busy? an emergency. Cannot have it, Andy. America. ANDREW FISHER: Murdoch, William SEGMENT 3 BILLY HUGHES: Yes. And if the saving Hughes, Attorney-General. of civilisation had depended upon the Approximate timecode United States, the world would be in BILLY HUGHES: Oh, Murdoch. 00:39:37-00:42:32 tears and chains today, my boy. KEITH MURDOCH: If I may be of ser- NARRATOR COLIN FRIELS: Everyone NARRATOR COLIN FRIELS: Versailles vice to you, Mr. Hughes. Thank you, thought victory would come quickly at was the first time an Australian Prime Prime Minister. Gallipoli. But when it didn’t, the home Minister had entered an international front grew anxious. conference, not as a member of the ANDREW FISHER: He’s feeling ag- British delegation, but as the head of grieved. Charlie Bean has pipped him MALE: Order! Order! The Honourable, an independent equal member of the for the plum. the Attorney-General! SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015 family of nations. BILLY HUGHES: Yeah, looks like a BILLY HUGHES: Thank you, Mr. WOODROW WILSON: Prime Minister, rebounder. Now, look Andy, we must Speaker. I do say that I do not believe if I understand your attitude correctly, push through this War Precautions bill conscription is necessary. it is this, that the opinion of the whole quick smart. civilised world should be held at not in ALL: Hear hear! order to satisfy the whim of five million ANDREW FISHER: Must we? 20 BILLY HUGHES: Though I do not say Minister. MALE: Ladies and gentlemen, please the future may not hold within it possi- pray silence for the Prime Minister of bilities which may shatter our present ALL: Hear hear! the Commonwealth of Australia, the conceptions of what is necessary. Honourable William Morris Hughes. NARRATOR COLIN FRIELS: Hughes BILLY HUGHES: For no man can say believed that Australia had a duty to BILLY HUGHES: Thank you. what this frightful war may yet involve. the Empire, but he could also see a bigger picture. JUDITH SMART: For some reason or ANDREW FISHER: Murdoch received another, you know, Australian Prime an appraisal from Ashmead-Bartlett. BILLY HUGHES: Mr. Speaker, I am Ministers s-seem to have a need to He’s been there since the landing. But sorry the question has been asked. go and feel that they’re at the heart they confiscated it. of Empire, that they’re important, that NARRATOR COLIN FRIELS: As they’re contributing you know to the BILLY HUGHES: I’d have done the Australian Prime Minister he could be decision making of the Empire. same. a hero in London where he had spent much of his youth. SUPER: DR. JUDITH SMART, ANDREW FISHER: You would? AUTHOR AND HISTORIAN BILLY HUGHES: This government BILLY HUGHES: Under the War does not have the responsibility of BILLY HUGHES: I feel that I stand Precautions Act. directing the campaign. Our busi- here today in the reflective glory of ness is to follow the instruction of the the Australian soldier. I never speak, I ANDREW FISHER: Aye. Well, Murdoch imperial government and to provide cannot speak of their bravery but that wrote his own report. It’s made him that government with our hearty and I choke with emotion. I am glad of quite a celebrity in London. enthusiastic support. the opportunity to again state what is at present the very inspiration of our BILLY HUGHES: What of you, ALL: Hear hear! lives: our determination to save our Andrew? Thought any more about civilisation from the onslaught of the moving to London? BILLY HUGHES: And it is our clear barbarous Prussia. duty to refrain from criticising the ac- DAVID DAY: Fisher could feel the hot tions of men who have been placed in [applause] breath of Billy Hughes ah on his neck, frightful positions! Now, I do not pre- and he had the prospect of doing a tend to understand what is happening MALCOLM FRASER: The British are deal with Hughes to swap the prime in the Dardanelles. very good at duchessing people, ministership for the very lucrative job, making them feel more important. You the more lucrative job of being High [grumblings] know, you’re more important to us than Commissioner in London. And eventu- anyone else, they’ll say to you. But ally in October he agrees to do that. BILLY HUGHES: But, but, but I do they’ll say that to the next chap too! know the duty of this government, and NARRATOR COLIN FRIELS: With that is to mind its own business and to BILLY HUGHES: I have no doubt, nor Andrew Fisher taking