In an editorial on Armistice day, the New Zealand Herald wrote the following nonsense.
When it was announced at 3pm on August 5th, 1914, that the fledging nation of New Zealand was going to war on the other side of the world, patriotic young men cheered and rushed to sign up and do their duty.
That passage is hogwash and reflects the sad decline in print media standards. A mere three decades back when our newspapers had informed back-room staff, it could never have been published.
Here are the facts.
What was noteworthy about young men’s response, in both Australia and New Zealand in 1914, was that they were subject to the first ever polls conducted in both countries, in this case as to their motives for volunteering. And in both countries they overwhelmingly declared that they viewed signing up as an opportunity to “travel and see the world”. Patriotism never came into it.
If that sounds odd bear in mind that in 1914 both Australia and New Zealand, compared to today, were very simple economies.
Eighteen year olds were living lives of long hours’ manual labour drudgery and almost certainly had never been more than a mile or so from their homes, and then rarely. So too back then the proportion of our population living in rural districts and toiling on farms was possibly a hundred times greater than today with the current relentless growth of large cities, attractive for their superior life-styles and variety of employment opportunities.
But far from seeing the world they found themselves living a hellish existence in trenches.
When word of this nightmare reality reached home, by 1916, despite white feathering, young men sensibly refused to enlist. There was talk of conscription but thanks to the trade unions in concert with the Catholic church, this was successfully resisted.
Mindful of that history, the advent of the second world war, despite being a more virtuous mission, saw our governments take no chances and immediately introduced compulsory conscription.
This article was originally published by No Punches Pulled.
