Citizen's Banquet tendered to The Right Hon. W.M. Hughes, at Sydney, 1916

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Type: Menus
Date: 1916
Place: Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Materials: Ink, Paper
Collection: Sue McLeod collection
Accession number: 1993.0057.0001

Description

A menu printed on a cream piece of card folded in half. Printed gold text on the font cover reads in part 'CITIZENS BANQUET / tendered to / The Right Hon. W.M. HUGHES P.C....Town Hall, / Sydney, 22nd August, 1916.' At the top is an emblem 'I TAKE BUT I SURRENDER' surrounded by nine coloured flags. Inside is the 'Menu' and a list of 'Toasts' and on the back cover is a list of the 'Executive Committee'. The lower right corner of the menu is torn and missing.

The Prime Minister, Hughes returned from his trip to England and France on 31 July 1916. Welcome receptions were held in Adelaide and Melbourne before he arrived in Sydney on 20 August. In Sydney he attended a number of functions, the last being the citizen's banquet in the Town Hall, at which over a thousand people were present. The banquet was significant as the country was waiting for an announcement from Hughes about the conscription issue. There was a dramatic moment in his speech at the banquet when he paused and it seemed as if he was going to make the expected announcement. However, he was not forthcoming and as a newspaper remarked, he proceeded to "talk around the subject". The menu, therefore, is significant as it represents an important period in Hughes career and in Australian social history.

Read live from the Museum's Collection API (12/11/2026, 5:04:39 am). Record last updated by the Museum 2025-02-24. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/.