Are you in favour of the Government having, in this grave emergency, the same compulsory powers over citizens in regard to requiring their military service, for the term of this War, outside the Commonwealth, as it now has in regard to military service within the Commonwealth"

28th October 1916 this was proposed to the Australian public in the form of a referendum. This was the idea of conscription; conscription is the compulsory enrollment of men for military or a naval service it is also known as drafting.

At the start of WWI, Prime Minister Joseph cook declared. "Australia is a part of the empire right to the full, when the empire is at war, so is Australia at war .all our resources are in the empire and for the preservation and security of the empire. Maybe he did not think that resources might end up meaning men.

From the...