CHAPTER 7 - 1914-18 WAR - Pro peace, Pro and anti war

'War is out of date. Under modern conditions it cannot accomplish what those who support war want it to accomplish. Every deadly weapon is met with the invention of a still more deadly weapon ... We must aim at changing our social and industrial system so as to produce for use and not for profit.'
Vida Goldstein

State Library of Victoria

In this chapter we look at women's attitude to the 1914 War 1...THE WICKED WASTE OF LIFE   2... OPPOSITION TO THE WAR - THE SISTERHOOD 3...INTERNATIONAL PROTEST AGAINST WAR 4...THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN 5...THE WOMEN'S PEACE ARMY 6...CIVIL LIBERTIES WERE BEING CURTAILED 7...MILITARY INTELLIGENCE CAUSED TROUBLE Some feminist contribution was 8...THE WOMAN VOTER 9...PUT UP THE SWORD 10..WOMEN REACTED

11..THE UNITED WOMEN'S NO CONSCRIPTION COMMITTEE 12...CONSCRIPTION REFERENDUMS and feminist 13..ANTI-CONSCRIPTION CAMPAIGNS 14..WOMEN'S PEACE ARMY 1917 RECOMMENDED TERMS OF PEACE but feminists were limited by 15..THE HUMANIZING INFLUENCE OF WOMEN? There was support for the war 16..PATRIARCHAL ORGANISATIONS - the AWNL 17..WOMEN'S NATIONAL LEAGUE FOR CONSCRIPTION with an anti feminist philosophy and the 18..ONE WOMAN ONE RECRUIT LEAGUE 19..'I GAVE HIM FREELY - AS MY CHEERUL GIFT' and we end with 20..'MRS HUGHES AND VIDA GOLDSTEIN'

1...'THE WICKED WASTE OF LIFE'

Eleanor Moore: 'In August 1914, the managing directors of four Great Powers in Europe announced that a war had been arranged and that fighting would begin at once. ... (Our) Prime Minister at once sent a cable message to England that Australia was in the war to the last man and the last shilling.' The Quest for Peace As I Have Known It In Australia

This is taken from the Women's Political Association newsletter, the Woman Voter August 4, 1914: 'The War - This must be the last war between civilised peoples. The woman movement, which is growing in every nation, will force upon Governments the necessity of finding other means of settling international disputes. It is awful enough that millions of men are standing face to face with violent death. It is more awful that all the rest of the people of the world are in danger of starvation. The food supplies of the world must cease when the hands that reap and sow are occupied in the work of slaying men. Instead of the highways of the world bringing foodstuffs, they are given up to the carrying the means of bloodshed and death. The millions that war costs must be paid ultimately, and by the weakest, and these are the women and children of the working classes, who will pay with hunger and cold and cruel privations.

There is no real cause for the war! Great Britain has no quarrel with Austria, France none with Germany or Russia. Do we not owe to every European Nation, and they to us, the advance in art and learning that should make for everyone more happy and complete? It is because every nation has been armed to the teeth, and the idea of war has been before them for so long: because the value of life has been obscured, that this terrible disaster, when all the evil forces of hatred, greed and violence are to be let loose, has fallen upon us. Women know the cost of life too well to risk it lightly. Olive Schreiner writes: "There is, perhaps, no woman, whether she has born children, or been merely potentially a child-bearer, who could look down upon a battlefield covered with the slain, but the thought would rise in her "So many mothers' sons!" State Library of Victoria

Doris Blackburn: 'The headlines just make one feel sick and one shudders at the wicked waste of life - life that cost so much, that is so precious.' from p 355 Double Time Women in Victoria - 150 years Marilyn Lake Farley Kelly Penguin 1985

Preface to Adela Pankhurst Walsh's book Put Up the Sword -
Cecilia John: 'War is murder. We women accept that statement as an incontestable fact. No excitement of the moment, no blare of trumpets, or any other outward sign of the insidious war fever, miscalled patriotism, will ever cause us to view war in any other light. War is murder - legalised by man, if you will; but not by God ... 'Put Up the Sword' deals trenchantly with all aspects of this world calamity, and the terms of peace, which form the closing chapter, show the practical solutions that we, as women, offer to the nations at war.'  published by Women's Peace Army 1915

2...OPPOSITION TO THE WAR: THE SISTERHOOD

1915 - The Sisterhood of International Peace was formed just before the Women's Peace Army and met once a fortnight in the ever hospitable premises of the Society of Friends, 20 Russell Street, Melbourne in the front room on the ground floor.'www.dragon-amazon.net/wilpfaustralia Its aims were -

Eleanor Moore: 'To promote mutual knowledge of each other by the women of different nations, goodwill and friendship; to study the causes, economic and moral, of war, and by every means in their power to bring the humanizing influence of women to bear on the abolition of war, and the substitution of international justice and arbitration for irrational methods of violence.' p 39 The Quest for Peace as I Have Known It in Australia

The Quest for Peace as I have known it in Australia Eleanor M Moore

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Eleanor Moore: 'Enfranchisement of women was then a comparatively new thing, even in Australia, and in most other countries it had not yet arrived. Advocates of womanhood suffrage had long pleaded, and believed, that woman's voice in politics would be a tremendous influence against war. We soon found out, however, that under stress of test "the humanizing influence of women" must not be too readily taken for granted. Both our general secretary and myself, who had been officers in the National Council of Women, found that views like ours were not tolerated there, and we were obliged to withdraw. We approached all the well-known societies of women in Melbourne, seeking to interest them in the educational side of our movement. All but one declared it to be "most inopportune." The exception was the Women Teachers' Association, ...' The Quest for Peace as I have known it in Australia

Megan McMurphy, Margot Oliver, Jeni Thornley: 'The response of women to the war was mixed. Many of them lined the streets and cheerily waved the volunteers good-bye, and were soon active in persuading men to recruit.' For Love or Money a pictorial history of women and work in Australia Penguin 1981

May Brodney: 'The war fever was intense. In the second world war we saw nothing like the intense feeling of 1914 and 1915. Stupid, jingoistic mobs went around smashing shop windows of businesses ... if they thought the proprietors had German names.' For Love or Money a pictorial history of women and work in Australia Penguin 1981 Megan McMurphy, Margot Oliver, Jeni Thornley

Marjorie Waters: '... the Sisterhood for International Peace was formed, with the motto "Justice, Friendship and Arbitration" ... At the landing on Gallipoli, April 25, 1915, the elder son of our vice-president, Mrs Warren Kerr, was one of the first to be killed ... About that time Mr Winston Churchill made this public utterance - "No operations in history are more worthy of being pushed on with the utmost vigour and an utter disregard for life than those at Gallipoli." The Quest for Peace as I have known it in Australia

Eleanor Moore: ' ... the belief persisted for a long time in most of our minds that our own leaders, at least, probably had a righteous aim in view, and honestly thought that they could establish it by this method. It was the method we had quarrel with, not the aim. And in the same way we believed that the German people had what seemed to them a righteous air, and they, too, were sincere about it. Hence we were confident that, if an open statement of the objects of war were made, a just settlement could be negotiated. This was the keynote of all the peace movements of 1914-1918: a negotiated peace, accompanied by abandonment once and for all of secret diplomacy, and, followed by general disarmament, with submissions of all future disputes to the Hague Court for settlement by arbitration ...

