Quote:
Originally Posted by TrevorW
It was interesting to hear some stats this morning on the radio
at the beginiing of the 1st WW our population was only 4 million of this 300,000 Australian's volunteered to fight in a war that would never have affected our country directly.
|
I don't know how well known it is that, of all the combatant nations in that war, Australia had the highest per capita casualty rate. Most of that was naive young men from rural Australia who had no idea what was in store for them. Later in the war, after enough bodies had returned (or not returned) the number enlisting dropped to the point that the government, under strong pressure from the British to supply more troops, tried to introduce conscription. Despite a furious media campaign the Australian voters rejected this - twice. This was our first, and some say greatest, act of self-determination.