There was a time during the First World War when the relationship between the Prime Minister of Australia and the Queensland Premier was so acrimonious it led to the establishment of a federal police force.

Tensions had been growing for months between Prime Minister William ‘Billy’ Hughes and Queensland’s Premier Thomas Joseph ‘T.J.’ Ryan over the campaign for conscription. Ryan stood alone among the premiers in his opposition to the draft. Thousands of Queenslanders had voluntarily enlisted to fight in Europe but three years on, with casualties rising and no victory in sight, enthusiasm for the war waned. The Australian Imperial Force (AIF) faced a shortage of men and recruitment quotas were not being reached. To Billy Hughes, desperate to recruit more men for the war effort, Ryan’s behaviour bordered on treason.

The Federal Government conducted two unsuccessful plebiscites on the issue of conscription: in October 1916 and again in December 1917. Campaigning was fierce and vitriolic, and the issue divided the nation along political, social and religious lines.

While trying to drum up support for conscription, Prime Minister Hughes was pelted with eggs, which dislodged his hat as he addressed a crowd at Warwick railway station. Hughes, furious at the lack of action taken by local police, set up his own Commonwealth police force (now the Australian Federal Police) to combat hooliganism and to investigate crimes against the Commonwealth.

Disagreements grew even more heated over military censorship. On 19 November Ryan gave an impassioned anti-conscription speech causing Hughes to forbid anyone making or distributing copies of it. To flout this censorship, Ryan repeated the speech in Queensland Parliament so it could be recorded without redaction in Hansard.

Hughes retaliated by ordering the government censor, Captain J.J. Stable, to lead a military raid on 26 November 1917 on the Queensland Government Printing Office in George Street. Stable was instructed to seize all copies of Hansard No. 37 before it could be distributed.

Ryan held an emergency meeting the following day to endorse a policy of ‘direct confrontation’ with the Commonwealth. He printed off a Government Gazette Extraordinary complaining about the intolerable level of censorship. He posted police at the printery and trade unions were called upon to help bolster numbers to prevent any further intervention by the Federal Government.

In the end, violence was avoided when one of the censor’s staff was secretly let into the side entrance of the building. He confirmed to Hughes that no more Hansards had been printed and confrontation was averted. Conflict over conscription continued between Prime Minister Hughes and Queensland Premier Ryan for many years. Premier Ryan’s stand against conscription and his defense of free speech earned him support from many Australians.

_{Cover image: Government Printing Office c. 1913. On the far right is an advertisment for Beenleigh Rum made with a genuine pot still. Supposedly, this is the same one taken from the wreckage of the SS Walrus; ITM1692098}