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William Morris Hughes

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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"WILLIAM MORRIS HUGHES (1864-), Australian statesman, was born in Wales Sept. 25 1864. He was educated at Llandudno grammar school and St. Stephen's Church of England school, Westminster, where he was trained as an elementary schoolmaster; but at the age of 20 he preferred to emigrate to Australia and to make his living as he could until he succeeded in entering political life as a member of the Labour party. This he achieved ten years later, being elected to the N.S.W. Legislature for one of the divisions of Sydney in 1894. He was also admitted to the N.S.W. bar. Though delicate in health and in later life handicapped by deafness, he showed from the first marked ability and fighting force. He organized the Maritime unions, became general secretary of the Wharf Labourers' Union and of the Waterside Workers' Federation, and president of the Carters' Union, and was reelected to the Legislature at each successive election until he resigned upon his election for W. Sydney to the first Federal Parliament (1901). He first took office in 1904 as Minister for External Affairs. In 1907 he was a delegate to the Imperial Navigation Conference. The following year he was Attorney-General in Mr. Deakin's administration (1908-9) and held the same office under Mr. Fisher (1910-3), and again in his first War Cabinet (1914-6). On Mr. Fisher's resignation of the premiership in 1915 111r. Hughes succeeded him and continued to hold office up to 1921.

He met, however, with considerable opposition, especially from the Labour party, who resented his advocacy of conscription (twice rejected on a referendum) and in 1917 refused to reelect him as their leader. His own attitude towards the World War was vigorous and patriotic. He made a recruiting tour in 1915 through Great Britain, where he won a popularity perhaps greater than he enjoyed at home, and pledged himself to introduce conscription in Australia, though he failed to carry it. On his return to Australia in 1916 he was obliged to reconstruct his Cabinet and to effect a coalition with Mr. Cook, leaving out most of his previous colleagues of the Labour party. In Jan. 1918 he again formed a new Cabinet. As a member of the Imperial War Cabinet he was often in Europe. On his journey to Great Britain he made a speech in New York, May 31 1918, advocating the application of the Monroe doctrine to the South Pacific islands in the interests of Australia, and at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, where he was the Australian representative, he objected to any authority over ex-German territory in these islands being granted to the League of Nations. In 1915 he was sworn of the Privy Council and in 1919 he became K.C. He published The Case for Labour and other pamphlets, and a collection of his speeches in Great Britain appeared in 1918. ( See further AUSTRALIA.) See Douglas Sladen, From Boundary Rider to Prime Minister 1916).