Natham McCall

Natham McCall (MA in History), ‘Divergent Dominions: Comparing Pre-First World War Defence Policies of British Dominions and their Effects on the Introduction of Wartime Conscription’

By the third year of the First World War, the voluntary enlistment rates in Australia, Canada and New Zealand had fallen to a level that could not be relied upon to sustain the dominion’s expeditionary forces in France, Belgium and the Middle East. Individually, the leaders of each dominion concluded that in order to maintain their war efforts abroad, their governments would need to introduce conscription. New Zealand successfully introduced a conscription policy in August 1916, while Canada followed in September the following year despite strong opposition from the French-speaking population. In Australia, two efforts were made to introduce conscription via plebiscite, one in 1916 and another in 1917. Both failed to secure a majority ‘Yes’ vote and, so, Australia continued to rely on a voluntary system to provide reinforcements to its expeditionary forces.

Why these three dominions responded to calls for conscription in such different ways, despite the similarities that existed between them, is a field of research that has not yet been thoroughly explored. Even less well explored are the impacts of pre-war policies, ideologies and attitudes on the wartime efforts to introduce conscription. This thesis will explore those pre-war factors and embed them in our understanding of how the conscription efforts in each dominion developed and why they developed differently. Examining how those pre-war factors shaped the defence policies of the dominions prior to the war and linking them with the forces that supported and opposed wartime conscription allows us to better investigate the interplay between politics and societies during wartime.

The three cases explored in this thesis were chosen due to the relative similarities between them in regards to their statuses as British dominions, origins as settler/colonist societies, political traditions and societal makeup. Just as important to the similarities between cases are the differences. The influential and vocal French speaking population of Canada sets it apart from the other dominions in this study, while the strength of the labour movement and its political arm in the Australian Labor Party does the same in Australia. While each dominion could boast of its strong ties with Britain, the New Zealand people considered themselves to be particularly close both culturally and politically, denoting that country as more willing to act in a way that better benefited the British Empire.

These factors led to varied responses to pre-war defence issues and calls for greater dominion partnership in imperial defence. In examining pre-war factors, it is clear that in many cases, the factors that tended to support or oppose pre-war compulsionists schemes would be the same that supported or opposed wartime conscription policies. For example, in Australia, the Australian Labor Party prior to the war had restricted the sending of conscripted men outside of Australian territory. During the war, the same party would oppose the introduction of conscription.

In Canada, French-Canadian support for the Liberal government had, prior to 1911, seen the Canadian government work to temper imperialist and militarist policies to placate Quebecois opposition. From 1911, the Liberal government had been replaced by the conservative government of Robert Borden which did not depend on support from the French-speaking population. This would culminate in the Borden government pursuing conscription in 1917 as an election policy. The resultant electoral win for Borden would destroy the Liberal opposition and cement support for conscription in Canada. The situation in New Zealand was markedly different from both Australia and New Zealand. Widespread pre-war support for both compulsory military training and conscription for overseas service translated into widespread public calls for conscription in 1916.

By examining the factors that influenced pre-war dominion national defence and imperial defence policies, this thesis will examine how those factors would in turn influence the outcomes of the varied wartime conscription debates and further explain why the debates had such varied outcomes.

Supervisors: Professor Sean Scalmer, Dr Jackie Dickenson