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Public Opinion and the Conscientious Objector, 1915-1919*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2014

Thomas C. Kennedy
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Journal of British Studies , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , May 1973 , pp. 105 - 119
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1973

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Footnotes

*

An earlier version of this essay was read at the Missouri Valley History Conference in Omaha, March 8, 1972. I should like to thank Benjamin J. Sacks and Richard A. Rempel for their aid and advice in the preparation of this article

References

1. The figures cited here are those given in Rae, John, Conscience and Politics (London, 1970), especially pp. 71, 131–32Google Scholar. Rae's estimates are based upon much more thorough and careful investigation than in any previous study.

2. See Iconoclast, [Hamilton, Mary Agnes], J. Ramsay MacDonald (New York, 1924), p. 28Google Scholar. Also see MacDonald, J. Ramsay, National Defence (London, 1917), p. 12Google Scholar.

3. MacMaster University, Bertrand Russell to Lucy Donnelly, 25 Feb. and 7 May 1915, Archives, Bertrand Russell and Webb, Beatrice, Diaries, 1912-1914, ed. Cole, Margaret (London, 1952), p. 35 (3 May 1915)Google Scholar.

4. “Keep Your Temper,” Spectator, CXIII (8 Aug. 1914), 194–95Google Scholar.

5. For the U. D. C. see Swartz, Marvin, The Union of Democratic Control in British Politics During the First World War (Oxford, 1971)Google Scholar and Swanwick, H. M., Builders of Peace (London, 1924)Google Scholar. Koss, Stephen, Lord Haldane: Scapegoat for Liberalism (New York, 1969), pp. 122–63Google Scholarpassim, discusses the attacks on Haldane.

6. See Labour Leader, 12 and 19 Nov. and 5 Dec. 1914 and A. Brockway, Fenner, Inside the Left (London, 1942), p. 54Google Scholar. The only complete account of the N. C. F. is Kennedy, Thomas C., “The Hound of Conscience: A History of the No-Conscription Fellowship, 1914-1919” (Ph. D. dissertation, University of South Carolina, 1967)Google Scholar, but also see Graham, John W., Conscription and Conscience (London, 1922)Google Scholar and Boulton, David, Objection Overruled (London, 1967)Google Scholar.

7. For Allen, see Marwick, Arthur, Clifford Allen (Edinburgh, 1964)Google Scholar and Gilbert, Martin (ed.), Plough My Own Furrow (London, 1965)Google Scholar.

8. This figure is given by an early N. C. F. organizer Chamberlain, W. J. in Fighting For Peace (London, [1928], p. 28)Google Scholar. Estimates on the respective number of Quakers and I. L. P. members in the N. C. F. are given in the Tribunal, 8 Jan. 1920Google Scholar and The No-Conscription Fellowship: A Souvenir of Its Work During the Years 1914-1919 (London, n.d.), p. 38Google Scholar.

9. Ibid. Also see MacMaster University, Clifford Allen and Fenner Brockway to Prime Minister Asquith (reprint), 15 April 1916, Bertrand Russell Archives. This letter gives N. C. F. membership as 15,000. On 25 May 1916 in the Tribunal Clifford Allen claimed that the N. C. F. contained “nearly 20,000 men,” but this was obviously rhetorical exaggeration.

10. University of South Carolina, No-Conscription Fellowship, “Statement of Principles” and “Manifesto,” Clifford Allen Papers. On N. C. F. finances see Dudley, James, The Life of Edward Grubb (London, 1946), pp. 104–08Google Scholar.

11. George, David Lloyd, War Memoirs (London, 1933), II. 712Google Scholar.

12. Anderson, T. to the Nelson Leader, 3 Dec. 1915Google Scholar.

13. See Lawrence, D. H., Kangaroo (London, 1935), pp. 238–65Google Scholar, especially pp. 238-40. For another account of these incidents, see Aldington, Richard, Portrait of a Genius, But …. (London, 1950), pp. 184–203Google Scholar.

14. 78 H. C. Deb., 1037–42 (24 Jan., 1916)Google Scholar. For an excellent analysis of Asquith's political maneuvering see Rae, , Conscience and Politics, pp. 13–32Google Scholar.

15. 78 H. C. Deb., 422–74 (19 Jan., 1916)Google Scholar. The amendment was offered by W. Joynson-Hicks.

16. See PRO, R. 36, Local Government Board to Local Registration Authorities, 3 February 1916, MH 10/80/11 for original instructions to tribunals with regard to conscientious objectors. The ambiguity of the conscience clause is discussed by Rae, , Conscience and Politics, pp. 47–51Google Scholar.

