The jingoistic Australia of 1915 was a hostile environment for outspoken conscientious opponents of the war.
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Melbourne's pacifist Woman Voter reported 100 years ago this week about a visit to an objector banged up in prison.
"FREEDOM OF SPEECH.
"We are told by the warmongers and flag patriots that we are fighting for the preservation of the dearly bought liberties of the British people, including free speech.
"But we have already lost our heritage. Free speech is a thing of the past, as a visit to our civil gaols will show. In those gaols will be found men, as prisoners, [pacifists] whose only crime has been that of saying what their God-given reason has dictated.
"Visiting Mr Mandeno in the Brisbane Gaol at Boggo Road, we found a man broken in health and weary, but with a great indomitable spirit.
"Mr Mandeno's offence was a speech 'prejudicial to recruiting' in that he said he had served in the South African war, and said that before that experience he had had the same jingoistic ideas as most people, but that now his first-hand knowledge taught him that war was not for the worker. He has been given three months' gaol.
"The demon of militarism gets a firmer grip on Australia every day, and the fight will be fierce and long before it is killed, but killed it will be by those who stand true to the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill'."
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