the post of High provide a quota of men that the impe- has any British or Australian no doubt Commissioner, Billy Hughes realised rial government deems necessary. And of what the result shall be. We shall win. his ambition. He became the Prime that we shall do. Minister of Australia. [applause] [applause] PETER STANLEY: Billy Hughes under- NARRATOR COLIN FRIELS: It was goes a transformation in the Great War. MALCOLM FRASER: If a nation is to becoming increasingly clear to Hughes He’s Billy Hughes the pragmatist and be united, forward looking, peaceful, that to meet his recruitment com- Billy Hughes the opportunist, and Billy constructive, I think he was about the mitment he would have to introduce Hughes the ruthless mover and shaker worst Prime Minister Australia has conscription. And even in London he of influence and numbers and knowing ever had. never missed an opportunity to seek what he wants. And what he wants is support for his cause from those with power and what he gets is power. SEGMENT 4 influence. SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015

MALE: I ask the honourable and Approximate timecode BILLY HUGHES: Miss Deakin. learned gentleman whether the time 00:51:14-00:54:05 had not yet arrived, for the sending of VERA DEAKIN: Mr. Hughes. How very our men to Gallipoli means sending NARRATOR COLIN FRIELS: Billy nice to see you. them to useless slaughter, that we had Hughes had been swept up by the some discussion on the subject. business of the war and by London BILLY HUGHES: You, I believe, are society. located in London? MALE: The Honourable, the Prime 21 VERA DEAKIN: For my work. I have KEITH MURDOCH: Oh, good morning, heights we had never seen. You taught relocated the Wounded and Missing Prime Minister. us things we never knew. Persons Bureau from Cairo to remain close to the troops. MALE: May I take your coat, sir? JOAN BEAUMONT: The crowds in the London streets were the biggest since BILLY HUGHES: Yes. BILLY HUGHES: No! No, close the the King’s coronation, and it was in- door behind you. strumental in embedding it, you know, VERA DEAKIN: And you, Mr. Hughes? a-as the narrative that would become BILLY HUGHES: Butler? dominant about World War I. BILLY HUGHES: Imperial conference, concerns aplenty, Miss Deakin. But KEITH MURDOCH: Larry. DAWKINS: Ah your Mr. Hughes is between ourselves, the greatest con- making quite an impression, if I may cern is that of the loyalty of our fellow BILLY HUGHES: Need your help. say so? countrymen. KEITH MURDOCH: Of course. Your KEITH MURDOCH: He’s of a type, VERA DEAKIN: Well, it cannot be speech was well received. Dawkins. We might term him a doubted. blow-heart. BILLY HUGHES: Yes, thank you. BILLY HUGHES: Well, if you saw the Thank you for your touches. Now, DAWKINS: Might you, sir? recruitment figures, they’ve tumbled, Anzac Day anniversary coming up. madam. I fear we may have to resort to Need a bit of a show to strike a spark. KEITH MURDOCH: I’m arranging conscription. Any voice that would sup- You seen the recruitment figures? publication of his collected speeches, port such a government initiative would if you’re an admirer? I’ll reserve you a be very weighty, very, very weighty. PETER STANLEY: Hughes and copy. Murdoch are a double act, but they’re VERA DEAKIN: I may not take a side in a double act which is essentially con- DAWKINS: But that’s very thoughtful any debate. trolled by Hughes. S-so Murdoch does of you, sir. But my duties leave me Hughes’s bidding. He makes what with little spare time! BILLY HUGHES: Yes, well in a day or Hughes wants to happen, happen. two the men will land in France. They KEITH MURDOCH: To George Pearce, must have reinforcements. KEITH MURDOCH: Anzac Acting Prime Minister of Australia, anniversary? thinking it might interest you to hear VERA DEAKIN: I am an officer of the something about Hughes’s visit, I am Red Cross, and whether you are Prime BILLY HUGHES: Anzac Day, need a bit sending these few lines. He has been Minister or the Governor-General, I’m of a show! a phenomenal success. afraid I must refuse to answer. KEITH MURDOCH: Well, plenty of SUPER: MANCHESTER, ENGLAND BILLY HUGHES: Yes. Well, a very Australian troops in and around pleasant evening to you, Miss Deakin. London, they could march. BILLY HUGHES: Ladies and gentlemen, the Empire is in her greatest hour SEGMENT 5 BILLY HUGHES: Yes. In a service. of need. And as the Prime Minister ...