... We felt we must begin by being learners, and were glad to act under the advice of our senior secretary, Mrs Strong, who ... put us in touch with the famous Jane Adams, of Hull House, Chicago ... It was of intense interest to us to learn that the shock of the war had stirred women of her type, both in Europe and America, to join in seeking a say to peace. Against great difficulties of transport and passport, they met at The Hague in April 1915 ...' The Quest for Peace as I have known it in Australia

3...INTERNATIONAL PROTEST AGAINST WAR

Pat Gowland: 'The concept of a women's movement for peace was not original to Australia, for at the outbreak of war anti-militarist women organized throughout the Western world. Moreover, these organizations frequently grew out of those already active around the suffrage question. In the USA the Women's Peace Party emerged from the Women's Political Union; Jane Addams who was the first vice-president of the National American Women's Suffrage Association became its president. In Holland, Dr Aletta Jacobs, a suffrage pioneer, conceived the idea of an International Peace Conference which took place in April 1915 at The Hague.' Women, class and history: feminist perspectives on Australia 1788-1978 Elizabeth Windschuttle Fontana/ Collins

Gertrude Bussey, Margaret Tims: The administrative responsibility for carrying on the work of the new international women's peace movement lay with the International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace which had been set up at the Hague Congress ... By November 1915, twelve national committees had been formed ... In Australia, a Sisterhood of International Peace had been founded at Melbourne in 1915 and this too became affiliated ...' Pioneers for Peace - Women's International League for Peace and Freedom 1915-1965 Allen & Unwin 1965

Eleanor Moore: '... Within weeks of setting up their society (the Sisterhood of International Peace), the women heard about interesting developments in Europe. On April 28th 1915, for the first time in history, women of different nations met together at a time of war to express their opposition and to consider ways and means of ending the conflict. The International Congress of Women which gathered at the Hague in Holland in the first 9th months of the First World War included delegations from Europe and America, from "enemy" as well as neutral countries.' The Quest for Peace as I have known it in Australia

Mary Heaton Vorse (1874-1966): 'The women’s rising tide of protest against the war came to a point on February 12, 1915. On that date a great peace meeting was held in Washington by the women of America. On the same date, in Holland, an International Congress of Women, to be held in Amsterdam, was called by Dr. Aletta Jacobs, a famous Dutch suffragist ...

Letters came from Frenchwomen and from Russians. Fraulein von Heymann’s open letter, "Women of Europe, when will your cry ring out," found women in every country ready to receive it. In part she said: "Millions of men have been left on the battlefield. They will never see home again. Others have returned broken and sick in body and soul. Europe’s soil reeks in blood. Shall this war of extermination go on? Women of Europe, where is your voice? Are you great only in patience and suffering? Come together in the North and South of Europe and protest with all your might against this war, which is murdering the nations, and perform your duty as wives and mothers, as protectors of true civilization and humanity." http://womhist.alexanderstreet.com/hague/doc18.htm

4...THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF WOMEN

Gertrude Bussey, Margaret Tims: 'On April 28, 1915, for the first time in history, women of different nations met together at a time of war to express their opposition and consider ways of ending the conflict. The International Congress of Women which gathered at the Hague in Holland in this ninth month of the First World War included delegations from North Europe and America, from enemy no less than from neutral countries. The Hague Congress was the offspring of the International Suffrage Alliance, an already established organisation with a strong pacifist bias in its leadership ...

Some of the most enthusiastic supporters were the German suffrgists ... (But) some were stopped at the German border ... No French or Russian woman was able to attend ... passports were refused to all but 25 British women, the North Sea was closed to all shipping and they could not sail. Three British women, however, succeeded ... To a certain section of the world's press and public opinion, the aims of the Congress seemed either laughable or deplorable. The women had been called foolish and naive; interfering and ill-informed; irresponsibly feminine and at the same time boldly unwomanly. The quality of the delegations soon gave the lie to these smear campaigns ...

The delegates from Germany to the Hague Congress faced a barrage of insults and hostile criticism on returning to their own country; some were also temporarily imprisoned ... It was impossible openly to organize a women's peace movement. Nevertheless, some of the most intensive and courageous post-Congress activity was carried out in Germany, and 29 groups were successfully established in different parts of the country.' Women's International League of Peace and Freedom 1915-1965 Allen & Unwin 1965

Adela Pankhurst:: 'In spite of difficulties and wartime travel, 1,136 women representing over 150 organisations from twelve countries did meet ... Twenty resolutions were passed under six headings: Women at War; Action towards Peace; Principles of Permanent Peace; International Co-operation; Education of Children; Action to be taken.

"The following resolutions have been adopted by the International Congress at the Hague, and also by the Women's Peace Army, Headquarters, 215 Latrobe Street Melbourne.

"This International Congress of women of different nations, classes, creeds and parties is united in expressing sympathy with the suffering of all, whatever their nationality, who are fighting for their country or labouring under the burden of war. Since the mass of the people in each of the countries now at war believe themselves to be fighting, not as aggressors, but in self-defence, and for their national existence, there can be no irreconcilable difference between them, and their common ideals afford a basis upon which a magnanimous and honourable Peace might be established. The Congress, therefore, urges the Government of the world to put an end to this bloodshed, and to begin Peace negotiations. It demands that the peace which follows shall be permanent, and therefore based on principles of justice, including those laid down in the resolutions adopted by this Congress, namely:-

- That no territory should be transferred without the consent of the men and women in it, and that the right of conquest should not be recognized.

- That autonomy and a democratic Parliament should not be refused to any people.

- That the Governments of all nations should come to an agreement to refer future international disputes to arbitration or conciliation, and to bring social, moral and economic pressure to bear upon any country which resorts to arms.

- That foreign politics should be subject to democratic control.

