page_title: Queensland Recruiting Committee
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Queensland Recruiting Committee / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Australia has promised Britain 50,000 more men
context_page_description: The Queensland Recruiting Committee was a volunteer organisation in Queensland, Australia, which urged Queensland men to enlist for military service during World War I. It operated from May 1915 to December 1916, when it was replaced by an Australian Government recruitment organisation, the Queensland State Recruiting Committee.
context_section_description: On 28 May 1915, a meeting was held at the Brisbane Town Hall, chaired by Brisbane mayor George Down, to discuss ways to encourage able-bodied men to enlist in the Australian Imperial Force to fight in World War I. The decision of the meeting was to create the Queensland Recruiting Committee, the first recruitment committee established in Australia. Unlike in other states, the Queensland Recruitment Committee was not a government organisation but rather an independent and privately funded organisation with volunteer members.
  
  The immediate actions of the committee were to take advantage of a march down Queen Street the following day by establishing two temporary recruiting booths, one in front of the Town Hall and one in front of the Brisbane General Post Office. The committee also decided to establish a permanent recruiting booth in Queen Street.
  The initial belief of the committee was that their role was primarily one of education; young men would enlist if they understood the issues at stake and the need for their service. Local recruiting committees were also established in local government areas and other committees were formed to support the war effort, e.g. the University of Queensland had a University War Committee.
  In October 1915, the Queensland Recruiting Committee become a sub-committee of the Queensland War Council when the council was established in September 1915.
  As part of the education campaign, the committee commissioned cartoons for use in newspapers, posters for railway stations and a set of lantern slides which would be shown each day at the 20 picture theatres operated by Birch Carroll & Coyle. The committee also distributed promotional material developed in other states, sending several hundred copies of Victorian poster "Will They Never Come?" to every Queensland town. Another educational initiative was the publication of a 16-page booklet entitled "For Queensland's Honour: Queensland expects that every man will do his duty", providing a mix of motivational and practical information (rates of pay and training) for potential recruits. It also includes an additional verse added to the national anthem of God Save the King as follows:
  God save our splendid men
  
  Send them safe home again
  
  God save our men
  
  Keep them victorious
  
  Patient and chivalrous
  
  They are so dear to us
  
  God save our men.
  The committee was also involved in holding recruitment meetings of various kinds and coordinated with local recruiting committee to provide inspirational addresses by prominent citizens. Religious leaders of all faiths were also asked to appeal for volunteers to enlist as part of religious services. The committee asked each Queensland school to maintain a roll of honour listing those former pupils and teachers who had enlisted.
  In August 1915, five trains were borrowed from the Queensland Government to use for a country recruiting drive with school children to be given a holiday on the day the train came to their town. Each train was fitted out as a recruiting depot with a doctor and a recruiting sergeant as well as carrying politicians and members of the Queensland Recruiting Committee to give speeches. At each town, the local mayor organised for people to attend the recruiting rally at the station as the train arrived. The trains travelled to destinations such as:
  Brisbane to Roma and Charleville
  Brisbane to Goondiwindi
  Brisbane to Bundaberg and Gladstone
  Rockhampton to Longreach
  Townsville to Charters Towers and Cloncurry
  stopping at many smaller towns along the way and taking a number of branch lines along the route.
  The committee also took action on reasons why men might be reluctant to enlist. The committee had a campaign to get employers to commit to re-employing any staff members who enlisted and to otherwise give priority to employing returned servicemen.
  In October 1915, the committee organised for the first recruiting film to be shown in Queensland, which showed the conditions in which recruits would live and was hoped would convince those who may have listened to the "anti-recruiters" misrepresenting t
caption: "Australia has promised Britain 50,000 more men" recruitment poster
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