the pre-eminent flag in use by private citizens on land. This was largely due to the Commonwealth government, assisted by flag suppliers, discouraging use of the Commonwealth Blue Ensign, now known as the Australian National Flag, by the general public. By traditional British understanding, the Blue Ensign was reserved for official government use although the Red Ensign was nevertheless still in military circulation until after the 1953 legislation, meaning the 1st and 2nd Australian Imperial Forces served under both the blue and red versions. State and local governments, private organisations and individuals were expected to use the Red Ensign. In the 1920s there was debate over whether the Blue Ensign was reserved for Commonwealth buildings only, culminating in a 1924 agreement that the Union Flag should take precedence as the National Flag and that state and local governments were henceforth able to use the Blue Ensign. A memo from the Prime Minister's Department dated 6 March 1939 states that: "the Red Ensign is the flag to be flown by the public generally" and the federal government policy was "The flying of the Commonwealth Blue Ensign is reserved for Commonwealth Government use but there is no reservation in the case of the Commonwealth Merchant Flag, or Red Ensign". In 1940 the Victorian government passed legislation allowing schools to purchase blue ensigns. The following year prime minister Robert Menzies issued a media release recommending that the Blue Ensign be flown at schools, government buildings and by private citizens and continued use of the Red Ensign by merchant ships, providing it was done so respectfully. Prime Minister Ben Chifley issued a similar statement in 1947. Despite executive branch proclamations as to the respective roles of the two red, white and blue ensigns there remained some confusion until the Flags Act 1953 declared the Blue Ensign to be the Australian National Flag, leaving the Australian Red Ensign to its status as the civil ensign. Merchant Navy Day Australian National Flag Day was proclaimed in 1996. Since 2008, 3 September has also been officially commemorated as Merchant Navy Day which allows the Australian Red Ensign to be flown on land for the occasion as a matter of protocol. Merchant Navy Day is an official recognition of the merchant navy's contribution in wartime, in particular the Pacific campaign in World War II. Recent use by protesters In the 2020s, some Australian anti-government activists, including so-called sovereign