- That women should be granted equal political rights with men.' Adela Pankhurst Put Up the Sword SLV See Appendix 1 Papers

International Committee of Women for Permanent Peace - The Hague, Holland 1915 -
Article 1 Women and War: "We women, in International Congress Assembled, protest against the madness and horror of war, involving, as it does, a reckless sacrifice of human life and the destruction of so much that humanity has laboured through centuries to build up. This International Congress of Women opposes the assumption that women can be protected against the conditions of modern warfare. It protests vehemently against the odious wrongs of which women are the victims in time of war, and especially against the horrible violation of women which attends all war."

A few weeks after the inauguration of the Sisterhood, a second group of women in Melbourne organized themselves as The Women's Peace Army. Their leader was Miss Vida Goldstein, for years an outstanding worker for the advancement of women. She was the founder and president of the Women's Political Association, edited a paper called The Woman Voter ... ' The Quest for Peace as I have known it in Australia Eleanor M Moore

5...THE WOMEN'S PEACE ARMY

Vida Goldstein: "With another young woman of the Women's Political Association, I was selling their weekly paper at the corner of Swanston and Flinders Streets on a Saturday morning a few months after the war started. To draw attention to the small paper, we had a stencilled poster. On this Saturday the poster read 'Germany Wants Peace'. Within minutes Rachel Helsy's poster and papers were torn from her at the corner of St Paul's. Although only nineteen years old, she had taken part in the suffragette movement in England, arriving in Australia just before the outbreak of war. Realizing this would be a new experience for me, she rushed across the road and told me to drop the poster and papers quickly and slip away into the large crowd making their way to the railway station. I refused to do this and we were both attacked by the crowd. Police got through and seemed almost as angry because we had disrupted the peak hour traffic ..." Mary Brodney 'The Militant Propagandists in Action' Labour History No 5 1963 p13 from For Love or Money

Age Sunday March 4 1916: 'THEN WHO SHOULD FIGHT & PAY FOR IT? Come and find out on the YARRA BANK, Sun March 26 at 3pm Chairman: Miss Vida Goldstein Speakers: Miss Adela Pankhurst, Miss Mary Grant. If you want to understand about the War read: 'Put Up the Sword." (Adela Pankhurst) All booksellers, or 215 Latrobe St Price 2/6 On Behalf of the Women's Peace Army: Vida Goldstein, Cecilia John State Library of Victoria

Woman Voter: Melbourne March 21, 1916 Citizens! STOP! LOOK! LISTEN! What does the 'Age' say about war? 'Not for the vindication of Great Human Rights, but for CLASS MAINTENANCE and the LUST OF CONQUEST' State Library of Victoria

Woman Voter: 'In 1915, Goldstein toured Australia as chair of the Australian Peace Alliance, with Pankhurst and John, setting up branches of a new, militant, Women's Peace Army, in Sydney and Brisbane as well as Melbourne. Cecilia John, a celebrated contralto, often opened meetings with a well-known anti-war song, which was deemed to be so effective a statement against war that it was outlawed under war precautions regulations as 'prejudicial to recruiting'. She sang:

Woman Voter 25 November 1915 p 3: I didn't raise my son to be a soldier / I brought him up to be my pride and joy, / Who dares to put a musket on his shoulder / To kill some other mother's darling boy? / The nations ought to arbitrate their quarrels / It's time to put the sword and gun away / There'd be no war today, / If mothers all would say ... Chorus ...

In Brisbane, John and Pankhurst found a dedicated worker for the cause of peace in Margaret Thorp, whose home was visited by Military Intelligence in a fruitless search for copies of the printed song lyrics.' Getting Equal Marilyn Lake 1999

At another meeting,
Joan Curlewis: 'At a meeting of the WPA ... the following resolutions were passed unanimously:

1. That the WPA calls upon all Australian men and women who love freedom and justice to oppose actively every effort to impose any form of military discipline upon our people.

2. That the WPA decides to invite the women of the US, Canada, Japan and China to join with women of Australia in opposing all preparations for war in the East and for the mastery of the Pacific.

3. That the WPA urges the peace parties of all countries to demand that the peace terms shall include a provision that neutral conditions shall not be permitted to grant loans to belligerent countries for war purposes.

4. That the WPA protests against the proposal to employ boy labour in gathering the harvest and asks the government to prohibit it completely, and to employ women in the work at equal rates of pay.

5. That the WPA protests against the inconsistency and injustice of imprisoning Mr Barker, editor of Direct Action, for having issued a poster in favour of capitalists, parsons, politicians, landlords, newspaper editors and other "stay at home patriots" enlisting for service with the workers, and not proceeding against those who have issued posters urging the workers to take their places in the trenches.' SLV Joan Curlewis papers ms 1137

Women's Political Association 7 August 1914: 'This Association hopes that women everywhere, the life givers of the world will work henceforth with one mind to destroy the perverted sense of national honour, and demand that international disputes shall be adjusted by arbitration. This Association resolves to cable to the President of the International Women's Suffrage Alliance, asking that women of all nations be urged to support the actions of President Wilson and plead for immediate arbitration.' from Marilyn Lake Getting Equal Allen & Unwin 1999

The Woman Voter: '...To say that a permanent peace will be secured by crushing Germany is to speak ignorantly and foolishly.' SLV 14 September 1916

The Woman Voter: 'What can a boy think of the mother who teaches him one thing, and then countenances this legalised murder? The time has come when the women, the mothers of the world shall refuse to give their sons as material for shot and shell.' The History of Australian Feminism Marilyn Lake Allen & Unwin 1999

The Australian Women's Peace Army, Towards Permanent Peace, Equality of rights and opportunities for Men and Women of ALL Nations - Women's Peace Army platform:
1. Abolition of Conscription and Every Form of Militarism.
2. Women to be given Equal Political Rights with Men in all Countries where Representative Government Exists.
3. Education of Children in Principles of Anti-Militarism and Internationalism.
4. Self-Government Not to be Refused to Any People.
5. Respect for Nationality - No Territory to be transferred without the consent of the men and women in it. The right of conquest not to be recognised.
6. Foreign Policy to be Subject to Democratic Control.
7. General Disarmament to be aimed at by the Governments taking over the manufacture of the munitions of war and controlling International traffic in them.
8. Trade Routes to be open on equal terms to the shipping of all nations.
9. Investments to be made at the risk of the Investor, without claim to the official protection of his Government.
10. Secret Treaties to be void, and the theory of the Balance of Power to be abandoned.
11. Our Social System to be remodelled on a basis of co-operation, so that production and distribution shall be controlled by the people for the people.
12. International Disputes to be referred to an International Court of Justice, in which men and women of all classes shall be represented. JOIN THE WOMEN'S PEACE ARMY NOW!' Merrifield Collection, Ms 13045, La Trobe Library Bruce Scates and Raelene Francis Women and the Great War, Cambridge University Press 1997

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6...CIVIL LIBERTIES WERE BEING CURTAILED

Woman Voter: 'We call upon all Australians who also love freedom and justice to fight to the utmost against any Act of Parliament, or any regulation, that suspends Magna Charta and the Habeas Corpus Act.