Approximate timecode KEITH MURDOCH: Westminster KEITH MURDOCH: You may be sure 00:59:28-01:02:47 Abbey. we are all delighted. A great effort will be made to get Hughes to stay here. COLIN FRIELS: In the spring of 1916 BILLY HUGHES: And I give a speech. There is even talk of him joining the with the war at its height, Prime cabinet. Minister Billy Hughes was continuing KEITH MURDOCH: Of course you do. his campaign to influence events in GEORGE PEARCE: Stunting again, London. Self-promotion was never far JOAN BEAUMONT: Murdoch seemed Billy. from Billy’s agenda, and Keith Murdoch to have been one of the figures behind had become his unofficial agent. A year the first celebration of Anzac Day in JUDITH SMART: Hughes made two after the Anzacs landed at Gallipoli London. Um Murdoch being a journal- visits to Britain during the war and SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015 Murdoch, at Hughes’ instigation, would ist um was able to get the British press that’s a long time to be away for a orchestrate an event that has come to advertise that there was going to Prime Minister of a very small nation, to symbolise the sacrifice of war and be this march of Australia and New um thousands and thousands of miles define Australia’s identity. Zealand soldiers to Westminster Abbey. from the centre of action.

MALE: Excuse me, sir. BILLY HUGHES: On the shining wings of your valour we were lifted up to 22 SEGMENT 6 00.01.18-00:01:53 of the cabinet, exclamation mark, Miss Dawes. Approximate timecode COLIN FRIELS: The fate of all these 01:11:33-01:13:07 men was being decided by military MISS DAWES: Yes, Mr. Hughes. leaders like John Monash and Thomas COLIN FRIELS: The loss of life, the sol- Blamey. BILLY HUGHES: And I shall do my diers returning home wounded and the duty fearlessly and I look forward to sheer drag of the war were all chang- THOMAS BLAMEY: So you agree, the the people of Australia to support me. ing the mood in Australia. In July 1916 war will be won or lost here in France? And they shall, Mr. Dawes, they shall. when Billy Hughes returned home from Hmm! But now, to deal with the mag- London, he discovered that voluntary JOHN MONASH: No doubt about it, gots that await. recruitment figures had collapsed. Tom. JOAN BEAUMONT: Even before he GEORGE PEARCE: Well, you certainly NARRATOR COLIN FRIELS: And launched the first conscription cam- caused quite a stir in London, Will. by politicians like Australia’s Prime paign, he was advised by a lot of col- Minister, Billy Hughes. leagues that he would tear the Labor BILLY HUGHES: 86 Members of Party apart. Parliament signed a request for me to BILLY HUGHES: I do know the duty of take a seat in the House of Commons, this government! BILLY HUGHES: Look, it is absolutely George. imperative that Australia not dishonour NARRATOR COLIN FRIELS: He’d the glory of Anzac. GEORGE PEARCE: [laughter] Well, become dependent on Keith Murdoch you better surrender to them, Bill. who was reporting on the war from MALE: We are pledged to supplying a Downing Street would suit you! London. quota of troops.

