No-Conscription Fellowship Manifesto

In September 1915, as conscription loomed, the No-Conscription Fellowship national committee issued 100,000 copies of its Manifesto declaring the Fellowship’s ‘solemn and unalterable’ refusal to fight, whatever the consequences.

The case for and against compulsory military and munition service is being argued by many who, for reasons of age or sex, would not be subject to it. The signatories to this Manifesto think it imperative to voice a protest in the name of a large body of men in this country who, though able-bodied and of military age, will – in the event of coercive measures – be bound by deep conscientious conviction to decline these services, whatever the consequences of the refusal.

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