Australia is not under martial law, and we maintain that even Parliament itself would never have passed the War Precautions Act if it had believed that it was giving the military authorities the power to arrest and keep in prison any British subject without the right to be heard in self defence. We do not know if the Reichstag has empowered the military authorities to treat a naturalized German, and even a German citizen, as Mr Wallach (German born Australian/British citizen) has been treated. If it has done so, is that any reason why we should imitate it? We are supposed to be fighting Germany because we detest her methods of oppression. Then let us prove that we do detest them, instead of passing such diabolical measures as are embodies in the War Precautions Act.' August 10 1915

7...MILITARY INTELLIGENCE CAUSED TROUBLE

Military Intelligence caused trouble for feminists in Melbourne. This is a letter from Vida Goldstein, Editor, and Cecilia John, 'We are fighting for Civil Liberty and against Military Despotism in Australia'.

'The blank spaces in last week's issue of the Woman Voter show that our paper has come under the ban of the military censor. We had been informed by letter that the two previous issues contained matter that should not have been published. As we have only made a plea for the application of the teaching of Christianity to international disputes, and were not told what we may publish about war, we put a specific question to the Censor. In last week's issue, we published the correspondence, a brief appeal to mothers, and a quotation containing a statement by Ruskin as to the responsibility of women for war. On 9th instant an armed guard, with fixed bayonets, a commanding officer, a detective, and police, took charge of the establishment of our printers, Messrs. Fraser and Jenkinson, 343 Queen Street, seized the first prints of the Woman Voter and the correspondence etc referred to above was destroyed.

We are told that we may publish anything that will "stimulate military enthusiasm" which is explained by the "Military Journal" as developing a "desire to kill." We shall continue to publish articles that plead for love instead of hatred, for arbitration instead of bloodshed, and for the observance of the commandment, "Thou shalt not kill". Our civil liberty and the freedom of the press are in jeopardy, and we are prepared to fight for both. We ask you to stand by us. The new government will take office almost immediately, and we must appeal to them to safeguard the rights of the people. We shall ask them to receive a deputation, and we urge you to accompany us when we interview the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defence. Much more, however, is necessary.

The Woman Voter is the only paper that has even attempted to make a fight for civil liberty, and we urge you to help us in that fight. Take extra copies of this week's issue, distribute the paper widely, get new subscribers.

We are fighting for Civil Liberty and against Military Despotism in Australia. We may have to suffer in many ways and we appeal for moral and financial support, so that the Woman Movement may grow stronger because it has taken this stand for righteousness.' The Woman Voter Sept 1914 from UPHILL ALL THE WAY: Documentary History of Women in Australia, Compiled and Introduced by Kay Daniels and Mary Murnane, University of Queensland Press, 1980 p.28

Woman Voter: 'At a meeting of the Women's Peace Army held on the 16th instant the following resolution was passed, with four dissentients:- "That the Women's Peace Army, believing that militarism is the greatest menace to democracy, freedom, social justice and harmony, and that Australia is being enmeshed in its toils, resolves to oppose at the next Federal election every party that supports militarism, and to support anti-militarist candidates for every constituency". December 13 1915

Woman Voter: 'At a meeting of the Women's Peace Army, held on the 2nd instant, Miss Vida Goldstein presiding, the following resolutions were passed unanimously:-

1. That the Women's Peace Army asks the Commonwealth Parliament be summoned immediately, to consider the Prime Minister's mission to England, and to give him a peace mandate from the people of Australia.

2. That in the opinion of the Women's Peace Army the method by which it proposed to raise a new army of 50,000 men is nothing short of conscription for military service abroad, and we are prepared to support those who in their love of humanity and freedom desire to resist this shameful violation of the rights of mankind.

3. As it is reported in the newspapers that though the enemy Governments are prepared to offer terms of peace, our own Government is refusing to consider them, we women, citizens of Australia, believing that war is opposed to every principle of humanity and Christianity, urge the men who asked to enlist on our account to ask in return how the women and children are to be protected from the enemies in our midst, who, under the guise of patriotism, raise the price of food and refuse to increase wages, so that families starve and mothers and children are driven into ill-paid industries, while these so-called patriots make enormous profits out of the misery of their fellow-citizens ... ' December 9 1915

Woman Voter: 'Prime Minister's Visit to London - We enter our strong protest against Mr Hughes' secret mission to London. To carry a mandate from the people should be the only reason for such a visit, and the Women's Political Union will sent its mandate by the Prime Minister - the women's terms of peace, the appointment of women to the conference that draws up the terms of peace, and our invincible opposition to conscription.' Nov 18 1915

Woman Voter: 'Asiatic Deprived of Work:- An Indian, Siva Singh, has been struck off the voters roll for (being?) Indii He appealed, but the magistrate dismissed the application with two guineas costs against Singh. If Indians are our "brothers" when it comes to a question of helping us kill our "enemies", they must also be regarded as our brothers in Australian citizenship.' September 23 1915

Attempts were made to control women's private lives -
Janette M Bomford: ' ... (Vida Goldstein) responded indignantly to the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Daniel Mannix, who had criticised women for the declining birthrate. Although she had been addressing the issue since 1901, the war heightened her passionate defence of women's right to choose not to have children. "Women are not going to be made breeding machines for the god of war ... for women will increasingly refuse to give life that men may take it ..." p 166 That Dangerous and Persuasive Woman Vida Goldstein Melbourne University Press 1993

Jeff Sparrow and Jill Sparrow: 'The censorship of Woman Voter (at one point Goldstein resorted to filling the blank pages of the paper with the message: "Mr Hughes says we may have a free press"), the police surveillance of meetings and the overt press lies about WPA members brought the organisation closer to other groups under attack from the authorities. So when waterside workers walked off the job in 1917 in protest against rising prices, Goldstein and her comrades threw their complete support behind the strike ... the WPA's key agitators soon made themselves a familiar fixture at strike meetings, urging the men not only to continue the struggle but to broaden and politicise their demands ...

