Talk:1917 Australian conscription referendum

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Untitled[edit]

If there is only one question, why is it numbered "2"? Rick K 07:00, Jan 5, 2005 (UTC)

Renaming proposal[edit]

There is a long-standing proposal, without objection, to rename the page Australian plebiscite, 1917 to reflect that all of the historical documentation refer to the ballot as a referendum, even though it did not involve a proposal to amend the Australian Constitution: "Conscription referendums, 1916 and 1917 – Fact sheet 161". National Archives of Australia. The discussion is on the talk page - Australian plebiscite, 1916 Should be renamed. I will give it another month (say 13 January 2017) & unless someone objects I will move this article to match as "Australian conscription referendum, 1917" Find bruce (talk) 05:41, 12 December 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Article renamed "Australian referendum, 1917 (Conscription)" to reflect the consensus at Talk:Australian referendum, 1916 (Conscription) on the important words referendum & conscription & using the naming convention used in most other referendum articles Find bruce (talk) 20:28, 13 January 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Question[edit]

An IP user edited the page to change the question from overseas to oversea. My initial reaction was that this was a simple act of vandalism & it would appear that @Mitch Ames: had a similar view. Upon checking the War Precautions (Military Service Referendum) Regulations 1917 I was surprised to see that "oversea" is correct - apparently reflecting British usage at the time. --Find bruce (talk) 00:30, 3 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

I checked other references (written after the fact), which say either:

[1] Are you in favour of the proposal of the Commonwealth Government for reinforcing the Commonwealth Forces overseas?
[2] Are you in favour of the proposal of the Commonwealth Government for reinforcing the Australian Imperial Force overseas?

The REGULATIONS UNDER THE WAR PRECAUTIONS ACT 1914-1916 was written as an instruction before the fact ("The prescribed question shall be") so while indicative, it is not strictly a statement as to what the question actually was. I've tried to locate an image of an actual ballot paper showing the question, but haven't found one.

I suggest that given the discrepancy, one of the later refs (which say what the question was, rather than what it shall be), should take precedence. Ideally someone will find an image of the actual ballet paper. Mitch Ames (talk) 11:50, 3 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

The regulation is mandatory, which authorises the issuing of the writ by the Governor-General [3]. The contemporaneous reliable sources spell it without an s (Trove search) both before [4] and after [5] the poll, including those that reproduced the ballot paper Telegraph SMH. The parliament published the question without an s in the statistical returns in April 1918 (with identical spelling in the returns for each state) and subsequently from 1923 through to 1943. --Find bruce (talk) 03:06, 4 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

OK, thanks. I've added a couple of refs for the wording. Mitch Ames (talk) 12:30, 4 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]