ia Told Me.

Australia had sent 100,000 men to the front at a cost of L18,000,000,
which was covered by a loan from Britain.

Though the decline in trade on account of the war caused widespread
unemployment, the sending off of 75,000 men eased matters considerably.
As these men were paid at almost the same rate as their ordinary wage,
and as a big proportion of their pay was held in Australia, the war did
not hit the Commonwealth so very hard in this respect.

So people did not trouble much. They went about their business almost as
usual and enjoyed the many entertainments arranged by "society people"
for any object, however remotely connected with the war--"Sheepskin
Waistcoat Funds," "Comfort for Horses Fund," "Knitted Socks Fund," and
others. It was all so much work and gave people opportunity to have a
busy time, flavored with the knowledge that it was an act of patriotism.

Six months before the war had ended the manufacturers began to get busy.
When public bodies begin to get busy in Australia, the first thing they
say is: "Let's have a Dinner."

The manufacturers saw a chance of influencing High Protection by the use
of a new gag: "Don't buy German-made goods." They, of course, wanted
people to buy only the Australian made, but they were cute.

They put it this way:

"Only trade with the Empire and its Allies. Every pound," it was said,
"that is spent with Germany means another gun to our future menace." So
the public were exhorted to confine business to the Empire and its
Allies--with Britain, Africa, India, Canada, France, Belgium, Russia,
Servia and Japan, and to cut the rest of the world. That is to say, to
trade with three quarters of the world!

Their decision practically meant free trade with nearly the whole world,
and so their hands were tied so long as Britain was joined up with
foreign allies!

A striking proof that this slogan, "Trade with the Allies," was only an
after-dinner sentiment was given when, in May, 1915, the Australian
Postmaster-General rejected a Japanese tender for electric insulators,
although its price was L1000 cheaper than a local tender, the total
amount of which was L3281/6/8--a thirty-three per cent. preference being
given against the work of an allied nation.

In the meantime the N.S.W. Government found their system of State
Socialism so expensive that the Treasury began to rapidly empty. The
war, with its upsetting of the British money market, stopped the usual
me