Online Memorial to Conscientious Objectors
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Online Memorial to Conscientious Objectors |
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As long as there have been wars, there would have been those not
prepared to slaughter their brothers.
However: Because of the industrialisation of warfare in the early 20th Century. The industrialised
slaughter of the volunteer armies was so great that governments wanted to mobilise entire populations to kill or be killed
in order to protect said governments.
The process by which government employed to hide behind their entire (disposable) population was called "conscription".
However, not everyone wanted to kill and maim and many refused to be converted into a killing machine / cannon fodder.
These splendid individuals were called Consciencious Objectors, C.Os or "conscies". They consisted of pacifists,
political objectors or religious objectors.
Whilst conscientious objectors did not want to kill or maim some still wanted to help their fellow man. Some very brave conscientious objectors became stretcher bearers in the trenches. Others refused to have anything to do with anything that involved the war - these "extreme" conscientious objectors were "branded" the 'absolutists'. To be officially accepted as being a conscientious objectors:
Those who wished to become Conscientious Objectors had to face a tribunal. Which is to say they were basically put on trial.
They had to convince people in authority that they were genuinely opposed to war and killing.
However, this "conscientious objector opt-out clause" was not enough
of a concession for those who wanted the Conscription Act abolished.
For example: It was a group of likeminded individuals known as the
No-Conscription Fellowship who produced the following magnificent leaflet:
Repeal the Act Fellow citizens: Conscription is now law in this country of free traditions.
Our hard-won liberties have been violated. Conscription means the desecration of principles that we have long held dear; it
involves the subordination of civil liberties to military dictation; it imperils the freedom of individual conscience and
establishes in our midst that militarism which menaces all social graces and divides the peoples of all nations. We re-affirm our determined resistance to all that is
established by the Act. We cannot assist in warfare. War, which to us is wrong.
War, which the peoples do not seek, will only be made impossible when men, who so believe, remain steadfast to their convictions.
Conscience, it is true, has been recognised in the Act, but it has been placed at the mercy of tribunals. We are prepared
to answer for our faith before any tribunal, but we cannot accept any exemption that would compel those who hate war to kill
by proxy or set them to tasks which would help in the furtherance of war. We strongly condemn the monstrous assumption by Parliament
that a man is deemed to be bound by an oath that he has never taken and forced under an authority he will never acknowledge
to perform acts which outrage his deepest convictions. It is true that the present act applies only to a small
section of the community, but a great tradition has been sacrificed. Already there is a clamour for an extension of the act.
Admit the principle, and who can stay the march of militarism? Repeal the Act. That is your only safeguard. If this be not done, militarism will fasten its iron
grip upon our national life and institutions. There will be imposed upon us the very system which statesmen affirm that they
set out to overthrow. What shall it profit the nation if it shall win the war
and lose its own soul?
The "No-Conscription Fellowship" was an alliance of humanists from the Socialist Independent Labour
Party and the Society of Friends
The brave men who took the bold step of signing the above leaflet were: Mr Clifford Allen Mr Edward Grubb Mr Fenner Brockway Mr W J Chamberlain Mr W H Ayles Mr Morgan Jones Mr A Barratt Brown Mr John Fletcher Mr C H Norman and Rev. Leyton Richards. It goes without saying that they were All charged under the Defence of the Realm Act They were all subsequently fined. Those who chose not to pay were sent to prison. ALL HEROES: THEY HAD THE COURAGE TO SAY NO. Do you have what it takes to be a Conscientious Objector? If so, please click here. |
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If you live in a country that has conscription: There is a Committee for Conscientious Objectors
which might be able to help.
Please click onto the following link.
Supports conscientious objectors and promotes individual and collective
resistance to war. Provides information on alternatives to the military, military discharges ...
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