Boyhood Conscription
The government of prime minister Alfred Deakin and other non-Labor governments had introduced a form of conscription for boys from 12 to 14 years of age and for youths from 18 to 20 years of age between 1905 and 1909.
An Australian Labor Party government instituted a system of compulsory military training for all males aged between 12 and 26 from 1 January 1911.
John Barrett, in his study of boy conscription, Falling In, noted:
- "In 1911 there were approximately 350,000 boys of an age (10–17 years) to register for compulsory training up to the end of 1915. Since 'universal' was a misnomer, about half that number were exempted from training, or perhaps never registered, reducing the group to 175,000."
There was also extensive opposition to boyhood conscription resulting in, by July 1915, some 34,000 prosecutions and 7,000 detentions of trainees, parents, employers or other persons required to register.
Read more about this topic: Conscription In Australia
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