Had you been living in Port in October 1916, you would have been very aware of the referendum on conscription that was looming on 28 October. Campaigning was intense.
The question to be put to electors was:
Are you in favour of the Government having, in this grave emergency, the same compulsory powers over citizens in regard to requiring their military service,…
I've been reading a lot of newspapers recently but not the Leader or the Weekly Review that appear in our mailboxes each week these days, I've been reading the Port Melbourne Standard from the time of the First World War. The National Library of Australia have digitised all the weekly editions of the Standard from those war years and added them…