By the time the men returned to work, the Guild Hall had supplied 60,000 food parcels, prepared 30,000 meals, provided 6500 haircuts, distributed 30,000 items of clothing, repaired 2000 pairs of boots and collected fifteen hundred pounds in daonations ... On the tradition Eight-Hour Day, the wharfies marched to Guild Hall and showed their gratitude with a salute to the WPA.' Radical Melbourne 1969-2001 Vulgar Press 2001

8...THE WOMAN VOTER

Marilyn Lake: 'The most active members of the WPA, Vida Goldstein, Adela Pankhurst and Cecilia John, now devoted themselves solely to peace propaganda through the WPA by means of the WPA newspaper, the Woman Voter.' SLV Joan Curlewis papers ms 11379 See Appendix 1 for resolutions of this meeting.

Eleanor Moore: 'These three had a strong following of intellectual women, one of whom, Miss Mary Fullerton, was well known as a novelist and poet. The objects of the Peace Army were not essentially different from those of the Sisterhood, and the two groups might well have combined under one name, but for what might be called a difference in tone. This, slight as it seems in retrospect, is worth recalling, because it is an important element in all organisation, and one which planners on the grand scale are apt to overlook. In practice, it causes more ruptures than do differences in principle. In wartime, moreover, when the public is excited and revengeful and Government censorship is severe, the way a thing is done matters as much as the content of the saying. Sometimes it matters more. ... If one is to go to gaol for hindering recruiting (that was the sovereign offence in 1915), or to be ducked in the river by indignant men in uniform, it is something to know that the trouble springs from the assertion of one's own principle and not from the indiscretion of a colleague.' p 28-29 The Quest for Peace As I Have Known it in Australia

Woman Voter August 10 1915: 'Men jeer at women for being silly, fond of dress, illogical, for their absorption in trifles, yet when they try to be something better and more useful they call them the "shrieking sisterhood". Men are good humourdly contemptuous of woman as she is, and fiercely scornful if she attempts to be otherwise - The Argus, in one of its few lucid moments.'

9...'PUT UP THE SWORD'

ADELA PANKHURST from the Women's Peace Army wrote a book on the sources of war: -

Woman Voter: PUT UP THE SWORD by Miss Adela Pankhurst, sets forth some causes of the European War. It does not take the extreme view that all wars are caused by Capitalism, but shows how a mixture of motives slowly but surely combines to bring about armed conflicts, and how arbitration regulations, backed up by armed force, must fail to secure peace so long as the causes underlying war are untouched.

PUT UP THE SWORD is a plea for a changed outlook upon the world, which should be seen not as a group of hostile states, but as a vast corporation. Whole, the true interests of whose inhabitants are identical.

PUT UP THE SWORD exposes some of the historic fallacies which are spread by the current war literature to confuse public opinion'. State Library of Victoria

Adela Pankhurst: 'I have written this book with the object of setting forth the causes and disastrous social effects of war, of internal warfare by the Government and monied interests of every country against the people of every country, and of international warfare promoted entirely in commercial interests. I wish to make it clear that I am assailing a vicious system, not the persons who are merely the tools of the system. They, as well as the masses of people, are apparently blind to the way in which the system lays the mines, and seeming circumstance acts as the fuse that sets uncontrollable human forces ablaze in social, industrial and international affairs.

The forces which have built up the British Empire, as we know it, are at work in Germany as well as in our own country. If the former has travelled less far along the road, it is because opportunity has been lacking; but the German record in China and in Africa proves only too surely that "Jingoism" is not a British monopoly. The same forces will have the same effects wheresoever they are in operation. The will to conquer, to hold by force, and to exploit, exists in Germany as in all other countries; but in Germany, as in Britain, there are true Patriots, who long to see for their own people a glorious future, unstained by the deceits and violence which have marked all history. We must trust them to work the necessary reforms in their own country, while we accomplish what we can in our own. Those who build upon foundations of blood and violence are building their house upon the shifting sands; let us, therefore, erect a hew human society upon the rock of Universal Justice ...

... until the so-called Great Powers, who today control the storehouses of the world, admit other nations to joint management, wars will continue to ravage the earth and destroy our civilisation. A permanent civilisation can only be built upon a foundation of justice. The present system is a denial of justice. It gives way to the strong and tramples upon the weak, it stifles the cry of the oppressed, it gives unlimited advantage to the ruthless. It weakens the race by taking the strongest, healthiest and bravest of the young men, and stamping their lives out of them, leaving young women forlorn, and children fatherless. Today we watch 10 million of men smashing what generations have build up. While they march and slay and burn they are fed and clothed by the labour of women and little children; they consume the bread of growing children, and they even drink the mothers' milk, robbing the suckling babes, whose mothers must needs wean them to work in the factories and fields, filling the places of absent men.

When years of mad slaughter have passed by, and we begin to feel the shortage of food and necessities which in our frenzy of destruction we have destroyed, and we realize that the hands to create new stores have been swept away in millions, while thousands of maimed, brutalised, maddened men will return to burden us, then we shall remember the solemn words: "Put up again thy sword into his place; for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword," and learn that by our weapons we slay, not others only, but ourselves as well.' Adela Pankhurst Walsh Put Up the Sword  published by Women's Peace Army 1915

10..WOMEN REACTED

Woman Voter January 20th 1915: ' WHO LOSES THE WAR? The men who lose their lives. The women who lose their husbands, brothers and sons. The children who lose their fathers. The workers who lose their wages, who have to pay high rents and high prices. The fathers who love their boys. The mothers who have to go out and work too soon before and too soon after the boys birth. The child who goes to work instead of to school. The babies who die from want and lack of mother's care, sacrificed to feed the fires of war. The young girls who can never be wives and mothers. The soldiers' widows and orphans who will starve on their pensions. The nation which is robbed of its young men and unborn children. All those who have brains to think and hearts to love humanity. All these different classes of people who want the war to stop at once. Are you one?' Melbourne University

By August 1915 food prices were up 41%, according to the Commonwealth statistician. Unemployment and poverty was a real problem for many women -
Pat Gowland: 'Vida Goldstein became bitter at public indifference to the suffering of unemployed women: "Collect in the streets for Belgium and eight thousand, eight hundred pounds is the result; collect for unemployed women - ten pounds sixteen." P266 Patricia Gowland from Women, Class and History ed. Elizabeth Windschuttle, Fontana 1980

Feminist women used the arguments of their antagonists to appeal for help for women and children -
Woman Voter, August 26th 1915: 'The number of necessitous women on our books grows daily, and those who are working here are very inadequately helped. We see them growing thinner and shabbier every day, and it is of the greatest moment that the well-to-do should assist us in our work. We hear complaints by women that the Government is slow to utilise their services for the prosecution of the war, and to them we say:

"The most valuable munitions of war are men who bear arms and the mothers who bear children. Every hour sees the birth of potential men and women, under conditions which make it impossible for them to live to maturity. Surely it is women's duty to provide for these future citizens. Instead of knitting and sewing for the soldiers, let the Government provide all that is necessary for the troops, paying fair wages for the work - and pay your income tax without complaint. Surely you will forego luxury, that others may have men and women worthy of your race in the future.

