a Pox on the Australian Army

SOYMB hoping to do its part in demythologising the glory of war and exposing the hypocrisy of war puts on the web this article about the Australian Army during the First World War .

The Socialist Labor Party, Ernie Judd and his observation on the Australian Imperial Force in the First World War.

An Australian comrade recounts an incident of socialist opposition to the First World War in Australia.

As the First World War carnage worked its way through the ranks of the British regular army and that the male population of Britain were having second thoughts about volunteering to become cannon fodder, the British government resorted to conscription. The Australian Labor Party's Prime Minister, one William Morris Hughes, instigated two referendum, one in October 1916 and the other in December 1917, to determine the question of conscription for overseas service. The Australian electorate rejected the call for conscription, thus enlistment into the Australian Imperial Force for specific overseas service continued to be from volunteers. During the war years a total of 416,809 Australians enlisted for service with the Australian Imperial Force (A.I.F), with 330,714 embarking overseas with the A.I.F.

Non-conscription did not stop the white feather brigade plucking ducks in their relentless recruitment drives, nor did it stop the governing powers implementing its draconian laws e.g. the War Precautions Act. One person who was a continual flea-in-the-ear of the Australian government by his criticism e.g. of the 1916 trial of members of the I.W.W., his opposition to conscription, and his anti-war rhetoric, was Ernest Edward Judd of the Socialist Labour Party.

The authorities eventually indicted Ernie Judd (towards the end of the war) on three counts of contravening the War Precautions Act, 1914-15. Judd appeared in the Supreme Court of New South Wales on the 3rd December 1918. The third count of the indictment stated that on the 16th June 1918 he had contravened Regulation No 28 (1) (b) of the War Precautions Act, by making statements likely to prejudice the recruiting of His Majesty's Forces. Judd whilst speaking on the Sydney Domain had cause to admonish four drunken soldiers who in an attempt to break up the meeting were attacking his brother. In doing so Judd had said 'Most of the soldiers that I have seen who want so much to fight are the men who get no further than Cairo and the Egyptian women'. During the cross examination of Judd at his trial it was charged by the Crown prosecutor that he had inferred on the 16th June 1918 that the Australian Imperial Force (A.I.F) had got no further then Cairo and the Egyptian women.

In answering the third indictment count Judd referred to a newspaper article published a few days before his Domain public lecture i.e. 'Liquor Law Broken - Many Girls Over 14 Years Associating With Soldiers' (13th June 1918 , The Melbourne Herald). The article voiced the many concerns conveyed by a deputation from the Presbyterian Assembly of Victoria to the Victorian Government Premier. The Rev G.S. Brodie, of the Assembly's temperance committee is quoted as saying to the Premier - 'Were they aware that there were 63,000 men who had enlisted, but had never gone to the front, as a result of drunkenness ? Did they know that 10,000 men had to be sent back before reaching the firing line because of venereal disease? '.

Whence the Rev Brodie obtained his figures of drunkenness and VD amongst Australian soldiers has proven evasive to this writer. However an official publication published in 1943 (THE AUSTRALIAN ARMY MEDICAL SERVICES OF THE WAR OF 1914 - 1918, VOL III, by A G Butler, Canberra) does throw some light on the subjects of drunkenness and VD in the A.I.F.. The book tabulates the 181 Groups of non-battle disabilities through which men of the A.I.F. were rendered unfit temporarily or permanently for service; VD (Groups 58 to 61, ) and alcoholism (Group 104 , ) being two of the listed disabilities.

Butler's tome documents the various VD diseases and the methods to combat the clap e.g. 'Blue Light' early treatment depots , the establishment of VD hospitals , the issue of prophylactics - from early June 1917 to December 1918, some 142,609 condoms were issued. The number of overseas A.I.F personnel (for all theatres during the war) admitted to hospital for treatment of VD was 84.79 admissions per 1,000 p.a. . However a contradictory statement suggests 'The total incidence on 330,714 embarkations works out at 158 per thousand').

Maj. Gen N.R. Howse (Director of Medical Services, A.I.F.) was given a free hand from the Australian government to attack the VD problem, thereby ' promoting military efficiency and saving the national purse' .

