The accuracy of the statement that Australian wartime controls in World War I had greater impact than they did in World War II is contentious. However, government sanctioned wartime controls in World War II had greater impact due to the more developed and efficient manner in which it was conducted. The World Wars were fought using enormous numbers of materials and millions of people. It became the duty of the civilian population to produce the masses of equipment, ammunition, weapons, food and transport necessary to continue the military effort.
This collective effort was cited as ‘total war’, due it being a new type of warfare which required the involvement of total economies and societies. The Commonwealth government accordingly implemented a wide range of wartime controls and measures in readiness for the situation of total war. The government used national security as pretext to heavily marshal resources and limit civil liberties and individual freedom. Total war involved greatly increased power for the government, restrictions on the civilian population and employment of women in traditionally male held jobs.
To varying degrees, governments controlled and mobilised all their nation’s resources to the effort of winning during both world wats. They achieved this through the aspects of censorship, propaganda, the changing role of women in family and class structures owing to the absence of men. Moreover, when war broke out in September 1939, the Australian Government was more adequately prepared for it than in 1914. Like in 1914, most Australians seemed to support the decision to be involved in the war. As in World War 1, the Commonwealth Government imposed a large number of new controls over people’s lives.
They did this through the authority of the National Security Act of 1939. This Act did two major things: it effectively overruled the Constitution for the duration of the war-giving the Commonwealth power to make laws in areas where it did not have that power under the Constitution; and it effectively overrode the power of parliament by giving the government power to make regulations, meaning that only a few ministers and the Governor-general were required to approve of plans. The war had a dramatic impact on many aspects of the Australian home front, and one area where changes occurred was in the role of women.
It was during World War II that Australian women played a more active and important role compared to that in World War I. Both wars were considered total wars – conflicts in which all sides are expected to participate. This meant that people on the home front were expected to make economic and social sacrifices to expand the war effort, a notion epitomised by the common term, ‘equality of sacrifice’. However, in the first World War, the power of this notion was not extended to women whose efforts were often rejected and refused by the government.
Males were conscripted into armed combat, leading to acute labour shortages and many holes in the paid workforce – with employers reluctant to hire females. Military roles were noncombatant and underpaid and were usually nursing occupations. Australian women faced little change in the economic and social position since they were assembled into the worst paid jobs and met with hostility. Even in volunteer positions, women contributed immensely in supporting troops serving overseas. One such way they did this was through volunteer aid organizations like the Red Cross.
John McQuilton wrote in his book, Rural Australia and the Great War; Why did so many regional women join the Red Cross? For many, it simply represented a continuation of voluntary service … For some women, the Red Cross served a social function… The majority, however, joined the Red Cross because they had sons, brothers and fathers fighting in the trenches. The organisation offered a tangible way to help end the war and bring the men home Despite women’s significant contribution and mobilisation essential for victory in the first world war, many pre-war attitudes were hardly changed.
Overall, World War II did have a more significant effect on women due to the war needing even more centralised workers to support war time economy. Women were more readily accepted into traditional male jobs and thus set a new precedent into the role of women in society. The second world war ensured that nothing would ever be the same again for women. Another facet of government control during both wars were censorship and propaganda. These two concepts are closely linked as they were both methods employed by the government to control public opinion and maintain morale on the home front.
The government exercised significant control over censorship and the flow of information available to the public. Official censorship was imposed as soon as the first World War broke out to ensure that the Australian public rarely learned how the fighting was truly progressing. Soldier’s letters and postcards were intercepted and heavily censored, with civilian correspondence also subject to censorship. This was all in an effort to suppress strategic military information potentially revealing campaigns and positions, which would then be utilised by the enemy.
However, it was during World War II, that the newly established Department of Information took on a larger scale suppression the communication of information it deemed too sensitive or detrimental towards the war effort. In addition to this, the advent of radio technology provided another avenue of public communication and information which the government also controlled. They ensured that radios and mass media provided positive war reports, one instance being the Darwin air raids of 1941. Print media reported that 17 casualties and 24 injuries occurred when in reality the raids had suffered 243 casualties and resulted in 400 wounded.
It was in World War II however that propaganda truly impacted the people as it was utilised to an unprecedented scale. In these total wars; the weapon of language was mobilised into service just as much as men going into war. The barometer of public morale needed careful management and propaganda in mass media was pressed into duty to capture the hearts and minds of the people. A mass of officially produced propaganda created false images of warfare and the nature of soldiers themselves, whether they were allied or enemy.
Realistic images of wounded and dead soldiers in the trenches was banned. Unpleasant defeats and terrible carnage were blurred, presented as victories or not reported at all. It was characteristic of Australian propaganda during World War I to disseminate strong patriotic values and imperialist feeling. Powerful and violent propaganda surfaced during the conscription debates of World War I. It was most powerfully and violently used during World War II as propaganda severely demonised the German people.
During the nascent stages of the war, enthusiasm was high- but as more and more people became aware of the atrocities of wars, enlistment declined. The government also utilised propaganda since it minimised potential division in society. The government badly needed propaganda on the home front in order to convince the doubting elements within society of the justice of their involvement in the struggle. Official propagandists devised the term the ‘home front’ to mobilise civilians into believing that remaining at home was like being a part of the battlefield.
They created deeply emotional appeals through the use of simple slogans, pejorative and stereotyped depictions of the enemy, making biased assertions. The images were believable in that they stressed the imperialism and nationalism that people had already been indoctrinated to believe, and that they drew on traditional values of the society they served. One World War | propaganda slogan epitomises this idea clearly; Australians arise! Save her from this shame! Many conclusions can be inferred/drawn from the facts presented in the sources and rguments above, in relation to the Australian government’s control on the home front in both World Wars.
Although these forms of government wartime controls were prevalent in both wars, it was more impactful on the home front in World War II due to the effective and efficient manner in which they were operated. This was due to societal progress and the acceleration of technology in the fields of censorship, propaganda and the role of women. Nevertheless, this conclusion does not withdraw from the great scale and purpose from which both wars used on a mass scale.