BILLY HUGHES: Now, my, my dear BILLY HUGHES: Anzac Day anniver- MALE: But not by compulsion. Pearce, I could never live in London. sary coming up. Need a bit of a show Had I done so, who would lead to strike a spark. BILLY HUGHES: Oh, you have no Australia? problem compelling men to join your BILLY HUGHES: We were lifted up to union? GEORGE PEARCE: How do you pro- heights we had never seen. You taught pose to lead us, Billy? The voluntary us things we never knew. MALE: But I do have a problem com- system is failing. pelling them to die. SEGMENT 2 BILLY HUGHES: I can’t bring in com- BILLY HUGHES: I shall put it to a pulsion without the numbers in the Approximate timecode referendum and when the people have senate. We don’t have the senate. 00:04:01-00:07:45 spoken let the devil stand in my way. MALE: And what if the people say GEORGE PEARCE: Well, we’re already COLIN FRIELS: The Coles boys were no? BILLY HUGHES: People are not falling well behind in our quotas. learning the terrible realities of war treacherous like you. first-hand, and all Australians were JUDITH SMART: I think Hughes in a being directly impacted. Wages were MALE: Withdraw that! sense probably lost his sense of per- fixed, prices were rising and so were spective on what Australia could do casualty figures. It probably wasn’t MALE: Put it to a vote! and um where Australians were really the best time for Prime Minister Billy at ah in his visit to Britain. Hughes to be talking up compulsory BILLY HUGHES: I am the leader and I enlistment. am the Prime Minister! BILLY HUGHES: What if I put a question to the people? Would you be pre- BILLY HUGHES: All the labourer MALE: Then put it to a vote! pared to support us in making every organisations have passed strong effort to win this war? What about that resolutions against conscription. The BILLY HUGHES: I didn’t say I was a for a question? majority of the parliament are fright- fool. ened out of their lives. SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015 JUDITH SMART: So I I do think that he MALE: Not true, Billy. You are a petty lost a sense of what he could ask of MISS DAWES: Of you, Mr. Hughes? little tyrant! MALE: Steady. MALE: With the Australian people. but one idea. BILLY HUGHES: No, no, no, Miss EPISODE 2. SEGMENT 1 Dawson. It’s very kind of you to say BILLY HUGHES: That is? so. Even the cabinet I am not sure of, Approximate timecode exclamation mark. I am not sure even MALE: The glorification of your own 23 name. people remember with any endear- Australia. In order to re-engage the ment, in Labor circles, the name of country behind the war effort he called ALL: Hear hear! William Morris Hughes. a general election for the 5th May.

BILLY HUGHES: Here’s an end. I’ll put SEGMENT 3 NARRATOR COLIN FRIELS: His new it to the people that the government coalition called itself the Nationalist have the right to compel overseas ser- Approximate timecode Party and campaigned under the slo- vice, that those that think like me join 00:14:59-00:16:04 gan ‘win the war’. me. The rest can go to the devil. COLIN FRIELS: Britain’s ally, Russia, BILLY HUGHES: What we need, JOAN BEAUMONT: The first con- was on the verge of a revolution which George, is a real win, a victory in bat- scription referendum is held against would take her out of the war. tle, something we can get out to the the backdrop of the Somme, and the papers without having to rinse it in reason why it i-is launched is because GEORGE PEARCE: So what do you Condy’s fluid. the losses at Pozieres and Mouquet think of the Russian situation, Bill? Farm are huge and recruitment is not GEORGE PEARCE: You’re losing the replacing losses on that scale. BILLY HUGHES: It’s a rum. faith, Bill.

NARRATOR COLIN FRIELS: The refer- GEORGE PEARCE: It’s a rum. BILLY HUGHES: The election is in a endum held on the 28th October 1916 couple of days. I’m pledged as a ‘win was defeated by a narrow margin. BILLY HUGHES: I’m not dismayed. I the war’ leader. Hughes vented his frustration to Keith was never comfortable with Russia as Murdoch. an ally, the worst sort of autocrat. They GEORGE PEARCE: And that’s why say we’re fighting for liberty. they’ll back you. DAWKINS: If you could keep still. GEORGE PEARCE: Now the Tsar has BILLY HUGHES: Oh, they’re dirty on KEITH MURDOCH: It’s from Hughes. gone. the war purse.

