Friends mark major centenary
Role of Friends in conscience clause highlighted
The work by Quakers to ensure recognition of the right to refuse to kill was marked at Westminster last week on the centenary of the passing of the Military Service Act in 1916.
An event was held in the Atlee Suite at Portcullis House beside the House of Commons on Wednesday 27 January and featured readings and talks by MPs and Friends.
The Military Service Act introduced conscription and was passed on 27 January 1916.
The centenary of the Act was also marked at the Scottish parliament in Edinburgh with a similar event on Thursday 28 January.
Paul Parker, recording clerk of Britain Yearly Meeting, who also attended the gathering in Edinburgh, chaired the Westminster event.
Helen Goodman, MP, talked of the importance of the Act in the context of individual rights and freedom of conscience.
The historian and journalist David Boulton, author of Objection Overruled, then gave an extended talk about the Act. He stressed how Quaker MPs, such as Arnold Rowntree, worked with others to ensure that the Act contained a ‘conscience clause’ that would give men the right to conscientiously object to combat service.
David explained the widespread opposition there had been to the inclusion of a ‘conscience clause’ in the Act. He described how a Quaker dominated ‘joint action committee’ had been the ‘powerhouse of the campaign’ and praised their work and that of the No Conscription Fellowship in ensuring that a conscience clause was part of the final Act.
He talked about the numbers of people who applied for exemption under the conscience clause, the working of the tribunals set up to judge individual cases, and the different categories that they fell into. There were some 1,300 ‘absolutists’. He also described the terrible treatment suffered by many conscientious objectors (COs).
Rachel Brett, formerly Quaker representative to the United Nations, spoke about the importance of the legislation in the context of universal rights. The recognition of an individual’s right to ‘freedom of thought, conscience and religion’ was, she explained, a very significant element of the Military Service Act of 1916. She stressed the importance of establishing the right as an ‘individual right’ and not a right given to ‘groups’.
She also spoke about those countries in the world today, such as Israel and South Korea, which still had forms of conscription.
In praising the campaigners of 1916, she highlighted the fact that Britain was the only country in the first world war to introduce a ‘conscience clause’ and that the legislation, which was of historic importance, was implemented in the middle of a European conflict.
Author and broadcaster Geoffrey Durham then read movingly from the diaries of conscientious objectors and brought to light the personal plight of Quakers imprisoned for their conscience.
Liz Saville Roberts, MP for Dwyfor Meirronniydd, said that she was ‘proud’ to be at the event and reflected on ‘how many variations of truth there are’ when it comes to history. She welcomed the fact that people had challenged the ‘official history’ of the first world war by putting on an event that she described as ‘extraordinarily important’.
Patrick Harvie, a member of the Scottish parliament, with Quakers in Scotland, and the Edinburgh Peace and Justice Centre held a similar event on Thursday 28 January in the Burns Room at the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.
Trevor Royle, author of The Flowers of the Forest, and Edinburgh University historian Lesley Orr talked about the Act and there were presentations from conscientious objectors and the families of world war one COs.
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