(The total cost to the Australian government for combating clap amongst the A.I.F. is not mentioned in Butler's tome. There is an indication however that the estimated cost to the New Zealand state was £70,000 a year for the treatment of VD amongst the NZ Expeditionary Forces . The No3 NZ General Hospital, that treated NZEF VD cases, was located in England, at Codford! ).

Gen. Howse had not been impressed by the number of A.I.F. personnel being admitted to the Australian Dermatological Hospital in Egypt for the treatment of VD, nor the treatment results. The tabulated data in Butler's book for the four year period, 1915 to 1918, computes to an average rate of VD admissions to the A.D.H. as 108.5 per 1000 . The A.I.F.'s Egyptian Expeditionary Force average strength for each of the four years, war was 26800 p.a. This computes to a rough total figure of 11,600 A.I.F. E.E.F. personnel being treated for the clap, although how many were shipped back to Australia for treatment is not shown, as the return of A.I.F. personnel to Australia for VD treatment stopped in October 1915 . In retrospect Judd's 16th June 1918 observation about the A.I.F. in Cairo had some justification.

The exact number of A.I.F. troops returned to Australia for treatment at the military Langwarrin VD Hospital pre October 1915 is not specified in the total admission numbers. However an ambit figure of VD cases that might have been shipped back, up and until October 1915, ranges from 733 to 3161 personnel .The total number of troops treated for VD at Langwarrin for the period commencing March 1915 to 1919, is approximately 6500 (Though open to conjecture it is assumed by this writer that most of the A.I.F. being treated at the Langwarrin VD hospital had contracted the clap without leaving the shores of Australia).

Although the numbers at the Langwarrin VD Hospital were far less then Rev Brodie's quoted figure of 10,000, data for the years 1915 to 1917 indicate that 11,230 A.I.F. personnel were admitted to Australian camp hospitals for the treatment of VD. Rev Brodie's concerns most likely mirrored that of other Melbournian moralists from having such a VD hospital so near Melbourne. (Langwarrin, near Mordialloc, some 30 km S.S.E. of Melbourne, Victoria, within reach of the city's delights - and no doubt willing young maidens ready to do their bit for the patriotic war).

However the Rev Brodie's concerns were unwarranted as personnel undergoing a course of silver salt injections, or saline dressings, etc., at the Langwarrin VD hospital, were not granted leave , nor was any pay issued to the rank and file . (Commissioned officers were not paid their field allowances). The inmates were restricted to the hospital grounds , being policed by their own kind, and had to partake of the entertainment amenities therein . Once given a clean bill of health is was home on leave and thence back to the trenches.

Alcoholism is recorded in Butler's tome as a disability with a rating of just over 50 per 1000 - although this ratio relates just to the data collected at Western front hospitals only. There is no indication as to any men being returned to Australia for too much arm bending, although 8+ men subsequently received a pension for the disability of alcoholism. Those in receipt of a disability for a VD disease numbered approximately 50 , but no indication as to whether the recipients were Other Ranks or Officers. It is suggested by the Australian War Memorial Research Centre, (per. comm.) that a reason for there being less information on drunkenness/alcoholism is that it was prevalent and considered less serious.

The A.I.F. overseas were not subject to harsh military discipline imposed on malcontents in the British and French etc., ranks, by their own military hierarchies. The A.I.F. did not have to face the death penalty - even though the Australian P.M. Hughes was under pressure by the British government to introduce it. Thus going A.W.O.L. or deserting, insubordination (in particular to British officers), being drunk (on or off duty), or deliberately contracting the clap (to get a bit of hospital rest), were looked on as a bit of a laugh .

Whether or not it had any bearing on the figures cited by the Rev. Brodie , Judd was found Not Guilty of the third count in the indictment of the 3rd December 1918 (However Judd was found Guilty of the 1st and 2nd counts of the indictment, and subsequently faced huge costs and fines). It has been suggested that the P.M. , Billy 'the Little Digger' Hughes, had much to do with pursuing Socialist Judd to the Courts.

(The transcript of Judd's address to the jury was subsequently published as JUDD'S SPEECH FROM THE DOCK . The Worker Trade Union Print, 1919).
“GEORGE BRUNKER”