Research Catalog

Title

King and country call : New Zealanders, conscription and the Great War / Paul Baker.

Author

Baker, Paul.

Publication

Auckland : Auckland University Press ; Oxford : Distributed by Oxford University Press, 1988.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

274 p. : ill., ports.; 23 cm.

Summary

"In the change from colonial innocence to national experience wrought on New Zealand by the Great War, conscription played a major role. During the first heroic flush of the war it was suppposed that voluntary enlistment would be sufficient for New Zealand to play her part. However growing resentment of "shirkers" and demands for equality of sacrifice, along with fears that New Zealand might not be able to provide the reinforcements demanded of her, gradually convinced the country and the government of the need for conscription... Once the Military Service Act was passed the application of conscription was a massive task. All men had to be registered, they had to be medically examined, and all appeals for exemption had to come before Military Service Boards. There was always some resistance -- from labour, from Maori, from conscientious objectors -- and only 48 percent of eligible men ever served, but the system was in general fair and well organised. In the first comprehensive study of the subject, Paul Baker draws on a rich variety of sources, including personal interviews, letters and journals, newspapers,and official documents, to give a convincing picture of New Zealand society and politics during the 1914-1918 period. Illustrated with contemporary cartoons, photographs, and other memorabilia, the book conveys a powerful sense of the way in which each family was profoundly touched by this difficult issue. Baker shows how the war, seeming at first to unify the nation, in fact exacerbated the divisions within the social structure, how it accelerated the development of a modern bureaucratic state, and how it fed the growing national aspirations of the Dominion. His account of Maori attitudes to a distant European war is of particular interest; so too is his analysis of conscientious objection and the barbaric treatment of "the Fourteen". His portrait of Sir James allen as the major wartime leader and a man who carried out an arduous task with integrity and fairmindedness, considerably revises traditional views ..." -- Back cover.

Subject

• 1907-1918
• Draft > New Zealand > History > 1907-1918
• New Zealand > Armed Forces > Recruiting, enlistment, etc. > History > 1907-1918
• New Zealand > History > 1907-1918
• New Zealand Conscription, history

Genre/Form

History

Note

• Includes index.

Bibliography (note)

• Bibliography: p. 262-268.

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Volunteering -- Conscription demanded -- Conscription opposed -- Conscription introduced -- Conscription applied -- Conscription challenged -- Conscription resisted.

ISBN

1869400348 (pbk)

LCCN

gb^90012318^

OCLC

• 21159985
• SCSB-12282887

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library