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Australia Today: Australia’s 5th Column - 'The enemy within'
Title:
Australia Today: Australia’s 5th Column - 'The enemy within'
NFSA ID:
1348
Year:
1941
Courtesy:
Enterprise Film Co.
Category:
According to this newsreel, Australia is at war with the '5th Column’, threatened by a ruthless enemy whose objective is the 'downfall of the British Empire’.
This clip suggests that Nazi agents already reside in Australia and that government officials work day and night to stamp out the ‘enemy within’. The audience is called upon as ‘loyal citizens’ to do their part to assist by being careful about what they say and whom they say it around.
The propaganda cartoons shown in this clip are still held in the collection of the National Archives of Australia (NAA) in Canberra. Some of them were exhibited in 2006 as part of an exhibition called Patriotism Persuasion Propaganda: American and Australian War Posters at the NAA.