Excerpt from The Empire Review and Journal of British Trade, Vol. 32: February, 1918 For the second time in the space of a little more than twelve months Australia has been plunged in the maelstrom Of con scription. Again, the Commonwealth has pronounced against the issue, and on this occasion the negative vote has been substantially increased. The size of the adverse majority is surprising. To the Government it must have been an intense disappointment, for it can scarcely be supposed that the Ministry would have embarked on another campaign unless they were fortified with reasonable prospects of a favourable result. If it is to be interpreted as a pronouncement that the Commonwealth is war-weary, it is a deep humiliation to every Australian as well as every well wisher of that young country. Again, this announcement came at a juncture when the Entente Powers were suffering from the effect of the military stagnation of the Russians, and had not yet recovered from the unfortunate recent developments in Italy. The news may well have been a cause of irritation to the British Government. If sharp criticism had been directed against the Commonwealth, Australians could hardly have complained; but little has been said by the press or public men. Everybody regrets the circum stances, but nothing savouring of reproach or bitterness has been heard; and I, in common with many other Australians, feel the deepest gratitude to the people in this country for the generous manner in which they have viewed the recurrence of this unpleasant episode in our national life. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.