17. Military Operations in France and Belgium, 1916 (London, 1932), p. 152Google Scholar.

18. See Rae, , Conscience and Politics, pp. 94–133Google Scholar, especially pp. 131-33. Also see Kennedy, , “The Hound of Conscience,” pp. 161–202Google Scholar.

19. Tribunal, 15 March 1916 and People, 19 March 1916.

20. For the N. C. F.'s campaign against local tribunals, see the Tribunal, 8 March to 1 June 1916. Tribunal (182 numbers) has been reprinted from a complete edition in the possession of Professor John G. Slater of the University of Toronto (New York: 1970).

21. Shaw, G. B., What I Really Wrote About the War (London, 1931), pp. 230–32Google Scholar; Chesterton, G. K., “Nonsense, Conscience and the Law,” Sunday Chronicle, 16 April 1916Google Scholar; and Webb, , Diaries, 1912-1924, pp. 55–56 (9 March 1916)Google Scholar. Letters were written to the Times on behalf of C. O.s by the Bishop of Oxford (13 March 1910) and the Bishop of Lincoln (3 April 1916). Philip Snowden collected a great mass of complaints against the tribunals and used them to attack the administration of the Act in two parliamentary speeches, see 81 H. C. Deb. 261-78, 1443–52 (22 March and 6 April 1916)Google Scholar. These speeches were published as British Prussianism: the Scandal of the Tribunals (Manchester, 1916)Google Scholar.

22. Gough, A. W., Vicar of Brompton, to the Times, 8 April 1916Google Scholar. For Rev.Gough, see Who Was Who, 1929-1940 (London, 1941), pp. 535–36Google Scholar.

23. E.g., see Tribunal, 4 Jan. 1917; James, Stanley B., The Men Who Dared (London, [1917]), p. 20Google Scholar; and Malleson, Miles, “The Out and Outer” (London, [1916]), p. 11Google Scholar.

24. MacDonagh, M., In London During the Great War (London, 1935), p. 230Google Scholar and Times, 10 Feb. 1916.

25. Weekly Dispatch, 9 April 1916 and MacDonagh, , London During the Great War, p. 100Google Scholar.

26. Allen, Walter E., All In a Lifetime (London, 1959), pp. 168–69Google Scholar.

27. Daily Sketch, 16 March 1916.

28. Quotations from Tribunal, 20 Nov. 1919 and University of South Carolina, Clifford Allen's unpublished MS. on conscription and conscientious objectors, Chap. I, pp. 9, 12, Allen Papers.

29. Daily Mail, 10 April 1916. Cf. Webb, , Diaries, 1912-1924, p. 59 (8 April 1916)Google Scholar.

30. University of South Carolina, N. C. F. Convention Minutes, 8 April 1916, p. 25, Allen Papers. Also see Labour Leader, 13 April 1916 and Swarthmore College Peace Collection, Sydney B. Turner, “For Faith and Freedom” (handwritten MS.), Sydney B. Turner Papers.

31. For reports on the convention see Labour Leader, 13 April 1916 and Webb, . Diaries, 1912-1924, pp. 59–61 (8 April 1916)Google Scholar.

32. Evening Standard, 23 March 1916; Glasgow Herald, 10 April 1916; and Sunday Herald, 9 April 1916.

33. MacMaster University, Conscientious Objector's Information Bureau, Report IX, 19 May 1916, Russell Archives.

34. Rae, , Conscience and Politics, p. 191Google Scholar.

35. For examples of mistreatment of conscientious objectors by military authorities, see the Tribunal, 18 May - 13 July 1916. Army Order X is reprinted in the Tribunal, 1 June 1916.

36. 6 July 1916.

37. E.g., see Hunter, Ernest E., “The Home Office Compounds” (London, n.d.)Google Scholar and Ammon, C. G., “Waste of National Resources” (London, [1917])Google Scholar.

38. Quoted in Tribunal, 3 May 1917. The Daily Mail's most fierce attacks appeared between 23 and 30 April 1917.

39. Tribunal, 26 April 1917 reported attacks on C. O.s at Tavistock and Walkhampton. The incidents of 1918 are recounted in the Tribunal, 30 May and 20 June 1918 and by Wade, J. F. of Wakefield Center in Manchester C. O.'s Journal, 6 July 1918Google Scholar.

40. Middleton, Thomas Hudson, Food Production in War (Oxford, 1923), p. 222Google Scholar. Also see Committee on Employment of Conscientious Objectors: Additional Rules, 1917, in Parliamentary Papers, 1917/1918 (Cmd. 8884), XIX, 693Google Scholar.

41. Rae, , Politics and Conscience, pp. 167, 201Google Scholar gives their number as 985. Graham, , Conscription and Conscience, p. 351Google Scholar believed that there were about 1350 but admitted that his figure might be faulty. The discrepancy arises from the fact that the Government treated men declared to be insincere exactly as they treated admittedly sincere absolutists.

