Cirrus@Austlit

'Pankhurst's play uses the anti-conscription argument that while men are fighting overseas, cheap foreign labour will be imported to take their jobs....Dealing with the selling out of Orry (Australia) by its leaders to international interests, Betrayed depicts the plight of the workers in this militarist state. Tricked into fighting in a foreign war for the government's cause, the workers cannot win their own battle for better conditions. Soldiers from England are brought in to put down trouble at election time when a champion of the workers warns: 'Men and women of Orry, you've got to choose now whether you'll be free men or slaves', (act 4, scene 1, p.67) echoing an argument of the advocates of a 'no' vote in the referenda. When the battle against the English troops is unsuccessful the workers turn against their leaders who are executed or imprisoned by the government.

In keeping with Pankhurst's concern for women, Betrayed also highlights poverty and prostitution and looks at conditions for women in factories. Five years after the quelling of the rebellion in Orry, most of the men are out of work while women have to compete as workers with cheap indentured Chinese labour; some even have to sell their bodies to the Chinese. The play ends on a pessimistic note with the workers blaming the Socialists and the Industrial Workers of the World, not the government, for the arrival of the Chinese and for their poor working conditions, just as they had done in Reaping the Whirlwind in 1909.' Susan Diana Cullen 'Australian War Drama: 1909 to 1939' (1989).

Frederick Sinclaire was born and educated in New Zealand. After receiving an MA he studied theology at Oxford University with the financial support of the Unitarian Church. Posted to Melbourne as a minister of the Unitarian Church, he became well-known for his socialist views, opposing other clergymen on issues such as prostitution, drinking and gambling by arguing that these were social not moral problems.

Involved with the Victorian Socialist Party and Melbourne's Fabian Society, Sinclaire became acquainted with other socialists such as Bernard O'Dowd, Vance Palmer, Louis Esson and Frank Wilmot. His association with socialist groups was tolerated by the Unitarian Church, but members objected when he began to host meetings of the Fabian Society on church property.

In 1911 he left the Unitarian church, but was encouraged to stay in Melbourne by a group of followers who later formed the Free Religious Fellowship and financed a small salary to support Sinclaire as minister. Sinclaire co-edited the Socialist with Marie Pitt in 1911 and 1912, before the Free Religious Fellowship established its own magazine, Fellowship, in 1914 with Sinclaire as editor.

Many of Sinclaire's socialist friends contributed to Fellowship, producing a magazine that challenged orthodox religion and the classicism of university-based literary criticism. Vance Palmer, in particular, published many articles advocating a wider acceptance of Australian literature. In addition, he objected to the detrimental effects he believed the suburban modern nation was having on 'traditional' Australian culture. Sinclaire continued to argue in Fellowship that socialism was a better reflection of Christian values than orthodox religions and adopted anti-imperialist arguments that situated creative growth within Palmer's nationalism. Claiming workers as an important element of this growth, Fellowship supported striking railway workers and opposed conscription during the First World War.

In addition to Sinclaire and Palmer, other contributors included Nettie Palmer, Frank Wilmot, Bernard O'Dowd, J. Le Gay Brereton and Frederick Macartney. Fellowship ceased production in 1922.

The action takes place in Melbourne in the weeks leading up to a federal election. The Women’s Anti-Socialist League have selected Doris Quiverton—daughter of the conservative Prime Minister, Sir Joseph Quiverton—to stand for the seat of Wombat. However, no sooner than Doris learns that she has been selected, her fiancé, Sydney Barrett, reveals that he is competing for the same seat. A socialist and an atheist, Barrett opposes everything both Doris’ Liberal father and the Women’s Anti-Socialist League stand for. Doris must carefully navigate extreme political ideals and intense personal relationships. 

"That hilarious comedy, "The Time is Not Ripe," published in 1912, is rather a breathless play, in which the political distractions of that era are complicated by the invention of a love affair between the socialist leader and the daughter of his principal opponent."

The Daily Mercury (1943). Louis Esson. [online] p.2. Available [Accessed 5 Mar. 2018].