Recruiting through women
RSL (Port Pirie Sub Branch) Inc.11th August 1915
At a huge recruitment meeting held in the Port Pirie Institute on the 11th August 1915, Harry Jackson, an Australian politician, spoke to the crowd.
Jackson, who worked on the wharves in Port Pirie before he represented the South Australian House of Assembly, and seat of Port Pirie from 1915 to 1918, implored the women of Port Pirie to assist in recruiting men for the front.
The building was packed to the doors and it was impossible to accommodate all who wished to attend. Every available foot of space was utilised to seat the people, and hundreds had to stand with more overflowing from the building.
“The ladies also had a splendid opportunity to show their patriotism by helping recruiting. Naturally they were sympathetic over such matters, but they should use rationalism with their sympathy, and look at the position in a proper spirit. What would they think of it if German officers came to the town and pushed the ladies off the footpath so as to make way for themselves? Such things took place in Germany, and would occur in Australia, if the Huns got the upper hand,” he said.
He appealed to the women not to stand in the way of any young men who wished to join the colours but instead give them their blessing and let them go.
“Was it not more noble for a young girl to wait the return of her sweetheart from the battlefield than prevent him from doing his duty?"
A sweetheart from the battlefield was well worth waiting for, and he hoped the ladies would act in that manner. It was up to the girls and everyone else in Australia to give their brave boys in Gallipoli every assistance that was humanly possible, he said.
Edward Lucas, an Australian politician and member of the South Australian Legislative Council from 1900 to 1918 also spoke that afternoon, pulling on the heart strings of the women present. Lucas was a member of the State War Council and vice-chairman of the State Recruiting Committee.
“Girls should not stop their sweethearts from enlisting,” he said.
His own daughter was to be married the following day and her husband was going straightaway to offer his services to the country.
“That was the greatest sacrifice my daughter had made in her life but she was doing it willingly."
He went on: The war would make a fearful difference to the countries engaged in the conflict. They would be practically, all insolvent at the finish, and the flower of their manhood would be lost. Hundreds of thousands of fine young women would never be married and that was a disastrous thing.
He hoped that every young man would take heed and answer the urgent call from Gallipoli.
Eighteen young men enlisted immediately after the meeting and an additional fourteen signed on the next day at the Port Pirie Drill Hall. 32 more sons, brothers, husbands, fathers or friends were about to leave their loved ones.
- Trove Australia http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article95341703