DAWKINS: Yes, sir. KEITH MURDOCH: BILLY HUGHES: Abdicated. GEORGE PEARCE: No, the people The Prime Minister. are weary of the war bill. They want GEORGE PEARCE: Well, will they England to win, so we’ll hang on. Our DAWKINS: Your Prime Minister. fight? real problem is our own backyard.

BILLY HUGHES: It is very good to hear BILLY HUGHES: God knows, George. BILLY HUGHES: That’s your opinion, from you. It would be better still to They’ve taken a pounding. If we don’t George. have you by my side, for there are hot prop them up, they go under. Imagine times ahead. how many bloody Prussians will be GEORGE PEARCE: The working peo- thrown at France. ple are doing it tough. Prices are going KEITH MURDOCH: Long before this up and up, wages are going down. reaches you the issue of conscription GEORGE PEARCE: Thousands. Sooner or later, something is going to will be reached in grim earnest. As it fall apart. has been. BILLY HUGHES: Hundreds of thousands. Compulsion has to come BILLY HUGHES: The men in the DAWKINS: Is that so, sir? again, and quick smart, George. trenches are doing it tough. I mean to visit them, George. KEITH MURDOCH: Old Billy pulled GEORGE PEARCE: Yes. It’s going to the wrong rein. But it was a close run be a very difficult year, Bill. Ah it’s go- GEORGE PEARCE: I’m warning you, thing. ing to be a very grim year. Bill, keep your eye on the bloke next door. Labour is the issue. NARRATOR COLIN FRIELS: The refer- BILLY HUGHES: Not if the Americans endum had split the Australian Labor come in, George. Not if the Americans BILLY HUGHES: By George. Party, which subsequently expelled fling their cap in. Recruitment is the issue if we are to Billy Hughes as its leader. But he win this war. GEORGE PEARCE: You SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015 remained Prime Minister. SEGMENT 4 will not bring that question in again. This is a powder keg, it’s about- BILLY HUGHES: The Ides of March Approximate timecode have come and gone, and Caesar still 00:20:23-00:23:29 BILLY HUGHES: Ah, industrial rela- lives! tions, that is a matter for the states. COLIN FRIELS: So by late April 1917, JOHN “JOHNO” JOHNSON: Very few Billy Hughes was facing a divided PETER STANLEY: The war penetrates 24 aspects that have nothing to do with know the right hand to hold the knife society. Ah it was you know five million international politics. State politics, as and fork, George, but I’ve shaken people; um it couldn’t afford t-to lose we know, are nothing to do with the hands with the King. He called me Mr. that sort of manpower. But Hughes, I war, but the war doesn’t care. The war Hughes. think, became totally obsessed with affects every part of Australian life. trying to persuade people that that GEORGE PEARCE: Thank you. was the most important single contri- NARRATOR COLIN FRIELS: bution they could make to Australians responded to Hughes’s BILLY HUGHES: Thank you. election campaigning and overwhelm- BILLY HUGHES: I shall do my duty ingly returned him to power as Prime GEORGE PEARCE: Haig’s third tilt at fearlessly and I shall expect the Minister of Australia. Ypres, if it’s costly, if the casualty- This support of the Australian people. could put real pressure on our quotas, December 20th, I’ve decided. BILLY HUGHES: A few months earlier Bill. the leader of a great party, and every GEORGE PEARCE: Oh, that’s a week man’s hand against him. And now BILLY HUGHES: Then we shall have day, Bill. the leader of the greatest party ever to put it to the people once more, gathered together in the history of the George. Chin chin. BILLY HUGHES: And the polling commonwealth. booths will be open during work NARRATOR COLIN FRIELS: What hours. That should weed out some of FRANK BONGIORNO: I don’t think he Hughes needed was more victories on the shilly-shallies, George. ever abandons the idea that he’s es- the battlefront. sentially, you know, he is the working GEORGE PEARCE: Indeed. man’s representative and friend. And COLIN FRIELS: What he got was a se- so I think he brings over a lot of the ries of battles at places whose names DOUGLAS NEWTON: During this older, the older ideas, even though of would become legend - Polygon period civil liberties goes under – we course by then he’s regarded within Wood, Menin Road, Passchendaele, shall