Conscription and Censorship essays

Conscription and Censorship essays How and why did the federal government introduce conscription and censorship on the Australian Home front? What was the role of women on the home front? When World War Two was declared, Australia became fearful of the possibility of invasion by another country. As an almost immediate reaction Australias laws regarding conscription and censorship were dramatically changed. Conscription had divided Australia in the First World War and was introduced in 1939 with virtually no protest. After the National Security Act 1939 was introduced, women were entered into services including the land army and defence forces. In October 1939 conscription was introduced for men aged twenty and as the seriousness of the war increased the terms for conscription constantly changed. Unlike World War One there was very little opposition to introducing conscription* among the public and Prime Minister Robert Menzies found it very easy to introduce conscription to Australia. Conscription laws changed twice, first in 1940 in which all unmarried men at the age of twenty-one were conscripted and second in 1942 where all married men without children as well as all single men from ages eighteen to thirty-three were conscripted. In February 1943 the Federal Government extended the area that conscripts could fight to the whole of the South West Pacific Area. This was changed because of increasing pressure from American General Macarthur. He thought that it was unfair that American conscripts should have to fight overseas while Australian conscripts stay in Australia. During the last year of the World War the amou nt of conscripted men was reduced to one hundred thousand people, as the Australian economy was unable to support the large amount of people out of work. Just days after war was declared censorship of news on the radio and in the press was introduced and these restrictions were to last for the remainder of the war. A Department of In...