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Interview with Archbishop Mannix (1962)

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The issue of conscription education content clip 1

Original classification rating: PG. This clip chosen to be PG

Clip description

In this excerpt from an interview with Dr Daniel Mannix, the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Mannix describes the circumstances in which he advocated against conscription during the First World War.

Curator’s notes

by Janet Bell

This is wonderful – and historic – material, as one of the key figures in the First World War conscription debate remembers the reasons for his involvement. Australians were amongst the first to sign up to fight for King and Empire in the Great War of 1914-18. They proved much less eager to adopt conscription. The Australian Prime Minister of that time, WM Hughes, put the issue to the people twice and twice he was rejected. The man who led the fight against conscription was the newly appointed Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Dr Daniel Mannix.

Dr Mannix says that he only finally decided to speak out in favour of voluntary enlistment after he heard the Anglican Archbishop of Melbourne speak from the pulpit of St Paul’s about the need for conscription. The camera stays in close-up on Dr Mannix the whole time, with no editing. This makes the material even more engrossing – we have a real sense of being in the room with him.

Teacher’s notes

provided by The Le@rning FederationEducation Services Australia

This black-and-white clip shows Roman Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne Daniel Mannix, a notable prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, explaining his opposition at the time to the Australian conscription referendums of 1916 and 1917. Filmed in one shot, this uninterrupted interview was recorded when Mannix was in his late 90s and although he speaks slowly he is still very clear and lucid.

Educational value points

  • Mannix is responding to a question concerning his stance on the issue of conscription, which was very controversial during the First World War. He was the only bishop in the Roman Catholic Church in Australia to oppose conscription in 1916, yet he spoke out against it only twice before the first plebiscite, when Victoria voted ‘Yes’. For the second plebiscite he was more outspoken and linked the vote to the cause of Irish republicanism. Victoria voted ‘No’.
  • The clip communicates the strength and resilience of Archbishop Mannix (1864–1963) and the force of his personality. Filmed in 1961 when he was 97 years old, Mannix is shown recollecting events that occurred more than 40 years earlier. The camera, fixed in close-up on his face, shows a man who appears unconcerned with its presence. His responses are clear and considered. He speaks with conviction and certainty about the correctness of his actions in earlier times.
  • Mannix is probably referring in this clip to his speech on the occasion of the opening of a fair at the Albert Hall in Clifton Hill Parish on 16 September 1916, when he first publicly expressed his opposition to conscription. On that occasion he claimed that conscription would result in an escalation of the War in Europe and that Australia had done ‘even more than her fair share in this war’. He did not speak about conscription from the pulpit as had the Anglican Archbishop.
  • Mannix was a controversial public figure who spoke out strongly on a range of public issues, including state aid to Roman Catholic schools, Irish independence and conscription. Mannix was Coadjutor Archbishop during the conscription crisis and then Archbishop of Melbourne (1917–63). He was influential in the creation of the Democratic Labor Party (DLP) and tried to discourage Roman Catholics from voting for the ALP in the 1958 federal election.
  • Mannix indicates that other members of the clergy also sought to influence their congregations on the issue of conscription. Mannix was criticised for taking a stand, but the Anglican Archbishop spoke out in favour of conscription from the pulpit and the Anglican synods in both Melbourne and Sydney supported the ‘Yes’ case. The Melbourne synod even demanded the arrest and internment of ‘disloyalists’ opposed to conscription and the First World War.
  • Sectarian division between Roman Catholics and Anglicans provides an important context for the subject of the clip. While Anglicans generally supported the War, Roman Catholics in Australia in 1916 were predominantly of Irish descent and working class, and most took the side of the Irish rebels in the suppression by the English during the Easter uprising of April 1916. Their opposition to England was expressed in their opposition to the War.