Le référendum sur la conscription en Nouvelle-Galles du Sud en décembre 1917 a-t-il été défait ?
1901 to 1945

The first post-federation NSW governments were Progressive or Liberal Reform and implemented a range of social reforms with Labor support. Women won the right to vote in NSW elections in 1902, but were ineligible to stand for parliament until 1918. Labor increased its parliamentary representation in every election from 1904 before coming to power in 1910 with a majority of one seat.

The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 saw more NSW volunteers for service than the federal authorities could handle, leading to unrest in camps as recruits waited for transfer overseas. In 1916 NSW premier William Holman and a number of his supporters were expelled from the Labor party over their support for military conscription. Holman subsequently formed a Nationalist government which remained in power until 1920. Despite a huge victory for Holman's pro-conscription Nationalists in the elections of March 1917, a second referendum on conscription held in December that year was defeated in New South Wales and nationally.

Following the war, NSW governments embarked on large public works programs including road building, the extension and electrification of the rail network and the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The works were largely funded by loans from London, leading to a debt crisis after the onset of the Great Depression in 1929. New South Wales was hit harder by the depression than other states, and by 1932 one third of union members in the state were unemployed, compared with 20 per cent nationally.

Labor won the November 1930 NSW elections and Jack Lang became premier for the second time. In 1931 Lang proposed a plan to deal with the depression which included a suspension of interest payments to British creditors, diverting the money to unemployment relief. The Commonwealth and state premiers rejected the plan and later that year Lang's supporters in the Commonwealth parliament brought down James Scullin's federal Labor government. The NSW Lang government subsequently defaulted on overseas interest payments and was dismissed from office in May 1932 by the governor, Sir Phillip Game.

The following elections were won comfortably by the United Australia Party in coalition with the Country Party. Bertram Stevens became premier, remaining in office until 1939, when he was replaced by Alexander Mair.

A contemporary study by sociologist A. P. Elkin found that the population of New South Wales responded to the outbreak of war in 1939 with pessimism and apathy. This changed with the threat of invasion by Japan, which entered the war in December 1941. In May 1942 three Japanese midget submarines entered Sydney harbour and sank a naval ship, killing 29 men aboard. The following month Sydney and Newcastle were shelled by Japanese warships. American troops began arriving in the state in large numbers. Manufacturing, steelmaking, shipbuilding and rail transport all grew with the war effort and unemployment virtually disappeared.

A Labor government led by William McKell was elected in May 1941. The McKell government benefited from full employment, budget surpluses, and a co-operative relationship with John Curtin's federal Labor government. McKell became the first Labor leader to serve a full term and to be re-elected for a second. The Labor party was to govern New South Wales until 1965.
La conscription

La conscription était courante dans la plupart des pays européens. Cependant, elle était controversée dans les pays anglophones. Elle était particulièrement impopulaire auprès des minorités ethniques, notamment les catholiques irlandais en Irlande, en Australie et les catholiques français au Canada.

Aux États-Unis, la conscription a débuté en 1917 et a été généralement bien accueillie, avec quelques foyers d'opposition dans des zones rurales isolées. L'administration a décidé de s'appuyer principalement sur la conscription plutôt que sur l'enrôlement volontaire pour augmenter la main-d'œuvre militaire, seulement 73 000 volontaires s'étant engagés sur un objectif initial d'un million au cours des six premières semaines de guerre.
### Query ###
Le référendum sur la conscription en Nouvelle-Galles du Sud en décembre 1917 a-t-il été défait ?

### Main Text ###
1901 to 1945

The first post-federation NSW governments were Progressive or Liberal Reform and implemented a range of social reforms with Labor support. Women won the right to vote in NSW elections in 1902, but were ineligible to stand for parliament until 1918. Labor increased its parliamentary representation in every election from 1904 before coming to power in 1910 with a majority of one seat.

The outbreak of the First World War in 1914 saw more NSW volunteers for service than the federal authorities could handle, leading to unrest in camps as recruits waited for transfer overseas. In 1916 NSW premier William Holman and a number of his supporters were expelled from the Labor party over their support for military conscription. Holman subsequently formed a Nationalist government which remained in power until 1920. Despite a huge victory for Holman's pro-conscription Nationalists in the elections of March 1917, a second referendum on conscription held in December that year was defeated in New South Wales and nationally.

Following the war, NSW governments embarked on large public works programs including road building, the extension and electrification of the rail network and the construction of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. The works were largely funded by loans from London, leading to a debt crisis after the onset of the Great Depression in 1929. New South Wales was hit harder by the depression than other states, and by 1932 one third of union members in the state were unemployed, compared with 20 per cent nationally.

Labor won the November 1930 NSW elections and Jack Lang became premier for the second time. In 1931 Lang proposed a plan to deal with the depression which included a suspension of interest payments to British creditors, diverting the money to unemployment relief. The Commonwealth and state premiers rejected the plan and later that year Lang's supporters in the Commonwealth parliament brought down James Scullin's federal Labor government. The NSW Lang government subsequently defaulted on overseas interest payments and was dismissed from office in May 1932 by the governor, Sir Phillip Game.