"Do not make shirts and socks at home or in the trams and trains, but pay for them to be done by those who need the work. Six hundred mothers here are starving for what you will not give. Is this your patriotism - that you will see your own fellow women, of your own blood, starve? If you want to sew, make us a maternity set, which will clothe a naked baby, and a suffering woman to whose mother's agony is added cold, hunger and despair.

"Help the women and children of Australia who are the backbone of the British race. Women, your country needs you. Stop knitting and send in your orders for socks at once. God save Australia's people.' University of Melbourne

Housewives' Associations formed to protest against rising prices -
International Women's Day papers 1975: 'The Housewives Association pioneered the establishment of Australian women's organisations, and it was several years before others were formed. It was founded in Victoria in 1915 by a group of enterprising women concerned by the high cost and shortage of stable (sic) food items during WW1. "We are known as helpers within a community ... our motto is "For the good we can do". State Library of Victoria

And on the other side of the political spectrum -
Joy Damousi: 'The Women in Victorian Socialist Party (VSP) encouraged female members to participate in party campaigns and become involved in propagandist activities. The most notable was Bella Lavender who frequented socialist gatherings and was a regular speaker at meetings. Other feminists and Labor Party women who continued their association with the VSP included Mary Fullerton, a poet and member of the Women's Peace Army and Women's Political Association; Amelia Lambrick, who also worked for the WPA; and Mary Killury, a Labor Party activist and staunch supporter of Vida Goldstein.

Women in the the (VSP) organised the Labor Women's Anti-Conscription Committee, which unified left-wing women against conscription. Its members conducted house-to-house visits, organised the distribution of anti-conscription literature, arranged cottage meetings and rallies and addressed factory workers during their lunch hour. Open-air gatherings were held throughout Collingwood and Prahran ... VSP women were directly involved, and Elizabeth Wallace was elected secretary. These women joined forces with Labor Party members Muriel Heagney, Doris Blackburn, Bella Lavender and Mary Killury.

Throughout 1916, the committee organised a series of successful public meetings and rallies for women only. In the first week of October, three separate meetings were held on the one night, at the Women's Political Association, Socialist Hall and Guild Hall, where women from the WPA and VSP shared the platform. The Socialist recorded that by 7.30 pm the Guild Hall was "rammed, jammed, crammed, and a few minutes afterwards the two halls were also packed to the doors".On 21 October 1916, a Women's No Conscription Demonstration took place in which socialists Baines, Bremner, Wallace, Daley, Hickey, Lewis and Webb combined with Women's Political Association members Goldstein, John, Fullerton, Gardiner, Pankhurst and Labor Party activists Killury and Lavender to lead a procession of 10 000 women from the Guild Hall in Swanston Street to the Yarra Bank, where the crowd had swelled to 50 000. In a letter to Ethel Berringer, F J Riley described the scene:

"The women's demonstration ... was a gigantic success; in fact ... we expected a procession, but we never expected to see the crowd of women who marched. The procession was over a mile long, extending from the Guild Hall right to the road that led to the Yarra Bank ... During the afternoon, from about six platforms speeches were delivered, all of which were listened to attentively ... "

11..THE UNITED WOMEN'S NO CONSCRIPTION COMMITTEE

The Woman Voter, 28 October 1916: 'The procession and demonstration by the United Women's No Conscription Committee was a supreme success. An ideal day, between 4,000 and 6,000 women processionists where only 2,000 had been hoped for, artistic tableaux and singing, a seething, sympathetic mass of onlookers along the route, a concourse of 80,000 people on Yarra Bank, earnest, thoughtful speeches, produces a demonstration of feeling such as has never before been witnessed in Australia. There was nothing to mar its success except a few ugly, isolated attempts by a few soldiers of the hooligan type, who find their way into every army, to attack women and children who took part in the procession.

And the pity of it! So desperate is the Press in its efforts to foster conscription in Australia that mendacity and malice of the most venomous kind were employed to make those who could not see the proceedings believe that violence and rioting were the chief features. The meanest and most cowardly weapon was used by the Age, which concluded its account by saying - "It was significant that, following in the rear of the procession were men engaged in selling Direct Action, the official organ of the IWW (International Workers of the World)".

This is the start of the article -
The Age 23 October 1916: 'Scenes in the City: Acts of Violence - Wild scenes of disorder attended a women's anti-conscription demonstration in the city on Saturday afternoon ... ' Bruce Scates and Raelene Francis Women and the Great War, Cambridge University Press 1997

12..CONSCRIPTION REFERENDUMS

During the conscription referendum campaigns of 1916 and 1917 the Women's Peace Army published pamphlets on behalf of the "NO" case explaining the struggle of the "Great Powers" for supremacy. They published names of prominent men who were involved in the international arms ring and also directing war from Britain.

Vida Goldstein: ' ... We do not say that this war was promoted with the deliberate object of crushing the workers, but we do say that: belief in Might, the fear of enemies without and within national boundaries, the use of the press, of armament firms, of secret diplomacy, under which the great mass of the people live in avoidable anxiety, wretchedness and ugliness, had made such a clash of interests that a clash of arms between nations prepared for war ... become inevitable when circumstances and opportunity sounded the tocsin of alarm.' P.220 The Women's Peace Army, Pat Gowland from Women, Class and History ed. Elizabeth Windschuttle, Fontana 1980

Private Papers 12th Field Ambulance Bailleul 1918 reproduced with permission from awm.gov.au EO1800

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Eleanor Moore: 'Two referendums were held, the first in October 1916, the second in December 1917. At that time voting was not compulsory, but so keen was the interest taken in the question that a larger number of electors, both men and women, than had ever been before, went to the polls. It had been put to them that, under voluntary enlistment, Australia was not sending nearly enough soldiers to Europe, and they were asked to authorize the Government to do with them what they were not prepared to do of their own free will. Not unnaturally, the majority said 'NO'!

