From the archive: ...diversities of service but the same Lord (1 Corinthians 12:5)
Janet Scott continues her series on the Friend and the first world war and describes how Friends sought to uphold their testimonies
In the 11 January 1918 edition of the Friend George Cadbury was reported as speaking at a Meeting about the decline in attendance. There was, he said, ‘not a single meeting of the Society of Friends that could be called really successful. We had consulted too much our own comfort and ease.’ He attributed the cause as largely owing to Meeting for Sufferings ‘having entirely neglected to take up the condition of the meetings for worship of the Adult Schools and of the Sunday Schools, and having become instead almost a political institution’.
Almost inevitably this led to correspondence in the Friend, and at Meeting for Sufferings in February 1918 the clerk made a statement about the work of the Meeting, which was much appreciated. He quoted from Church Government about the qualifications for membership of the Meeting. The Friend on 8 February reported his statement:
The Yearly Meeting, having considered the nature and importance of the affairs transacted by the Meeting for Sufferings, is impressed with the necessity of their being managed by such as are of clean hands, and who adorn the doctrine they profess, in their lives and conversation. And it is the earnest desire of the Yearly Meeting that Friends be particularly careful in their choice of such as are to act as members of that Meeting, informing themselves… of the qualifications of those who are intended for such service; and that such only may be nominated as are faithful in the several branches of Friends Christian testimonies, and exemplary in their conduct and conversation.
All of us, he said, fall short of this ideal, but he defended the Meeting as striving ‘honestly in the sight of God to state and maintain our Christian testimonies’. Also in the 8 February edition, the Friend gave details of the weekly reports from the ambulance convoys of the Friends’ Ambulance Unit (FAU) and some of the problems and hardships they were facing.
Section 13:
…had to change its billet… Room is scarce and the Section eats and sleeps in the same place, a loft over a stable occupied by one horse. Snow fell on three days in succession… but so far no trouble in getting about.
Section 14:
…continues to have a considerable amount of work, and the cars have been divided into two shifts, each car usually getting a couple of runs or more during the twenty-four hours of duty. The alternate thaw and heavy snow storms have made the roads more difficult than ever. One car, during a night run, lost the road altogether, and the assistance of a party of twenty soldiers had to be sought to get it out of a field and over a ditch on to the road again…
Deaths of conscientious objectors
Continued harsh treatment, lack of food and the severe weather increasingly took its toll on the health of prisoners. On 1 February the Friend reported the death from pneumonia of Arthur Horton, aged twenty-three of Manchester, and the death in prison of Arthur Butler, of Stockport. The following week there was a report of the Memorial Meeting held in Shrewsbury prison for Arthur Horton. An account was given of the vocal ministry:
Harold M Watkins said he overheard the remark when Arthur Horton first entered the prison, “What a magnificent soldier he has made; what a sublime death! For his life and testimony we may unite in thanks-giving, for he sought to live in the spirit of love.”
At the conclusion all remained standing in solemn silence for a few minutes before separating. The meeting… has made on… those who were present a deep impression. Elizabeth Horton was not allowed to be present at the meeting, but waited in the room below.
On 15 February, the Friend published a report of the death of H W Firth at the Home Office settlement at Princetown. A memorial service arranged by men of various denominations was held at the Princetown Centre. The men had ceased work for the day, as a protest against the treatment he had received and also against the general maltreatment of conscientious objectors in various prisons and settlements throughout the country.
The Friend reported that as of 1 February:
The number of men arrested and handed over to the Military Authorities was 5,187, of whom 4,623 have been court-martialled. Of the latter, 3,477 have been court-martialled once, 583 twice, 500 three times, 60 four times, and 3 five times. The number of men rejected or discharged on medical grounds is 273… The number who have died since arrest is 17.
Substitutes for prisoners
On 15 February a letter was published from Evelyn Wood:
We read that in 1659, 164 Friends formed a deputation to Whitehall to offer themselves as substitutes for some of the Friends then lying in prison… possibly the time has again come for a similar deputation and an opportunity for some of those who state that had it not been for accidents of age, sex or exemptions, they themselves would have gone to prison in the fight for liberty. In this way some of those who have been prisoners the longest or who are the most enfeebled might have a short period of rest in which to regain physical strength to continue their protest.
This caused further correspondence and culminated in a plan to hand in a petition to the government in July.
Missionary service
On 22 February the Friend published the first of a series of bimonthly supplements dealing with the mission fields under the care of the Yearly Meeting through the Friends Foreign Mission Association (FFMA). In an introduction Henry T Hodgkin wrote:
It may be that we have too readily assumed that foreign missions were all of a piece, that the work corresponded to some fanciful picture seen in childhood, that missionaries were all narrow-minded and bigoted…
The missionary movement… stands today in our Society… for the whole message of Quakerism – what our forefathers in the faith called the Everlasting Gospel. The missionary is facing today the largest questions of social development in the rapidly changing East… These must be solved in the Spirit and by the Power of Jesus Christ if they are to be rightly settled. The solution must be found in close contact with the people themselves, in deep insight into their ways of thought and social customs, in loving sympathy with individual men and women…
The Quaker missionary… is not seeking to force an alien creed on an unwilling people… He is seeking to unveil Jesus Christ as the One who can speak to their conditions.
The Society… ought to know more of what its own missionaries are doing – the magnificent way in which they are grappling with intricate problems, the patient love with which they are meeting countless obstacles, the quiet witness they are making to those great truths for which we stand in the world, the fearless spirit in which they are meeting perils and perplexities of which they say but little.
The Society should know… more of its own sons and daughters called into its fellowship from India, China, Madagascar – from each of the six fields now included in the FFMA… Already there are more members and adherents in our fields than there are members at home. In many lands our Quaker faith is being put to a stern test and it is not failing…
Shortages
The Friend on 22 March gave details of a Quarterly Meeting notice that showed the difficulties Quakers at home were facing:
Owing to rationing, Canterbury Friends regret that they are unable to provide lunch and tea as usual. Friends are therefore asked to bring their own provisions. Cups of tea will be provided on the premises.
The Friend itself had to reduce the number of its pages and use smaller type in view of the serious paper shortage. On 15 March there was a request for ‘our correspondents generally to condense their reports and letters as far as this is possible’.
