 An emergency cabinet meeting – at which only five out of ten ministers were present – was convened in Melbourne on 3 August, with the government deciding that it would offer to send an expeditionary force of 20,000 men.The United Kingdom declared war on 4 August at 11 p.m. (5 August at 8 a.m. Melbourne time), and Australia and the other Dominions were considered to be "automatically" at war as well.At 12