42. For announcement of this policy see 84 H. C. Deb 644, 1673–74 (17 and 26 July 1916)Google Scholar and 85 H. C. Deb. 1832–33 (16 Aug. 1916)Google Scholar. The absolutist position is explained by Allen, Clifford in “Alternative Service,” Ploughshare, I (1916), 101–04Google Scholar and “Why I Still Resist” (London, [1917].Google Scholar)

43. Russell to Ottoline Morrell, undated [1916], reprinted in LordRussell's, Autobiography, 1914-1944 (London, 1968), p. 62Google Scholar. The meeting with Lloyd George probably took place on 11 April 1916 at Walton Heath, see MacMaster University, F. L. Stevenson to Catherine E. Marshall, 10 April 1916, Catherine Marshall Papers (seen through courtesy of Jo New-berry, MacMaster University).

44. 84 H. C. Deb., 1758–59 (26 July 1916)Google Scholar.

45. Quoted by the Tribunal, 21 Sept. 1916.

46. Ibid., 17 May 1917. The Conscientious Objector's Information Bureau operated by co-operating anti-war groups listed 596 men as serving second sentences in mid-June 1917, Friends House, London, C. O. I. B., Report LXXV, 15 June 1917, Friends' Service Committee Minutes, Records of Work, and Documents Issued.

47. The entire story is told by Rae, , Conscience and Politics, pp. 207–27Google Scholar. Gilbert Murray wrote the preface for “I Appeal Unto Caesar.” See Bodleian Library, Gilbert Murray to M. Hobhouse, 21 and 25 June 1917, Gilbert Murray Papers, 57. On Stephen Hobhouse see his Autobiography (Boston, 1952)Google Scholar and Shaw's, G. B. letter to the Manchester Guardian, 12 June 1917Google Scholar.

48. 27 H. L. Deb. 53–56 (4 Dec. 1917)Google Scholar. Also see Daily Express, 3 Dec. 1917. The Tribunal, 8 Jan. 1920 said that 333 C. O.s were released on account of serious ill health. The N. C. F. Souvenir, p. 37 gives the number as 334.

49. See speech by Joseph King, 103 H. C. Deb. 1597-98 (28 Feb. 1918) and Tribunal, 27 Dec. 1917, 3 Jan., 17 Jan., and 31 Jan. 1918.

50. See Rae, , Conscience and Politics, pp. 222–26Google Scholar. The amendment was presented by Sir George Younger and approved for the Government by Bonar Law, see 99 H. C. Deb., 1135–52 (20 Nov. 1917)Google Scholar.

51. Tribunal, 21 April 1918. For other complaints see Tribunal, 4 Oct. 1917, 27 Feb., 4 April, 30 May, and 20 June 1918. Also see Manchester Guardian, 18 Feb. and 22 March 1918.

52. Statement for the Government by SirCave, G., 110 H. C. Deb., 1592 (31 Oct. 1918)Google Scholar. Also see Tribunal, 7 Nov., 5 Dec. 1918, 13 Jan., 20 Jan., and 28 Feb. 1919.

53. Times, 10 March 1919 and Tribunal, 10 April 1919. Also see Churchill's announcement of final release, 118 H. C. Deb., 2001–02 (30 July 1919)Google Scholar.

54. Quoted by Tribunal, 14 Aug. 1919.

55. Report from the Select Committee on the Civil Service (Employment of Conscientious Objectors), in Parliamentary Papers, April 1922 (69) and (69 Ind.) IV, 967Google Scholar.

56. University of South Carolina, Thomas F. Drayton to Allen, 6 Jan. 1932, Allen Papers.

57. Shaw, , What I Really Wrote, pp. 214–15Google Scholar. For development of this theme see Berkman, Joyce Avrech, “Pacifism In England, 1914-1939” (Ph. D. dissertation, Yale University, 1967), p. 49fGoogle Scholar and Playne, Caroline, Britain Holds On, 1916-1918 (London, 1933), p. 278Google Scholar.

58. For C. O.s in World War II see Hayes, Denis, Challenge of Conscription (London, 1949)Google Scholar; Simmons, Clifford (ed.), The Objectors (Isle of Man, n.d.)Google Scholar; and Rae, J. M., “The Development of Official Treatment of Conscientious Objectors to Military Service, 1916-1945,” (Ph. D. thesis, University of London, 1965)Google Scholar.

59. Tribunal, 8 May 1919 called Churchill “a man who will stick at naught to strengthen the hold which militarism has gained upon this country during the last four years.”

60. 305 H. C. Deb., 284 (20 March 1941)Google Scholar.