have a referendum to see if the the labour movement, the Labor Party, collectively known as the Third Battle people approve of conscription, but quite rightly I guess as having ratted; of Ypres. all the resources of the state will be he’s abandoned them over the issue of pitted against those putting forward conscription. SEGMENT 6 the no case! We will make it difficult for them to meet, difficult to produce NARRATOR COLIN FRIELS: And what Approximate timecode their pamphlets, and I will slur them as Hughes felt the yes campaign needed 00:34:58-00:38:25 pro-Germans and traitors. was victory on the battlefield. So he was holding out hope for good news GEORGE PEARCE: Prime Minister? BILLY HUGHES: I cannot understand from the frontline, for the latest fighting the difficulty. A man either loves his was at Messines. BILLY HUGHES: Yes. country, loves the empire, or he is pro- German. Or he is a pacifist! MALE: Hello? Yes. Messines has been GEORGE PEARCE: The ah views of a brilliant success! the majority of the cabinet are- DOUGLAS NEWTON: Hughes uses all this terminology. Ah the pacifists are BILLY HUGHES: Bravo, George. BILLY HUGHES: We have pledged traitors. Those who talk of peace or 15,000 men a month and we are negotiation are traitors. SEGMENT 5 barely recruiting 3,000. I can do the sums, George. The question has to be BILLY HUGHES: Now, those of you Approximate timecode asked again. who have relatives in the trenches 00:30:31-00:31:54 cannot heed their cry unmoved. GEORGE PEARCE: That is also our COLIN FRIELS: After six weeks the view, Bill. MALCOLM FRASER: For a Prime great strike petered out. The men went Minister to play politics in that way I back to work and Billy Hughes back to BILLY HUGHES: Good, good. Then we think is about as low as you can pos- his main wartime fixation - increasing shall have a referendum on conscrip- sibly get. Um and to do it in the middle recruitment. tion. Thank you, gentlemen. That’s of the war, ah to accuse some people SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015 what we shall do. of being subversives, virtually traitors. BILLY HUGHES: Yes? BILLY HUGHES: I did not leave the BILLY HUGHES: If they hungered, GEORGE PEARCE: Don’t you ever feel Labor Party, George. They left me. Sit, would you not feed them? If they were like a bit of a fish out of water, Bill? man, please. sick, would you not succour them?

BILLY HUGHES: Well, they might JUDITH SMART: Australia was a small MALCOLM FRASER: Whatever good 25 points Billy Hughes might’ve had, that rotters have visited the consequences that was represented by the people to me overrides everything. of Australia’s failure to do her duty. in London, and then there were the American interests and the French BILLY HUGHES: Officer, arrest that BILLY HUGHES: Damn everyone and interests. But what’s this dwarf, ugly man. Grab him! everything. little man jumping up and thumping the table all the time? MALE: What’s the charge? PERCY: Is that to be included in the- WOODROW WILSON: Five million BILLY HUGHES: ?? bloody charge. BILLY HUGHES: Yes, Percy. Damn people, for whom you claim to speak! everyone and everything - put it in. MALE: Let’s just get back to where it’s BILLY HUGHES: I speak, sir, for a bit safe! JUDITH SMART: In the end it didn’t 60,000 dead. Now, with all due re- matter all that much. Australia wasn’t spect, Mr. President ... BILLY HUGHES: I am ordering you to going to win the war. Um th-the arrest that man. numbers were going to come from the JOAN BEAUMONT: Hughes was seen other Allied powers, ah Britain, from as a bit of a David against the United MALE: I take my orders from Mr. Ryan France and ultimately from the United States Goliath. But I think his role as the Labor Premier of this state. States. What Australia cold contrib- overall in the Paris peace conferences ute was really quite miniscule, and I was much less than we like to think. NARRATOR COLIN FRIELS: Hughes think Hughes overestimated that and may have been fighting an unpopular became so obsessed with it that ah it BILLY HUGHES: That for me registers battle, but his supporters were still ended up destroying the confidence, I as an entire generation of a mere five numerous and influential. think, of the Australian people. million people ...