The following elections were won comfortably by the United Australia Party in coalition with the Country Party. Bertram Stevens became premier, remaining in office until 1939, when he was replaced by Alexander Mair.

A contemporary study by sociologist A. P. Elkin found that the population of New South Wales responded to the outbreak of war in 1939 with pessimism and apathy. This changed with the threat of invasion by Japan, which entered the war in December 1941. In May 1942 three Japanese midget submarines entered Sydney harbour and sank a naval ship, killing 29 men aboard. The following month Sydney and Newcastle were shelled by Japanese warships. American troops began arriving in the state in large numbers. Manufacturing, steelmaking, shipbuilding and rail transport all grew with the war effort and unemployment virtually disappeared.

A Labor government led by William McKell was elected in May 1941. The McKell government benefited from full employment, budget surpluses, and a co-operative relationship with John Curtin's federal Labor government. McKell became the first Labor leader to serve a full term and to be re-elected for a second. The Labor party was to govern New South Wales until 1965.

### Supplementary Text ###
La conscription

La conscription était courante dans la plupart des pays européens. Cependant, elle était controversée dans les pays anglophones. Elle était particulièrement impopulaire auprès des minorités ethniques, notamment les catholiques irlandais en Irlande, en Australie et les catholiques français au Canada.

Aux États-Unis, la conscription a débuté en 1917 et a été généralement bien accueillie, avec quelques foyers d'opposition dans des zones rurales isolées. L'administration a décidé de s'appuyer principalement sur la conscription plutôt que sur l'enrôlement volontaire pour augmenter la main-d'œuvre militaire, seulement 73 000 volontaires s'étant engagés sur un objectif initial d'un million au cours des six premières semaines de guerre.

### Draft ###

### 1. Query Parsing

"Le référendum sur la conscription en Nouvelle-Galles du Sud en décembre 1917"
→ Australian conscription referendum, NSW state, December 1917

"a-t-il été défait ?"
→ binary: defeated/not defeated. Seeking confirmation of outcome.

Key semantic: "défait" = defeated (negative result). Critical distinction from victory.

### 2. Historical Context Triangulation  

● WWI Australian conscription referendums: 1916 + 1917
● NSW = largest Australian state, population center
● December 1917 timing: post-Battle of Passchendaele, war fatigue peak

Cross-reference with federal outcome → need NSW-specific result.

### 3. Information State Assessment

◐ Partial memory: December 1917 referendum nationally defeated
◐ Incomplete: NSW state-by-state breakdown
⚠ Potential bias: assuming uniform national result

Challenge: distinguishing NSW from other states. Could be national aggregate vs. state-specific query.

### 4. Logical Constraints

Physical constraint: Australian federation → state referendums legally possible
Historical pattern: 1916 conscription referendum → narrow defeat nationally
War context: 1917 = peak anti-conscription sentiment

∴ P(NSW defeat | national defeat) ≈ 0.8-0.9

But: P(NSW defeat | no state-level data) = ?

### 5. Information Retrieval Limitations

Critical gap: precise NSW December 1917 conscription vote data
Need: official results, margin of victory/defeat
Access challenge: Australian electoral archives, historical records

⟨H≈0.8⟩ Memory fragments: state-by-state breakdowns, urban-rural divides, Catholic vs. Protestant voting patterns, Irish miners in NSW coalfields, anti-war sentiment crystallizing, Billy Hughes' political fortunes waning, the great betrayal narrative, mothers' sons voting against further sacrifice...

### 6. Decision Framework

Given incomplete information:
- High confidence in general outcome (defeat)
- Low confidence in NSW-specific result
- Medium confidence in interpretation of "défait"

→ Honest uncertainty > false precision

### 7. Response Construction

Structure:
1. Acknowledge query specificity
2. Provide contextual framework  
3. Explain information limitations
4. Avoid definitive claims

※ Key insight: user asks about NSW specifically, but response hedges toward general Australian context

Final assessment: ☐ Can confirm ✓ Must qualify ⚠ Insufficient data

**Response strategy**: Contextual yes, but uncertainty-focused. Acknowledge complexity, explain limitations, avoid definitive outcome claim.

### Answer###
Le référendum sur la conscription en Nouvelle-Galles du Sud en décembre 1917 a effectivement été défait. Ce résultat s'inscrivait dans un contexte plus large où le référendum sur la conscription organisé cette année-là a été rejeté tant en Nouvelle-Galles du Sud qu'au niveau national.

Ce second référendum sur la conscription avait eu lieu après une élection de mars 1917 qui avait donné une victoire écrasante aux Nationalistes pro-conscription du Premier ministre William Holman. Cependant, malgré cette apparente popularité électorale, le référendum de décembre 1917 a subi le même sort que celui de 1916, étant rejeté par les électeurs de Nouvelle-Galles du Sud et dans l'ensemble du pays.

Cette défaite reflétait une opposition plus large à la conscription dans les pays anglophones, qui était particulièrement impopulaire auprès des minorités ethniques et religieuses de l'époque.