At A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens we can read:
"Who, and what are you?" Scrooge demanded.
"I am the Ghost of Christmas Past."
While at Chapter 4 – Organised for Total War, April 1942–June 1943 we can read:
"A SEASON OF AUSTERITY” 271
I am no believer in the fear psychology (Prime Minister Curtin said in a national broadcast) but if we do not strip ourselves to save our country, then the enemy will do it with a ruthless efficiency and with a maximum of misery that can have a counterpart only in the imagination. Consider our fate should he be victorious! What will we have then? Today Port Moresby and Darwin are the Singapores of Australia. If those two places fall, then, inevitably, we are faced with a bloody struggle on our soil when we will be forced to fight grimly, city by city, village by village, until our fair land may become a blackened ruin. We will fight. Our record is proof of that, but what of the cost? Therefore, the Australian Government says that the cost must be paid now —not to an invading enemy —but in equipping our fighting men so that they will hold Port Moresby and Darwin; so that they will hold this Australian bastion for democracy and, finally, wrest the initiative from the enemy.
Our fate is in the balance as I speak to you. The Battle of the Solomons is not only vital in itself, but, as part of a continuing action which will go on, it represents a phase of the Japanese drive in which is wrapped up invasion of Australia. At this stage it would be mischievous to conjecture as to whether the outcome of the Battle of the Solomons will give us a further breathing space or whether it will mean disaster, followed swiftly by a direct Japanese threat and thrust at our shores .But I do tell you that we are faced with an enemy of great power, devilish ingenuity and regimented efficiency. We cannot expect to rely on strokes of luck nor to survive mistakes. The Japanese are waging war to the death. We seven millions of Australians in this, the place where are gathered the greatest number of British-speaking people south of the Equator, must, individually, wage a war to the death, just as though we were, man for man, engaged in bloody combat.
The Government, therefore, cannot permit anything to stand in the way of placing the nation on a full war footing and it must, by every means in its power, bring those sections ...who are thoughtless of what is involved to a salutary realisation of the situation. To that end, Cabinet has made decisions which will be the Government's lead in the austerity campaign which is opened as from tonight.
The specific measures which were ushered in by this account of the war situation were intended to restrict horse and dog races, raise the tax on all entertainments, reduce drinking, smoking and the eating of expensive meals, check black-marketing and take away the glamour from the "artificial life" led by those people whose doings are described as social news.
It was plain, however, that the Prime Minister had planned an eloquent speech for other reasons than to announce such decisions. His main objective was "to bring the people to the realisation that only by an austere way of life can we muster our national strength to the pitch required for victory". He read out a pledge which he asked every Australian to take in order that they might strip themselves of "every selfish, comfort-able habit, every luxurious impulse, every act, word or deed that retards the victory march". The pledge, in six short paragraphs, was an emotional recital rather than a precise commitment — a promise to fight and work as Australians had never fought or worked before, to cut from life "every luxury, every relaxation, every temptation to slack", to forget privileges, comfort and rest and, throwing everything into the struggle, let nothing block the way to the attainment of victory.
Against the fervency of his appeal and the rigidity of the code he imposed on himself, the various executive acts by which the austerity campaign was enforced on the people may seem banal. They were rules to curb spending and perhaps make the citizens worthier in the process. The first action was against racing. The purpose was both to check the orgy of betting that had come with the increased circulation of money and to cut down the claims of the racing industry on men, supplies and transport. The State Governments were asked to use the power given to them by the Commonwealth to restrict further the number of horse-racing, greyhound coursing and trotting meetings. None of the States did so. Curtin himself, after hearing representatives of the racing clubs and resisting various pressures, brought down proposals to the Full Cabinet. The final decision was to have races only on Saturdays, to have one raceless Saturday each month, to limit the number of events on a race programme, and to restrict the publication of form, comments and tips. The big holiday and carnival meetings in each State were exempted from the regulations. 5 Later, restrictions on the transport of racehorses and greyhounds were introduced. Attempts, with an extremely limited success, were also made to check off-the-course betting by "bootleg bookmakers". The war effort of race promoters and racegoers, however, was chiefly in the endurance of difficulty to maintain their customary habits. The next attempt was to reduce "the disproportionate expenditure on drink". A previous attempt had been made by the Minister for War Organisation of Industry to save manpower, conserve materials and reduce excessive drinking and drunkenness by restricting the production of beer and other alcoholic beverages by amounts of from 28 per cent to 331-per cent according to the class of residential area, and by limiting the hours of trading in liquor to seven a day. The Minister for Trade and Customs made a note on a file that this attempt cost his department the time spent in handling 6,038 letters, 8,150 telephone calls and 5,280 interviews and did not stop excessive drinking. Production had been cut in the April-June quarter of 1942 from 9,373,000 gallons to 7,201,000 gallons a month. There were mixed views in the party whether the restriction should continue but the Full Cabinet had decided to adhere to it on 3rd August 1942, and at a Premiers' Conference on 10th August the State Governments undertook to reduce trading hours by at least another hour a day, to impose drastic penalties on hotel-keepers for serving men in uniform with excessive quantities of bottled liquor, to exclude women from public bars, to make drinking in parks and public places unlawful an d to tighten up the laws in other respects . Curtin's austerity proposals were to use the deterrent effect of a substantial increase in excise and to inform the States that if their measures did not succeed the Commonwealth Government would introduce other measures.
The attempts to restrict drinking were resisted and evaded. They saved some manpower and materials in the breweries but may have lost manpower not only to black marketing but by reason of the fact that drinkers either waited for the beer to come "on” or, when it was "on " hastened to the pub so as not to miss their share. They made it difficult and in some cases impossible for some sections of the community to obtain liquor. They made no perceptible difference to excessive drinking, and drunkenness in public places continued to be a common feature of Australia n city life throughout the war. The political pressure in respect of both racing and drinking was constant and unvaried. It came from those who had ownership in the two industries; it came from the customers. It came from trade unions and from the wealthy. Wartime experience makes it clear that beer and betting mean more than anything else in life to a considerable number of Australians. Meals in public eating places were limited to three courses in order to check luxury spending. The newspapers were asked to give up printing social news or photographs of persons not engaged in war activities. Penalties for breaches of the prices regulations were made stiffer. A Black Marketing Bill was introduced into Parliament in September. Its title was not well chosen for what it did was to provide more drastic punishment for all the major offences already constituted under the National Security Regulations dealing with prices, liquid fuel, rationing of goods and services, the restriction of stocks and the control of production an d the acquisition of primary products. It was really a measure designed t o check any form of excessive profit-making or evasion of the controls mentioned. It was passed with the blessing of both parties
And at Chapter 4 – Organised for Total War, April 1942–June 1943 we can see another Scrooge.
"Mr. Dedman Scrooge has banned Christmas advertising, the words 'Yuletide' and
'festive season' and the employment of Santa Claus in shops . "
