Content note: Headlines use 'Huns' as a label for Germans over wartime reports of civilian deportation and killings. This object is shown as it was published. Why
The Ballarat Courier, page 3, 13 December 1916: 'Huns' Slave Raids' and 'Huns Impose Heavy Levies'
A regional Victorian daily's page of cabled war news in which Reuters and Times items are headed 'Huns' Slave Raids', 'Huns Impose Heavy Levies' and 'Huns Blame Britain'. Tells: the loaded label 'Huns' stands in for the German army and government in the newspaper's own headlines, over reports of the deportation of civilians at Tourcoing and levies on Bucharest.
- Date
- December 13, 1916
- Period
- First World War
- Made by
- The Ballarat Courier (Victoria); items credited to Reuters and The Times
- Region
- Oceania
- Country
- Australia
- Medium
- Newspaper pages
- Issuer type
- Media
- Regime
- Hughes Government
- Leader
- William Morris Hughes
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Demonize
- Techniques
- Name-calling
- Source
- Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- Source
- Trove, National Library of Australia (digitised newspaper page), retrieved October 2, 2026
- Rights
- Public domain (published Australia 1916, pre-1931); NLA: Trove newspapers to 1955 freely available
Trove, National Library of Australia; The Ballarat Courier (Victoria), December 13, 1916
Text on the object
THE BALLARAT COURIER, WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 13, 1916. 3 HUNS IMPOSE HEAVY LEVIES [column body; not transcribed] BACK FROM GERMANY WOUNDED ANZACS ARRIVE. HUNS' SLAVE RAIDS SERIOUS RIOT AT TOURCOING. CAVALRY CHARGE CIVILIANS. (Reuter.) Reuter's correspondent at Amsterdam states that it is reported that a serious riot occurred at Tourcoing on the occasion of the deportation of civilians. German soldiers struck the civilians with rifle butts, whereupon the crowd attacked the escorting troops. Cavalry charged the crowd, and 16 townspeople were killed. GERMAN REPLY TO U.S.A. NOTE. HUNS BLAME BRITAIN. (Reuter.) Reuter's correspondent at Amsterdam states that the German reply to the American Note regarding deportations of Belgians makes the usual effort to lay the blame on the British blockade, which is bringing factories to a standstill, etc. [remaining columns: war cables, Christmas advertisements; not transcribed]
Headlines and the two Reuter items read from the committed image; other columns are not transcribed. The left column is partly cropped by the scan edge.