A year went by during which America declare war on Germany, and so threw an enormous preponderance of numbers on the side of the allies. Still, the war was not won. Mr Hughes resolved to try again. Conscription to him was so essential that he declared he could not rule without it ... the reply was again "NO". The Quest for Peace as I have known it in Australia

13..ANTI-CONSCRIPTION CAMPAIGNS

Eleanor Moore: 'I deny the right of any man or State to force me to produce life against my will. On the same principle, I recognise that I have no right to force any man to take life against his will.' 'VOTE NO!!! See Appendix 1 Papers Conscription and Woman's Loyalty by Eleanor M Moore, Bruce Scates and Raelene Frances from p 75 Women and the Great War CUP

Megan McMurphy, Margot Oliver, Jeni Thornley: 'Rallies and meetings attracted large audiences, particularly in Melbourne, where the Commonwealth Government was located. Women's Peace Army members, together with labour movement women, became leading anti-conscription campaigners. A women's 'No-Conscription' demonstration in Melbourne, just prior to the 1916 referendum, drew a crowd of 80,000 to hear the extensive panel of women speakers to condemn both the war and conscription.' ... 'As the lobby for conscription of all eligible males grew stronger, so did the anti-conscription opposition. The Federal Labor government called a referendum on the subject in 1916, and anti-conscription groups sprang up in all states. Rallies and meetings attracted large audiences, particularly in Melbourne, where the Commonwealth government was located.' p 64 For Love or Money a pictorial history of women and work in Australia Penguin 1981

Women's 'NO CONSCRIPTION'

Procession from Guild Hall to Yarra Bank, Saturday October 21 (1916) at 3pm
Bands, Tableaux, Children's Peace Army, Songs
(The Lord Mayor has granted permission for the procession to be held)
Speakers: Mesdames Wallace, Baines, Lavender, Webb, Singleton, Morris, Gardiner, Reynolds, Reid; Misses Lewis, Daley, Goldstein, Pankhurst, John, McMahon, Helsby, Moody, Grant etc etc.
A meeting will be held at the Guild Hall TONIGHT at 8pm to practice songs and make final arrangements for the procession and demonstration. Tell all your women and girl friends' from For Love or Money a pictorial history of women and work in Australia Penguin 1981

THE WOMAN VOTER OCT 2 1916

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Australia's Day of Degradation - Proclamation Day Special Appeal by Women To Women
MANIFESTO Australian Women's Peace Army CONSCRIPTION VOTE NO.

14..WOMEN'S PEACE ARMY 1917 RECOMMENDED TERMS OF PEACE

Vida Goldstein's Senate Election Manifesto The Woman Voter - Vida Goldstein March 29 1917:

1. Women be given Equal Political Rights with Man in all Countries where Representative Government Exists.
2. Education of Children in Principles of Anti-Militarism and Internationalism.
3. Self-Government Not to be Refused to Any People.
4. Abolition of Conscription and Every Form of Militarism.
5. Prohibition of Press and Platform Censorship.
6. Foreign Policy to be Subject to Democratic Control.
7. General Disarmament to be aimed at by the Government taking over the manufacture of the munitions of war and controlling International traffic in them.

12. Our Social System to be remodelled on a basis of co-operation, so that production and distribution shall be controlled by the people for the people.
13. International Disputes to be referred to an International Court of Justice, in which men and women of all classes shall be represented.
14. No Declaration of War unless the people declare in favour of it by Referendum.
15. Terms of Peace to be submitted to the electors.

My lengthy programme may be summarized as follows: For Women and Children; For the People; For Internationalism; For a New Australia; For Constructive Peace by Negotiation; Against Militarism and Imperialism.' State Library of Victoria

However, many women supported the war.

15..THE HUMANIZING INFLUENCE OF WOMEN?

Eleanor Moore: 'Enfranchisement of women was then a comparatively new thing, even in Australia, and in most other countries it had not yet arrived. Advocates of womanhood suffrage had long pleaded, and believed, that woman's voice in politics would be a tremendous influence against war. We soon found out, however, that under the stress of test "the humanizing influence of women" must not be too readily taken for granted. Both our general secretary and myself, who had been officers in the National Council of Women, found that views like ours were not tolerated there, and we were obliged to withdraw. 'We approached all the well-known societies of women in Melbourne, seeking to interest them in the educational side of our movement. All but one declared it to be "most inopportune".'

The exception was the Women Teachers' Association, who consented to receive a speaker, and afterwards supported us in deputations to the Education Department. Shocked at the militaristic tone of the school paper, and at a certain "Hymn of Hate" which was being taught in some of the State schools, we more than once joined with others in approaching the Minister for Education, the Director of Education, and the editor of the school paper with the request that reading matter of a higher kind should be provided, which would be of cultural value to children of later years.' p 39 The Quest for Peace As I Have Known it in Australia

16..PATRIARCHAL ORGANISATIONS: THE AUSTRALIAN WOMEN'S NATIONAL LEAGUE (AWNL)

Reaction to Vida's success -
Janice N Brownfoot: 'Vida Goldstein's admirable poll of 51,497 votes in her 1903 campaign had shown the potentiality of the women's vote. Her success, however, aroused fear in the opposite political camp. The result was the formation of the AWNL. Despite its claims, the AWNL was not formed by women but by men. On 10 March 1904, at a meeting called by the Victorian Employers' Federation at the Melbourne Town Hall, and attended by forty ladies, the AWNL was formally launched. ... the men's aim in forming the League was to use it as an electoral body, an adjunct to the men's Leagues, and electoral activity became a most important part of League work; it was always concerned with electing men of 'character' to politics. (It was) never feminist ... and hostile to the Women's Political Association ... (it) considered it immoral. The hostility was mutual.' Women's Organisations and the Woman Movement in Victoria 1890-1908 1968 SLV

'Dear Daddy ,God Bless Our Splendid Men' State Library of Victoria sj002184

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Argus June 15 1915 p4: 'The following patriotic resolutions have been passed by the Australian Women's National League -
That the AWNL makes an offer to the Defence Department of 50,000 gas masks to equip the troops who will be leaving ourselves from time to time.
That in the event of hands being required in the making of munitions the women of the AWNL would gladly offer their services to help the Government and the Empire.
That the executive of the AWNL urge the heads of all the churches to do their utmost to stimulate recruiting by directing their clergy to bring before their people the cry of the Empire - more men, more shells.
That AWNL as a League join forces with the nursing societies.

