The Bulletin, 1916

WWI issue

Forced to Fight?

By the time of the First World War, The Bulletin, that feisty weekly founded in 1880, had lost much of its radicalism. While it had opposed Australia’s involvement in the Boer War at the turn of the century, it now supported our involvement in World War I and the two referenda to approve conscription for that war.

Norman Lindsay was resident cartoonist and his cartoons provided visual support for the pro-conscription line, with attacks on the moral character of anti-conscriptionists.

The two referenda, held on 28 October 1916 and 20 December 1917, to approve conscription for overseas service, were fought with great bitterness and divided the nation. Both were lost. Although such referenda had no legal status, they were an attempt to gain a popular mandate against a Senate which would not pass the legislation for conscription.
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