SEGMENT 7 SEGMENT 8 PETER STANLEY: Hughes’s demean- our at Versailles is at the very least Approximate timecode Approximate timecode assertive, offensively so to some of his 00:40:17-00:43:20 01:09:21-01:12:15 fellow delegates.

ARCHBISHOP DANIEL MANNIX: Mr. NARRATOR COLIN FRIELS: And BILLY HUGHES: ... for the mourning Hughes ought to be the first citizen of so we come full circle, back to Billy women and children of those 60,000 the commonwealth, but he has been Hughes. At the start of the war he’s dead. in England recently and moved in very a Labor parliamentarian and a union polite and cultured circles, his ordinary man. PETER STANLEY: This is truly the first company rarely slipping below that of time that an Australian politician has a duchess! But I mention these things COLIN FRIELS: As he rose to become a statesman on a world stage. only for the purpose of suggesting Attorney-General and Prime Minister that we might reasonably expect our he set aside those beliefs, reveal- KEITH MURDOCH: Well, what’s the Prime Minister to act and speak like a ing himself as a man in love with the story, Gooston(?)? gentlemen. spotlight. GOOSTON: Hughes has made up his ARCHBISHOP DANIEL MANNIX: But NARRATOR COLIN FRIELS: Now with mind about everything and does not one doesn’t necessarily learn good the war over he sees Versailles as an want advice. You know what Lloyd breeding by spending a weekend at opportunity to sparkle on the world George calls him, what the British PM Windsor. I make no apology for putting stage. calls our PM? A regular little cad! Australia first and the empire second. WOODROW WILSON: Prime Minister, KEITH MURDOCH: Well, I prefer NARRATOR COLIN FRIELS: The sec- if I understand your attitude correctly, President Wilson’s description – a pes- ond referendum had failed by a greater it is this, that the opinion of the whole tiferous varmint. margin than the first. civilised world should be held at not, in order to satisfy the whim of five NARRATOR COLIN FRIELS: So, what BILLY HUGHES: Murdoch, London. million people on a remote southern became of them all? Billy Hughes con- continent? tinued as Prime Minister until 1923. SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015 PERCY: Yes, Prime Minister. BILLY HUGHES: That’s about the COLIN FRIELS: Over the course of his BILLY HUGHES: My dear Keith, I’m strength of it. Well put, Mr. President. career he changed parties five times awfully upset over the referendum. The and remained in parliament for 58 result was a bitter pill to swallow, a MICHAEL MCKERNAN: Wilson years. soldier’s vote the most bitter of all. But couldn’t get it; he just couldn’t get it. there it is, and upon my head these There were the British interests and 26 in the settlement after it.

