The Royal Australian Air Force had 3500 men, though it lacked effective aircraft. The CMF stood at 80,000, but it had a poor reputation and was under-equipped. The Universal Training Scheme had been suspended 10 years earlier and Australia’s regular army comprised only 3,000 men. However, at that time Australia’s military forces were seriously depleted. Outbreak of the Second World WarĪs a result of Britain’s declaration of war on Germany, on 3 September 1939 Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced on national radio that Australia was also at war. The ‘no’ vote prevailed on both occasions. When the number of volunteers for the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), which was serving overseas, began to wane, the Hughes Labor government held two referendums to introduce conscription for overseas service. With the outbreak of the First World War, compulsory military service was still limited to service inside Australia and its territories. The CMF was similar to our present-day Army Reserve. Those aged between 14 and 17 joined cadet ranks, and men over 18 joined the Citizen Forces, known as the Citizen Military Forces (CMF) from 1916, which comprised part-time volunteers. The scheme established compulsory naval or military training for all Australian males between the ages of 12 and 26 who were British subjects. Australia was the only English-speaking country which had such a system. The government acted on this advice and from 1911 introduced the Universal Training Scheme.
In his report, Kitchener recommended Australia introduce compulsory military training. In 1909, at the invitation of Prime Minister Alfred Deakin, Britain’s Field Marshal Herbert Kitchener visited Australia to inspect the young nation’s defence preparedness. However, it did not allow that soldiers be conscripted for overseas service. The Act established the government’s right to conscript men for the purpose of self-defence in the event of war.
One of the first pieces of legislation passed by the new Commonwealth government after Federation was the Defence Act 1903, which provided for the raising of an Australian army.
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