Image study: Blood Vote

This ominous illustration shows the Devil lurking behind a ballot box as a woman votes 'yes' for conscription.

The first public vote, or plebiscite, on conscription involved a very complex statement many misunderstood: '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, for the term of this War, outside the Commonwealth, as it now has in regard to military service within the Commonwealth?' The wording was much simpler for the second plebiscite: 'Are you in favour of the proposal of the Commonwealth Government for reinforcing the Australian Imperial Force overseas?'

 

 

Claude Marquet, artist, printed handbill, 1916

 

Accession number: ECPO 620

 

From the State Library of Victoria's Riley & Ephemera Collection.

 

See the catalogue record for this item

Conscription
World War I - Women