17..WOMEN'S NATIONAL LEAGUE FOR CONSCRIPTION

The Argus 10 May 1916 p10: 'On the reassembling of Parliament tomorrow the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Cook) will present a petition for conscription which was drawn up by the AWNL, and to which over 13,000 women's signatures have been affixed in five days.'

AWNL and PRO-CONSCRIPTION -
Judith Smart quoting AWNL: '... Women should enlist as 'one great sisterhood behind that great brotherhood in arms' and vote as one for any men or measures that would win the war - especially compulsory military service.'

With their organised strength, the women of the AWNL worked publicly to inspire eligible men to enlist, regardless of the divisive effect on the community. Mrs Hughes organised and chaired many suburban meetings during Victoria's recruitment weeks of July 1915, and wrote an Appeal to the Women of Australia' during the Prime Minister's campaign of 1916. As a "soldier's wife and mother", she found it callous and incomprehensible that some women would stop men from volunteering to relieve those "calling aloud for help in the hour of terrible stress and trouble". p 186 Double Time Women in Victoria - 150 years Marilyn Lake Farley Kelly Penguin 1985

Patsy Adam-Smith: 'One week before the referendum a 'great rally of Women' was held in the Auditorium, Melbourne by the AWNL. "A magnificent demonstration" reported the Woman. "The auditorium was crowded in every part by 7 o'clock and the doors closed against a still greater crowd who vainly endeavoured to get within the building ... The Right Honourable the Prime Minister (who was accompanied by Mrs W M Hughes) received a well-deserved standing ovation by the vast audience." The AWNLWoman, p 76 Patsy Adam-Smith Australian Women at War Penguin 1984

State Library of Victoria mp0071811915

18..ONE WOMAN ONE RECRUIT LEAGUE

Carmel Shute: 'In Melbourne in mid 1917 a Miss Temperley formed a "One Woman One Recruit League" in connection with the State Recruiting Committee. By early 1918 this organisation had ... raised more than 200 recruits for the war. The pledge to the league was "To do my utmost to enlist one man by appealing through my womanhood to his manhood", and women were urged to fix on one man, even if he were the poor, unfortunate but eligible tradesman who knocked on the door each day... The National Council of Women resolved that all women and girls should refuse to play tennis, golf, or join in any kind of sport with eligible men.' p 26 Gender at Work: Australian Women at War in the Twentieth Century Joy Damousi and Marilyn Lake CUP 1995

'We're Glad You've Got A Gun' State Library of Victoria sj002224

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19..'I GAVE HIM FREELY - AS MY CHEERFUL GIFT'

Organisations such as the AWNL, which was going on for 52,000 members now, also enthusiastically supported the men who went to war -
Marilyn Lake, Farley Kelly: 'August 1914, when war erupted in Europe, and all parts of the Empire were 'wakened from their dreaming' was to the AWNL 'the long dreaded Armageddon'. Mrs Hughes (President) also regarded it as a vindication of their conservative political stance. The first object of the organisation - 'Loyalty to Throne and Empire' - assumed an unassailable religiosity, mystical rather than rational. All individuals had duties to perform according to their position in the social order and there should be no questioning of the constituted authorities.' Double Time Women in Victoria - 150 years Marilyn Lake Farley Kelly Penguin 1985

The AWNL: 'The Australian Women's National League has had to fight to maintain their existence as a League of Women inspired by Imperialistic Patriotism, resolved to give the best of their time - the best of their strength and mind - for the sake of God and country. They have won through, and are acknowledged as a powerful factor in Australian politics ... Australians ought to go down on their marrow bones every day of their lives and say, 'Thank God men go to war - the war doesn't come to us'.

'A Mother's Answer to 'a Common Soldier'
Sir, - As a mother of an only child - a son - may I say that we women, who demand to be heard, will tolerate no such cry as Peace! Peace! when there is no peace ... There is only one temperature of the British race, and that is white heat. With those who disgrace their sacred trust of motherhood we have nothing in common ... We women pass on the human ammunition of 'only sons' to fill the gaps ... if the men fail, the women won't ... Yours etc, A Little Mother'

'In some country towns, young horsewomen and girls in white rode four abreast down the street, rallying men to enlist, 'Remember women and infants in Belgium!' cried their banners, whilst their white frocks proclaimed them to be as yet unviolated.' The AWNL Woman, p 80 Patsy Adam-Smith Australian Women at War Penguin 1984

Argus May 2 1917 Australian Women's National League Rally
A Woman's Rally: Enthusiastic Demonstration - Cheers Drown Opposition
An enthusiastic rally of women electors who support the' Win-the-War' party
was held at the Town Hall last night ...

20..'MRS HUGHES AND VIDA GOLDSTEIN'

Judith Smart: 'With their organised strength, the women of the AWNL worked publicly to inspire eligible men to enlist, regardless of the divisive effects on the community. Mrs Hughes organised and chaired many suburban meetings during Victoria's recruitment weeks of July 1915, and wrote "an Appeal to the Women of Australia" during the Prime Minister's campaign at the beginning of 1916. As a "soldier's wife and mother" she found it callous and incomprehensible that some women would stop men from volunteering to relieve those "calling aloud for help in the hour of terrible stress and trouble".

She particularly reviled the pacifists in the Women's Peace Army organised by Vida Goldstein and Adela Pankhurst during 1915. To Mrs Hughes there was no inconsistency in pursuing conscription, a cause that bade fair to rouse up unprecedented conflict, while also pleading piously for the cessation of party and class strife. Consensus in this case would have to be enforced. At the end of April, 1916, the AWNL executive drew up a petition for conscription and presented it to parliament two weeks later with 15,000 signatures. Although the League was not given official status in 1916 on the pro-conscription body, Mrs Hughes was immediately invited to join the executive of the Reinforcement Campaign Council during the second campaign at the end of 1917. The urging of AWNL leaders for 'drastic steps' against 'disloyal utterances, seditious speeches, and disloyal publications' had a more sympathetic response now that the Labor Party was no longer in power and the need to placate its followers had disappeared.' p 186-187 Double Time Women in Victoria - 150 years Marilyn Lake Farley Kelly Penguin 1985

Vida Goldstein: 'To Mrs Hughes "the oneness of Empire was beyond all politics", and it quickly became apparent that her idea of consensus meant the submission of others - especially in the labour movement - to conservative principles. In the four arduous years of the war Mrs Hughes called unceasingly for sacrifice, but the measures she suggested indicate that it was the workers and their families who were asked to suffer and endure, not the employers.' Woman Voter University of Melbourne

In the next chapter, 7 'War - Women's Work', we look at women's work in the First World War.

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