Family Name:
Cahill
Given Names:
Rowan
Gender:
Male
Birth-date:
3 November 1945
Death-date:
NA
Marital Status:
Single, engaged
Age:
20 years old
Location
NSW
Occupation:
University Student
Primary Motivation:
Conscientious objector
Reason for Court Appearance:
[1]Application for full exemption from military duties
[2] Appeal against full exemption from military duties not being granted
Court Name and Location
[1] Magistrates, Unknown probably Sydney
[2]: Unknown, probably Sydney
Court Hearing Date:
[1] February 1969
[2] August 1969
Court Outcome:
[1] Application for full exemption from military duties was not granted, only from combatant duties
[2]Application for full exemption from military duties was granted on appeal.
Military Event:
National Service and Vietnam War 1964-1972
Further Information:
Rowan Cahill was born 3 November 1945 and this birthdate was pulled from the lottery barrel for the second intake of September 1965. He destroyed his call-up card. He refused to attend the mandatory medical exam on three occasions, July1967, February 1968 and May 1968. He decided to apply to be registered as a conscientious objector as a response to the substantial increase in penalties for non-compliance with the National Service Act (NSA). He was a student at Sydney University and was an anti-war activist. He applied for deferment from any further NSA whilst waiting on the application to be registered as a conscientious objector to be heard. The court hearing was in the magistrate’s court during February 1969.
Rowan has recollected what his main arguments before the magistrate were. I explained my reasons for exemption as follows: A. I am opposed to War. Wars exist because Man wants them to. They exist because mankind in general has made no serious attempt to study the causes of War and the reasons why people are willing to kill each other. I believe that the glorification of war, the worship of things military as is apparent in Society, is obscene. Wars exist because people are willing to fight them. Wars are based on ignorance cultivated by jingoism; respect for, and reverence of, things military; fears and hatreds – conveyed from generation to generation through educational and cultural institutions, the mass media, and by governments.
B. I am opposed to any intervention by the West in Vietnam. I believe that the military intervention of America in Vietnam is unwarranted. I will not aid any military machine which helps perpetuate this intervention or supports the imperialist policy of American capitalism, be it in Asia, Africa, or Latin America. America’s presence in Vietnam is due to that nation’s policy of imperialism, one that has its roots in American history. As a socialist I am opposed to this policy and pledge solidarity with all peoples, wherever they are, who are resisting and opposing it. The Vietnam war is essentially racist in nature. I will not aid nor encourage this racism by participating in it or aiding it in any way.
The action of the allies in Vietnam, the decimation of the people and the land, represents a crime against humanity. I will not be party to this crime. If the West once had something to offer the Vietnamese people, it no longer has. The militarist role of Australia in Asia, the non-independent perusal of foreign policy, is ultimately to the detriment of the Australian people. I believe in living with Asia, and this means understanding the people, their cultures and histories. This does not entail militarist adventures. I believe that the role of the intellectual is to destroy false rhetoric’s. American imperialism has been justified in the eyes of the Australian people by lies, half-truths, distortions, and occasionally truths. I aim to help destroy these false rhetoric’s in any way I can. The idea of Democracy being opposed by Communism, of a Free World versus a Communist Conspiracy, is a fabric of distortions and, I believe, a deliberate misrepresentation of history. Much of the rhetoric advancing this world view emanates from Washington. I will have no part of it, nor aid in its perpetuation by participating in military systems cultivating this outlook.
The magistrate dismissed the application but granted Rowan exemption from combatant duties. The magistrate explained that he could not grant full exemption because the NSA only allowed for a pacifism to all war not a particular war like Vietnam. Rowan then appealed the decision. He commented that after two hours before the court answering gruelling questions and a reserved judgement by the Judge, his appeal was upheld, and he was granted full exemption from military duties during August 1969. His fiancée Pam Dick testified at the hearing and said Rowan was the most honest person she had ever met.
Confirmatory Sources:
A recollection by Rowan Cahill called A Conscription Story
https://www.labourhistory.org.au/hummer/vol-2-no-4/conscription/
accessed 12 April 2020.
Bobbie Oliver, Well No! Won’t Go! Resistance to Conscription in Postwar Australia, Interventions, Melbourne, 2022, esp. pp.59-60 and 207.
THE AUSTRALIAN PEACE HONOUR ROLL 