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Australia1983 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses
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DESPITE THE BAN—A CONVENTION IN 1941!
A national convention in 1941—this is what the brothers in Australia desired. But how, with the ban on? We would see whether Jehovah would make possible and bless such a convention under ban conditions. The dates were set for December 25-29, and the convention was to be patterned after the one in Saint Louis, Missouri, earlier that year. Because it was impossible to obtain suitable facilities anywhere, the brothers used vacant land belonging to the Society, at Hargreave Park, about eighteen miles (29 km) from Sydney.
Brothers came from all parts of Australia, mainly by train because of gasoline rationing. The Western Australian government, however, refused to provide rail facilities for our conventioners, creating a seemingly impossible situation for brothers almost three thousand miles (4,800 km) away.
Undaunted, the brothers in the West equipped their cars with gas-producing units operating on charcoal. By departure time on December 11, they had prepared nine cars and trucks for the grueling six-thousand-mile (9,600-km) round-trip journey. A Kingdom Farm in Western Australia supplied charcoal to carry the convoy over the 720 miles (1,160 km) of rough, unpaved desert road from Norseman to Penong in South Australia. From then on there was at least a proper road and some towns.
The entire journey to Sydney took 14 days, one solid week of which was spent experiencing the hardships of the Nullarbor (meaning “No Tree”) Plain. Fine dust clogged hair and clothes, and washing in the limited supply of water, which was brackish and with a high mineral content, only turned the dirt into mud. Cars had to stop and refuel with charcoal every 50 miles (80 km). Slower-moving vehicles operated 24 hours a day, the drivers taking duty in shifts, eating and sleeping as the convoy crawled across the wilderness.
The military, police and fuel board officials demonstrated how mean officialdom can get when they seized the supply of emergency gasoline at the last town before the desert crossing. This meant that the brothers had to push the first car two or three miles each morning until it was started on charcoal gas; then, this car would tow the others until they got started. But, triumphantly, the convoy arrived in time for the opening of the convention. The newspapers, so derogatory in their advance publicity when the trek across the Nullarbor was in progress, were strangely silent when the entire group of delegates arrived in Sydney safe and sound.
A highlight of this convention was the release of the Australian-printed edition of the Children book. This book had been released at Saint Louis, just four months earlier. On obtaining a copy of the book, Brother MacGillivray gave the order: “Print the Children book!” It seemed impossible for the underground factory to carry out such an assignment. Even under ordinary conditions the branch in Australia had never yet produced a bound book! However, under the oversight of master printer Malcolm Vale, a fearless organizer, the underground organization got to work!
The various printeries used were ostensibly doing ordinary secular printing, and when police officers inspected them from time to time that was all they saw. But in the middle of the night the wraps would come off the Society’s printing project. Many were the book signatures that were produced by the time dawn came around.
One of the biggest problems was binding the books. The brothers rented an unused warehouse, and the bindery equipment was carted in there at night. Shifts of brothers and sisters worked there day and night, producing books after the same pattern as those published in Brooklyn. Sometimes, after a few days, the neighbors got curious as to what was going on, and perhaps the local police would take an interest. This was the signal for packing up the entire bindery in the middle of the next night, loading it on trucks and transporting it to another rented warehouse. And so the process of binding and producing the books went on week after week. The bindery had to change locations 16 times. But the brothers were rewarded with seeing a fine supply of the book ready for release at their convention.
Since the Society’s literature was banned, the release of the book also had to be done quietly. For one early-morning session of the assembly, the conventioners were directed to private homes of Jehovah’s Witnesses in various locations. There the book was released to the small group in attendance at each place. The branch overseer’s report in the next Yearbook said: “In the face of overwhelming odds, the printers did a job which could have been completed only by consecrated labor and in the strength of the Lord. Each child received his gift, and 20,000 of the book are now in circulation throughout Australasia.” Six thousand attended the convention under ban!
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Australia1983 Yearbook of Jehovah’s Witnesses
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[Picture on page 82]
Part of the convoy, equipped with charcoal gas-producing units, which made the long trek from Western Australia to Sydney for the 1941 convention
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