THE THINGS WE’RE NOT TOLD

Australians and New Zealanders went to World War I with the British because the House of Lords didn’t want imposed upon them the land tax that the 1909 ‘People’s Budget’ had sought.

Their lordships needed a distraction from any such social reforms, so they needed to promote the threat of war and loyalty to the Crown.

It was easy. With the Germans doing extremely well industrially and threatening to overtake Britain, they were obviously the ‘enemy’ – as was Britain’s Liberal Government itself. “Just look at them trying to reduce the building of six British battleships to only four!” “We want eight and we won’t wait!”

Worked into a veritable frenzy, Britons had no choice: they must go to war over anything considered to be a threat to the British Empire. And the killing of Archduke Ferdinand was certainly ‘it’!

And so it was that brave Australians and New Zealanders got to be slaughtered at ANZAC Cove at the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey.

We remember only the slaughter and the glory of wars – rarely the reasons behind them.