Hughes has been the only Australian prime minister who regarded international power politics as central before he held the office. For him, like Churchill, war was not a disappoint- ment, but a vindication of his world view. He was chiefly responsible for persuading the Labor Party to adopt it—Hughes showed no slackening in compulsory training for home defence. Historical representation his commitment to the Labor pro- As early as 1897 a Labor journal of WM Hughes 2: gram . . . Hughes said of himself that criticised Hughes for possessing ‘the Oxford Companion he continued to stand where he had politics of Bismarck tempered by the to Australian History always stood, and it was the Labor economics of Marx’. He was an oddity Party which had left him. During the in a party opposed to war and impe- Hughes, William Morris ‘Billy’ (1862- 1920s he hoped for a reconciliation rialism, not so much because he sup- 1952) was prime minister of a Labor with Labor which would have made ported the Empire—for when the chips government from 1915 to 1916 and, him again a Labor prime minister. were down in 1914 most of the party after his expulsion from the Labor did so—but because he could imagine Party, of a Nationalist government According to Labor lore, he turned to a world without the British Empire and until 1923. He was a founder of the conscription because he succumbed the consequences of that absence for Australian Labor Party and in Labor to the blandishments of the metropolis Australia. In his words, Australia was lore its arch betrayer, or, to use the during his visit to Britain in 1916, when a nation by the grace of God and the Labor term, its greatest rat . . . he became briefly a power in British British Empire. politics through his advocacy of a Hughes’s offence against his party more ruthless conduct of the war, an Hughes’s great moment was at the was that as prime minister he insisted attack on Germany’s economic power, 1919 Versailles Peace Conference. For that men should be conscripted for and the creation after the war of an the first time Australia had an inde- service in the Australian forces in economically integrated empire. His pendent voice in a grand geopolitical France, although the party organisa- speeches were widely reported and settlement. Hughes was scornful of tion had given strong indications created immense enthusiasm. Hughes President Wilson’s idealism and ar- of its opposition to that policy (the was feted in establishment circles. gued relentlessly to secure Australian party platform itself was silent on the This, according to Labor legend, turned control over PNG and to block Japan’s matter). To bypass the party opposi- his head and, forgetting his party and proposal for a declaration of racial tion, Hughes appealed to the elector- his country, he decided to conscript equality, which Hughes saw as a ate at large by referendum in 1916. Australian men for imperial purposes. veiled threat to the White Australia Conscription was narrowly rejected policy. His belligerent, larrikin style after a bitter campaign in which Labor Most of the historical accounts of offended the diplomats but enhanced Party members fought on both sides. Hughes’s decision for conscription his reputation at home. He returned to The breach could not be healed, and endorse the legend by allowing at a hero’s welcome. after the referendum the party split least some significance to the effect permanently. Hughes and his pro-con- of the visit. If it had an effect, it was Hughes was in many respects an unat- scription ministers remained in office very different from what the legend tractive figure, domineering, hateful, with the support of the Opposition claims. This is made clear in L.F. vituperative, and impossible to work for. with whom they merged in 1917 to Fitzhardinge’s authoritative two-vol- And yet, as Home writes, ‘people could form the Nationalist Party. Hughes was ume biography William Morris Hughes love him from a distance for his game- regarded with great suspicion by many (1964,1979). Hughes went to London ness, his smallness. his humour, even of his new followers and was removed chiefly because he was worried about his trickiness, and his ability to appear from the prime ministership in 1923 the deals which the imperial govern- always as nothing grander than a fel- when the new Country Party (National ment was striking with its ally Japan low creature, as if all men really were Party) refused to enter a coalition if over the German islands in the Pacific. brothers’. Horne’s book is a revealing it were led by him. He remained an While he was in Britain, he became exploration of the man in politics, of SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015 influential parliamentarian almost to convinced that Australia’s interests how man and politician became one, a the end of his life . . . would be overlooked unless Britain politician acquired legendary status. was put under great pressure. Hughes As Donald Home observes (In Search wanted to maintain Australia’s military John Hirst in Graeme Davison, John of Billy Hughes, 1979), Hughes was commitment not so much to ensure Hirst, Stuart Macintyre (eds), The not a typical Labor rat. Until the split that Britain won the war but so that Oxford Companion to Australian over conscription—and indeed after Australia would have a powerful voice History, OUP, 2001 pages 333-4 27 This study guide was produced by ATOM. (© ATOM 2015) ISBN: 978-1-74295-623-7 [email protected] For information on SCREEN EDUCATION magazine, or to download other study guides for assessment, visit . Join ATOM’s email broadcast list for invitations to free screenings, conferences, seminars, etc. Sign up now at . SCREEN EDUCATION © ATOM 2015 For hundreds of articles on Film as Text, Screen Literacy, Multiliteracy and Media Studies, visit .