Modelo del tamaño de lote económico (EOQ).

21 November 1911 To Mr Howroyd, Parliament House, Hobart, Tasmania. Sir,

We, the undersigned residents of the Reserve on Cape Barren Island, entreat you to use your very best endeavours to prevent certain Regulations that are about to be placed before Parliament being carried or passed through.

The Homestead Block is not large enough; it should be five acres each.

That the requirements and restrictions put on the Agricultural Blocks are too severe, and we do not see our way to carry them out.

That we do not require any person to oversee and rule over us, as we are quite capable of managing our own respective blocks.

That we have been given to understand that all unmarried girls and women over the age of 18 years are compelled to take a Homestead Block and Agricultural Block, as that will be most desirable.

That the lease free of rent be given within six months.

We would suggest that a Committee be appointed among ourselves, and that as we are quite capable of managing our own affairs, and know our requirements for the Reserve, and that any regulations we may make be submitted to Parliament and on approval to be made lawful. (signed by 72 residents)

On the eve of the First World War, Australia was a land of contrasts with basically two groups of people: those who were ‘white’ under the meaning of the Immigration Restriction Act and were therefore considered citizens with all the rights that went with it, whether born here or naturalised, and ‘non-whites’ including Australian Aborigines. In the minds of some, Aborigines were considered not to have ‘reached that standard of civilization to understand, much less assimilate’ and as such were marginalised with many people’s lives being closely managed under the auspices of a number of state based Aboriginal Protection Acts.1 _{The Chinese were in a similarly}

1 _{W. O. Mansbridge, ‘A Scheme for Training the Aboriginal Natives in the Northern Portions of}

the Commonwealth’ Military Journal, January 1912, pp.99-100; examples of Aboriginal Protection Acts – ‘An Act for the Protection and Management of the Aboriginal Natives of Victoria 1869, 33 Victoria No. 349’ ; ‘The Aboriginal Protection and Restrictions on the Sale of Opium Act 1897’ No. 17 (Queensland) and ‘The Aborigines Protection Act 1909[short title] No 25 (New South Wales)

44 disadvantaged situation, despite the fact that some members of the community had been resident in Australia for several generations.

This chapter argues that while Aboriginal people were marginalised under the legislative and administrative frameworks that governed military training and service in the pre-war period, but this did not dampen their enthusiasm to enlist. In this chapter I examine the White Australia Policy and how it impacts on the Defence Act in relation to Aboriginal people. I also consider the implementation of the universal training scheme for Australia’s youths and the extent to which young Aboriginal men in isolated Tasmanian communities were excluded from participation. I also look at the impact of the declaration of war on the remote Aboriginal community of Cape Barren Island.

In 1901 the fathers of Federation felt that Australia needed to be protected at all cost against an ‘influx of aliens, Asiatics, [sic] criminals, paupers and other undesirable classes.’2 _{There was a fear amongst many in the community that large-scale foreign} immigration would have an impact on wages. Politicians in particular worried that the ‘creation of a racially-based, political underclass, living on very low wages which meant they could only afford sub-standard housing, food and clothing would undermine the egalitarian society which most democratically-minded people wanted Australia to be.’3 _{In order to secure its borders and to maintain a European based civilization the} ‘White Australia’ policy was developed as a ‘defensive reaction by a society acutely conscious of its small population in relation to the geographical area it was seeking to hold and effectively occupy.’4 _{Much of the motivation came from a racism that had its} origins on the goldfields of Victoria, and a desire to protect hard won living standards which were the envy of many other countries.

The passing of the Immigration Restriction Act of 1901, effectively excluded non-white migrants from gaining access to Australia as well as providing a mechanism through which the authorities could deport non-Europeans already living in the country. Australia’s Aborigines though, could not be deported under the legislation. There was an expectation among many in the community that like the Tasmanian Aborigines they too would be expected to ‘die out in the fullness of time.’ Legislators hoped that the

2 _{D. Day, The ‘White Australia’ Policy [online] in C. Bridge and B. Attard, Between Empire and}

Nation: Australia’s External Relations from Federation to the Second World War (Kew, 2000),

3 _{K. Windschuttle, The White Australia Policy [online] The Sydney Papers Vol 17, No. 3-4}

Winter/Spring 2005 p.131

45 same would apply to the predominantly male Chinese community. An apparatus of discriminatory laws was put in place in the hope of encouraging Chinese and other Asiatic peoples to leave rather than need to be deported. The introduction of a dictation test for immigrants ‘allowed racial exclusion under the guise of an educational test,’ but one that was not objected to by Great Britain, anxious not to offend countries such as Japan that were increasingly becoming a naval ally in the Pacific.5

Serving in times of peace as in war:

While vigorously ‘defending’ Australia’s shores from non-Europeans, in the opinion of Jeffrey Grey, the military defence of its shores was at the same time receiving very little attention. Not until after Japan’s naval victory over the Russians in 1905 did this situation change when there was a concerted push by the National Defence League, made up of a group of powerful and influential individuals including W.M. Hughes, to bring the defence of Australia out of the shadows with the passing of legislation that would require Australia’s young men to undergo some form of military training.6 _{On 1} January 1911 amendments to the Defence Act were passed in the Federal Parliament introducing a scheme of universal and mandatory military training for all males between the ages of 12 and 25. The Act required all boys between 12 and 14 to become junior cadets and all between 14 and 18 to serve in senior cadets.7 _{Once they} reached 18 years, they then became members of the Citizen Military Force.

