1917: Even if it takes all the men

December 26, 2021

By AHNZ

This 1917 Christmas card from is a very important history marker for the New Zealand of that time. It’s a card for a member of the Expeditionary Force sent away to fight in the Great War. Someone “in the fight” who it is hoped God will protect and bring home alive. The woman sender, Molly, adds her own thoughts to the card: “We are going to win this war even if it takes all the men.”

Interesting she uses that particular metric of effort- how many New Zealand men is she is prepared to sacrifice? All.

The bravery of being out of range. Women waving the “White Feather,” safe at home, was instrumental in shaming New Zealanders into entangling themselves in the meat grinder of the European war. Even if Molly naively believed that to ‘take all the men’ didn’t involve sacrificing their lives or limbs or sanity it remains the sentiment of male disposability any way you slice it.

New Zealand by this point had well and truly entered a Fourth Turning, a Crisis phase in our history. In their book The Fourth Turning (1996) Neil Howe and William Strauss wrote the following from their knowledge of American history cycles…

“A Crisis arises in response to sudden threats that previously would have been ignored or deferred, but which are now perceived as dire. Great wordly perils boil off the clutter and complexity of life, leaving behind one simple imperative: The society must prevail. This requires a solid public consensus, aggressive institutions, and personal sacrifice.

“People support new efforts to wield public authority, whose perceived successes soon justify more of the same. Government governs, community obstacles are removed, and laws and customs that resisted change for decades are swiftly shunted aside. A grim preoccupation with civic peril causes spiritual curiosity to decline. A sense of public urgency contributes to a clampdown on bad conduct or antisocial lifestyles…Public order tightens…Wars are fought with fury and for maximum result.” – p103, Generations

“..excuse for Society Girls to make themselves beautiful and sell kisses in Queen Street.” p105,  Eldred-Grigg (2010)

“The mentality of compulsion that underlay conscription, the absolute demands made by what was meant to be a fully democratic state carried with it a weakening of the ideas of personal freedom and liberty which had underpinned the small-government, low-tax environment that had prevailed before the war.” – p129 Goldsmith (2008)

New Zealand had been part of a complex colonial trade network for decades before the war which was now swiftly ripped apart within days. Our banks were given the power to print fiat money while gold exports were imposed. The economic shake-up caused massive sackings in both the public and private sector and the resulting unemployment also ushered men to enlist in fighting the Great Wrong War. Women, on the other hand, dressed up conspicuously in their best and promiscuously kissed men for money using the excuse that it helped the war effort.

The Military Service Act (1916) mandated men to register for military reserve with no provision for conscientious objectors. Soon enough this grew into outright conscription. ‘Seditious utterances’ or publications became a criminal offence which is how future Prime Minister Fraser ended up in jail. German Kiwis were attacked, even lynched by righteous jingos. Numerous street names and business names had to be redacted because of Germanic connotations. Irate crowds damage a number of Hellensteins stores in the anti-German hysteria. ‘German biscuits’ were renamed as ‘Belgium biscuits.’ The Dresden Piano Company changed its name to the Bristol Piano Company. The Devastating Hun became the Out-Group and, as such, subject to no-fault persecution by the new Conformity of right-thinking New Zealanders.

“During the Wars we in New Zealand changed the names of many streets, companies, and people in order to be on the right side of this Muggle Think. German Shepherds became Alsatians, Coburg Place and Coburg Street were renamed to Kitchener Place and Kitchener Street,…” – 1939: No-Fault Persecution, AHNZ

“The year [1914] ended with ugliness as well as homily. New Year’s Eve was celebrated in Gisborne by a crowd of two thousand citizens attacking the shop of a German family, the Wohnsiedlers. Stones smashed plate glass. The crowd grew, and more stones flew. Citizens sang patriotic songs, police struggled to hold them back and bottles began to be thrown as well as stones. The mayor, driving up and trying to speak to the crowd, was shouted down while a volley of stones smashed his windshield. The Wohnsiedler family hid behind locked doors, fearing for their lives. The sound of each smash or crash was hailed with cheers from the crowd and within a few hours the shop had been wrecked inside and out.” – Truth (1915); p128,  Eldred-Grigg (2010)

“Today in history, 19 July, 1919, Mt Eden Borough Council celebrated “peace” by burning seven prominent Germans and one Bulgarian. Twice! Don’t worry though, they were just effigies designed to catch on fire to delight the citizens of Mt Eden upon their mountain top.” – 1919: Combustible Krauts, AHNZ

“Ward and Massey adopted the tactic of interrupting debates critical of the government with motions relating to the war, or to preach homilies about loyalty and the need to subscribe to the War Loan.” – p238, Bassatt (1993)

Molly’s postcard, thus, belongs in the context of a New Zealand Fourth Turning. AHNZ calls this one The Great Slump Fourth Turning after the economic depression it culminated in. During times like these New Zealand becomes infatuated with Big Government and the sacrifice of individuality, especially the disposable male. This might not be so bad except that New Zealand authoritarianism measures tend to be sticky whereas our liberty outbursts tend to be reversed. That makes for a ‘one step forward, two steps backward’ situation in the long term history trend. New Zealanders prefer ‘fariness’ to freedom. For example, the ‘temporary measure’ of 6 o’clock pub closing (Sale of Liquor Registration Act (1917)) lasted 50 more years and was only dislodged after machine guns were used at Bassett Road.

You would like to think that the persecutors of German New Zealanders and the Mollys’ who shamed our men to the death, or even the opportunistic politicians, experienced some justice or regret. Instead, our conduct during what historian Stevan Eldred-Grigg calls The Great Wrong War was buried in ANZAC sentimentality and copious tons of stone monuments and war graves. New Zealand history was given a great re-set in the next First Turning and falsely said to have the beginning of nationhood by cancelling the memory of the vibrant and freer nation that we had already been before.

—
Ref. We Won, You Lost, Eat That!- A political history of tax in New Zealand since 1840, Paul Goldsmith (2008)

Ref. Sir Joseph Ward, A Political Biography, Michael Bassett (1993)

Ref. The Great Wrong War, Stevan Eldred-Grigg (2010)

Image ref. History Geek Collection; Facebook (2019)

Image ref. Conscientious objectors at Hautu Detention Camp, 1943; Te Ara

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