as Jensen and Webster, but not the three previous attendees. This time the Council approved the motion, although the Governor-General was not told about the rejection of the same proposal two days earlier. The edict was published in the Government Gazette that evening. The fallout was swift. Gardiner, Higgs and Russell resigned from Cabinet and issued a press statement giving their views on the situation, which cleared the usually pro-government censors because Higgs temporarily held the Defence portfolio, due to George Pearce's absence in Western Australia, so Hughes was unable to prevent its publication. The government was threatened with collapse, with four of the nine members of the First Hughes Ministry having quit. The publicity about Hughes' peremptory move and its consequences was a disaster, coming on the eve of the poll, and the veneer of a unified and strong government under Hughes was destroyed. Hughes, distraught and overwrought, called the Governor-General at midnight, saying he had no one else to talk to, and the two men conversed in the wee-hours of the morning, with Lord Novar offering sympathy and support to his old colleague, but ultimately both understood that the cause was probably lost. Results Are you in favour of the Government having, in this grave emergency, the same compulsory powers over citizens in regard to requiring their military service, for the term of this war, outside the Commonwealth, as it now has in regard to military service within the Commonwealth? Aftermath The defeat of the proposal came as a great surprise to most commentators; few had predicted that it would fail. The Labor movement, and the 'anti' cause in general, had fought under many disadvantages, and the 'yes' campaign had most of the media, many major public institutions, and many of the state governments on its side. Supporters of the referendum were circumspect in their analysis of the result, noting that only a few percentage points and fewer than 75,000 voters had separated the results. The support for the vote in Victoria was surprising to many, given that it had often been the locus of anti-conscription rhetoric. There were many reasons why the poll was unsuccessful. World War I itself was seen as a "right versus might" conflict, and conscription seemed to fly in the face of that. Most, though, consider the deciding factor between the initial enthusiasm for the 'yes' vote and the eventual 'no' vote to