Abstract
ABSTRACTThe subject of this paper examines the use of intelligence by the Australian government during the conscription controversies of World War One. Throughout the war, the government of William Morris Hughes had been engaged in a bitter conflict with radicals, trade unions, Irish nationalists, and members of the Labor Party over implementing the policy of military conscription. Twice the issue was put to the Australian people in a referendum, and twice it was defeated. The Hughes government saw this defeat partly as the result of the anti-conscription movement. Consequently, it had no scruples in using the intelligence services to suppress its political enemies. Within this context, this paper looks at how intelligence, throughout the conscription campaigns, became a means of suppressing political opposition and dissent. It discusses the government’s rationale for such behaviour and offers an assessment of the circumambient conditions that enabled intelligence to be used for political gain.
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