Protective Custody in Australia During Both World Wars

Protective Custody in Australia During Both World Wars

At the outbreak of both World Wars many people of an alien nature in

Australia were interned into protective custody. As an example during

the First World War 6,890 Germans were interned, of whom 4,500 were

Australian residents before 1914; the rest were sailors from German

navy ships or merchant ships who were arrested while in Australian

ports when the war broke out, or German citizens living in British

territories in South-East Asia and transported to Australia at the

request of the British Government. Some internees were temporary

visitors trapped here when the war began. About 1,100 of the total

were Austro-Hungarians, and of those around 700 were Serbs, Croats and

Dalmatians from within the Austro-Hungarian Empire who were working in

mines in Western Australia. The government’s overriding rhetoric for

this action was the social cohesion of Australian society in a time of

war[1]. Both Pam MacLean[2] and Kate Darian-Smith[3] argue that the

early responses of government were for conformity and a united goal in

a time of war, termed ‘equality of sacrifice’ and ‘equality of

service’. Darian-Smith[4] commenting on the Second World War further

states that that this conformity was achieved through censorship,

coercion, sweeping legislative powers contained in the Commonwealth

War Book and enforced through National Security Regulations, and

propaganda. One facet of the propaganda used was the circulating of

warnings that there was an enemy within our society; the spy, the

saboteur, the secret agent. Darian-Smith argues that the ‘us...

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...nd Press, 1989. p 3-4

[6] Edward W. Said, Orientalism, London : Penguin, 1991, c1978

[7] David Dutton. One of Us? : A Century of Australian Citizenship.

Sydney, UNSW Press, 2002 p45.

[8] Ibid. p45.

[9] Op cit, Dutton. p92

[10] Ibid. p92

[11] Ibid. p95

[12] Op cit, MacLean, p70-1

[13] Op cit, MacLean. p71.

[14] Op Cit, Darian-Smith, p55

[15] Kay Saunders and Roger Daniels, ed. Alien Justice: Wartime

Internment in Australia and North America. St Lucia, Qld. : Queensland

University Press, 2000 p114-5

[16] Op cit, Fischer, p85.

[17] Op cit, Fischer, p85

[18] Ibid. p85

[19] Op cit, Fischer, p47

[20] Op cit, Darian-Smith, p56-57

[21] Ibid, p57-58

[22] Kay Saunders, Ethnic and Racial Studies, April 1994 v17 n2

p325(17)

[23] Op cit, Darian-Smith, p58