Series 01 Part 02: Hughes family correspondence, 3 April 1917-22 September 1918 - Page 224
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[Page 224]
3.
wedding cake, so I suppose he is married & done for at last.
There have been about 1800 marriages of our soldiers to English girls, & this has been exaggerated to 10,000 by the Anti-Conscriptionists as an argument against the women voting for any more soldiers to be sent to the Front. I started public speaking for conscription on Thursday last at St John's School Hall at Darlinghurst, when Holman (who was the "Star Turn") led off with a very fine speech indeed, & I followed him, & then came the Honourable John Lane Mullins M.L.C. We were both turned on, no doubt as an advertisement of the fact that all Catholics are not followers of Dr Mannix of Melbourne in his rabid opposition to Billy Hughes & all his works, – especially conscription.
I am afraid Jackada is going to dodge out of most of the rough & tumble work of the campaign, as he came with Auntie Jeannie here on last Sunday night, & for the "umpteenth" time he asked me how to get a free pass for his wife over the N.S.W. & Victorian railways. It appears they want to start for Melbourne for a holiday on Sunday night next, & he had not seriously begun to think about writing for the passes, & Auntie Jeannie calmly said to me before him & Mother, & Eileen, & your cousin John "Oh Tom, for goodness sake hurry him up. You are the only person who can stir him." Rather embarrassing for him, perhaps, but no doubt perfectly true!
John Hughes had come over from Bondi to pay us a visit. His wife had a second daughter, making