Class war . . . Railway unionist Jack Grayson after being bashed by police during a Labour Day street march in Brisbane in 1948.

Queensland was blighted by religious bigotry and sectarianism in the early part of the 20th century.

Much of this ill-feeling, echoing the Troubles in Ireland, had its roots in the great conscription debates during World War I which split the Labor Party. Generally speaking, the anti-conscriptionists tended to be Catholics while the Protestant hierarchy supported conscription.

In the 1920s, the predominantly working-class Catholics were moving, via the public service, the police force and the law, into the middle class. Their conservatism was reflected in the Labor Party membership.

Labor premiers Edward Michael Hanlon and Vincent Clair Gair were Catholics. William Forgan Smith was not but his Cabinet was dominated by Catholics. They were also profoundly conservative men. Forgan Smith was premier from June 1932 to October 1942. His government reacted to the challenge of World War II with heavy-handed authoritarianism.

Egged on by the church, it hounded communists — this was before the German invasion of the Soviet Union — and demanded that "aliens" be locked up. The "aliens" in question were, in fact, settlers of Italian origin in north Queensland, only some of whom expressed support for the fascists then in power in Italy.

On January 27, 1942, Forgan Smith cabled the Labor prime minister, John Curtin, demanding action on what he called the "alien question in North Queensland". "Evidence produced . . . is so serious that the Queensland Government now recommends their complete internment. There are thirteen thousand such subjects in this state . . ."

The panicky Forgan Smith feared these Italian canemen might use their caneknives in support of the invading enemy. Naturalised or not, it didn't matter: they were rounded up and taken to internment camps in NSW. And the sugar industry slumped.

Italian prisoners of war at work on a farm at Calico Creek during WWII. John Oxley Library 161358

The rampant sectarianism also found an outlet against Italian PoWs brought to Australia after the victories in North Africa early in 1941, who wanted to stay on.

The Protestant Clarion thought that the "Dago Menace" threatened the Stanthorpe district. "There are nationals of other countries who would make excellent settlers but dagoes are not in that category . . . This is a Protestant country and we do not want it overrun with subjects of the Vatican!"

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