It was predicted that of the 188,000 eligible senior cadets around Australia, 100,000 would be under training when the scheme finally matured. A simple medical examination was used to weed out those who should be given an exemption on health grounds, whether permanently, for those with physical handicaps, or temporary, for those clearly in poor health. Further exemptions were given to those who lived too far away from training facilities to reasonably be expected to attend.8 _{While apparently} there was no exemption for anyone applying on religious grounds, any such people could be allotted to non-combatant duties instead. Also to be allotted to non-

5 _{D. Day, The White Australia Policy}

6 _{J. Grey, , A Military History of Australia (Cambridge, 2008), p.74}

7 _{C. Stockings, ‘Australia’s Boy Soldiers; The army cadet movement’ in C. Stockings and J.}

Connor, eds., Before the Anzac Dawn: A military history of Australia to 1915 (Sydney, 2013) p.195

8 _{J. Barrett, Falling In; Australians and ‘Boy Conscripts’ 1911-1915 (Marrickville, 1979)pp.70-}

46 combatant duties were those who ‘were not substantially of European origin or descent’: they were however, still required to be part of the cadet system, regardless of the colour of their skin. The fact that distinctions were drawn along racial lines can be seen as a prelude to what was to come three years later at the beginning of the First World War.

Far from being universal, it was in fact a scheme that provided military training only to urban youths and those in towns or areas with a sufficient population base to produce at least 60 boys liable for senior cadet training. This provision in the act meant that many boys living in country towns and centres right round Australia, were in fact exempt and not liable under the Act. This is borne out by an examination of the Attestation Papers for those wishing to join the Australian Imperial Force, where many claimed to have been exempt (reasons usually unspecified) from having served previously in either the Militia, the Militia Reserve, Territorial Forces or Colonial Forces.9 _{This applied to Flinders Island and Cape Barren Island located on the north-} east tip of Tasmania where there was insufficient population base on either island or as a combined group to support a senior cadet corps, despite representations being made in 1911 by schoolmaster Captain J. M. Bladon. Just how many Tasmanian youths would have been liable for training under this scheme is open to debate given that in 1911 Tasmania was a heavily rural based economy with many small towns that would have struggled to produce the required number for a senior cadet corps.

On Cape Barren Island Schoolmaster Bladon found other obstacles stood in his way, apart from a lack of numbers required for the formation a senior cadet corps. Even if he had been able to get his wish, he would have then had to face the issue as to whether some of the Straitsmen would qualify as being of ‘substantially European origin or descent. The number of settler Australians living on either island being very small. This was also at a time when the Commonwealth Attorney General was yet to give his opinion as to whether the Cape Barren Islanders with their mixed heritage were in fact Aborigines. If not, then Bladon’s next problem would have been what type of training, if any, could he have given them under this new legislation.

From Bladon’s correspondence with Tasmanian Premier Lewis in January 1911, he made his intentions towards the island’s youth quite clear: that they should be inculcated with the principles of discipline and patriotism ‘required of a citizen of the

47 empire.’ Such sentiments were similar to those expressed in relation to the earlier cadet organisation started in the previous century, but also reflect Bladon’s own personal views which were contemporaneous with earlier attitudes.10 _Bladon’s request for rifles for the men whom he hoped to train also indicates that he intended to take things a step further, by providing them with some form of military training which may have been contrary to the legislation. Bladon full of good rather high minded intentions seems not to have thought through his plans or intentions sufficiently in light of the legislation itself and does indicate that a lack of understanding of the legislation as it stood at that time.

Figure 2: A comparison of men who had previous military experience by prior to volunteering for the Australian Imperial Force based on their answers to Question 11 on the Attestation Papers.

Tasmanian Indigenous Australian Indigenous Tasmanian Born B's Australian Born B's Yes 17(22.9) 18(12.1) 61(35.5) 45(28.1) No 57(77.0) 130(87.8) 111(64.5) 115(71.8)

While the youths on Cape Barren and Flinders Islanders were exempt from the universal scheme, others were not. Using the information about previous military experience recorded on the Attestation Papers for each person in this study it was

10 _{Premiers Office Records PD 108/2/11 p138 TAHO}

0 20 40 60 80 100 120

Tasmanian Indigenous Australian Indigenous Tasmanian Born B's

Australian Born B's