One hundred years ago this week the Christmas Day edition of Sydney's rabidly jingoistic weekly, Mirror of Australia, seethed about and dobbed in pacifist Adela Pankhurst. At a Pankhurst rally the man from the Mirror had been shocked by the singing of "a disloyal song". Discouraging recruiting, Pankhurst's great cause, was a criminal offence.
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"DISLOYAL STATEMENTS.
"Adela Pankhurst ought to be interned, or put into prison until she promises to behave properly. She is heading a so-called peace movement in Melbourne and she is saying things which no one else would be allowed to say without being prosecuted. On Sunday night last in Melbourne she tried to address a meeting in the Bijou Theatre. The soldiers rightly took possession of it, and [drowned her out]. A representative of the Mirror stood by her shoulder, however, and took a note of the speech.
"A DISLOYAL SONG. At the same meeting a disloyal song was sung by Miss Cecilia Johns, who Is a sort of lieutenant to Miss Pankhurst. Miss Johns has not raised a son ... but she has raised many chickens on her chicken farm on the Dandenong Ranges.
Here the reporter gave the shockingly disloyal lyrics of the pacifist ditty I didn't raise my son to be a soldier (To kill some other mother's darling boy).
"We" the Mirror continued "have given Pankhurst's disloyal statements (she spoke of our being 'tricked' into the war and strongly urged Australians not to enlist) in full to the Department of Defence. Editor, The Mirror."
