Reynolds Speech March 1966

Mr REYNOLDS – I make no bones about it. I strongly support the Labour Party’s objection to the conscription of youths to serve in Vietnam. I cannot go into all the characteristics of that particular campaign at the present time. There are many problems, particularly political problems, associated with it. There is political instability in Vietnam due to the lack of a truly democratic society and to the downtrodden state of these people. These are all things that have to be taken into account when we ask 20-yearolds to serve in Vietnam. I feel strongly on this, probably because I have young boys who will soon be reaching that age and I can well guess at what is in the hearts of many parents as they contemplate the sons they have brought up, nurtured, educated, clothed and fed, being sent off to fight in Vietnam. Our youth would not be found wanting if men were needed to fight for the genuine protection of Australia. Recruits would not he lacking any more than they were during the last war and wars before that.

In our estimation, the most sincere commentary on the Government’s policy is the fact that we are not getting enough volunteers to go and serve in Vietnam. This is the simple test. During World War I, World War Il and the Korean War, volunteers were forthcoming in their patriotic fervour to serve the country.

Mr Freeth – Not enough in World War Il for the Australian Labour Party. It had to conscript men then.

Mr REYNOLDS – World War Il was different from what is happening in Vietnam today. My thought is that if in this undeclared war Australia needs only a comparatively small number of men, some of whom will probably make the maximum sacrifice, then we should call for volunteers and we should be prepared to make it worthwhile for men to enlist. Nobody can convince me that we have made the ultimate appeal to people to serve. Nobody can say that the pay of servicemen and the conditions of service are such that they could not possibly be bettered. Despite the Government’s fervent assurances about the welfare of our troops in Vietnam, the Sydney “Sun” of 19th December 1965 – just a few months ago – published the following report

Troops feel ” forgotten ‘

Australian troops in Vietnam felt they were forgotten men, it was claimed yesterday.

Mr. W.B. Watson, a senior official of the R.S.L. backed Australian Forces Overseas Amenities Fund, said he believed the majority of

Australian people neither understood nor cared about the battle they were fighting. . .

Mr. Watson said: ” Amenities for the men in Vietnam as practically nil.”

Honorable members will recall that I was bitterly criticised during the last sessional period for having drawn attention to the deficiencies of the conditions under which these men were serving. Mr.

Watson went on to say –

They are working and fighting hard in a hostile territory where the pressure is never relaxed.

Yet they have no amenities or comforts to lighten the burden.

They feel they have been forgotten by the Australian people.

Their pleasure was fantastic when they found that at last an organisation –

Not a government organisation, but a private organisation – had been set up to look after their interests.

That shows the Government’s great concern for the welfare of people who volunteer to serve in this theatre of war. The honorable member for Wimmera (Mr. King) drew attention to the wretched inequity of the ballot system. Apart from the ballot with its hit or miss system of picking and choosing, there is the completely subjective assessment made by a magistrate or judge in determining whether a youth should or should not go. The law provides that those who are engaged in full time educational pursuits may have their service deferred. What is happening, of course – and I do not blame the parents – is that a number of youngsters are being kept at long term university courses or technical college courses as a means of ensuring that they do not have to face a call up when they are 20 years of age. What sort of people can afford to do this? Generally speaking, only the wealthy people in the community will be able to keep the:r sons at a university in order that they may obtain deferment. Some young men will do a six year course, if necessary, in order to avoid being called up. But the ordinary worker’s son, the fellow who, perhaps, had to leave school to help maintain the family, will be called on to serve. His father may have died and his widowed mother may have other younger children *o look after, but despite these responsibilities such young men are being called up regardless of my entreaties and the entreaties of other honorable members.

In my view, there is something immoral about the whole situation when, not in a widespread war such as we had in World War I and World War Il, but in the present context of a limited conflict, we ask the 20 year olds – only the 20 year olds and only some of them – to put their bodies between us and the enemy. This reminds me of the customs of some ancient tribe in which the seniors and elders pick out – in effect, conscript – 20 year olds and expect them to make themselves a human band of protection between the tribe and enemy. The 20 year olds are immature and have the smallest vested interest in society at that stage of their lives, though they also have the greatest hope for the future and the greatest part of their lives still to live. There seems to me to be something totally immoral in a situation in which 20 year olds, without any voice in the matter, are chosen and sent out in this way to put themselves between us and the enemy.

As I have said, there has not been a genuine attempt to get volunteers to come forward. The fact that Australians are not volunteering as they did in previous contests when they considered that their country’s welfare was at stake is an eloquent commentary on their genuine feeling in their innermost hearts about the present conflict. As I have pointed out, volunteers are not being recruited in the numbers that should be available. Last Thursday, in answer to a question that I had asked, the Minister for the Army (Mr. Malcolm Fraser) had to confess that recruitment to the Australian Regular Army had been static for some time. As a matter of fact, it has been static for about five or six years. The reason is that the present conditions for service offer no inducement to volunteers. I do not intend in this debate to go into all the reasons why conditions are not attractive enough to encourage men to volunteer and make the Services their career.