Conscription
Forced enrolment into armed forces and societies’ acceptance of this as a necessary “norm” can be traced back to ancient times. It was practiced in the Greek and Roman empires and in Europe, including in Britain; serfs were expected to follow their lords into battle. The first recorded mass conscription in modern history was by Napoleon, whose military successes popularised the idea of conscript armies in Europe. Folk songs in Britain record the activities of the press gangs which kidnapped men into service (e.g. “Here’s the tender coming”).
In the UK, national legislation for conscription was not enacted until 1916 during the First World War. It was reintroduced when the rumblings of the Second World War began to be felt in Europe and “military service” was amended to “national service” and was not ended until 1960. Elsewhere in the world young men and women are still required by law to serve in a military capacity for a given period of years, including in some European countries (e.g. Spain, Israel, and Turkey). “Informal” and illegal conscription is regularly practised by several armed insurgent groups (e.g. Colombia, Sri Lanka and Nepal) which sometimes includes the conscription of child soldiers.
The Universal Right of Conscientious Objection
Conscientious Objection was not formally recognised as a universal right by the Human Rights Committee of the United Nations until 1989. It defines Conscientious Objectors as individuals “who have claimed the right to refuse to perform military service on the grounds of freedom of thought, conscience, or religion”. This recognition was the culmination of a long campaign and many countries, including Britain, had already made legal provision for Conscientious Objectors. However, the continuing right to object (i.e. the right of people already in the armed services) has proved a more difficult area of jurisprudence, despite its incorporation into international standards.
In Britain, the law introducing conscription in 1916 included a “conscience clause”. Objectors had to face a tribunal to argue their case as to why they should not be called up. Over 16,000 men applied and had to choose one of three categories: “Absolutists” opposed conscription and war and believed that alternative service may support the war effort. Tribunals had the power to offer full exemption to them. “Alternativists” were prepared to undertake civilian work not under military control and they could be exempt from military service on condition they undertook such work as directed. “Non-combatants” were prepared to be called into the army on condition they did not handle weapons at all and the tribunal could agree to put them on the military register with that proviso. However, all too often, the tribunals were influenced by the prevailing jingoistic nationalism and many men were forced into the army or into alternative service against their conscience and ended up in prison.
The brutality of war in the trenches and the horrific attrition rate resulted in more desperate demand for men to replace casualties, adding to the pressure against Objectors. At the front, wounded and shell shocked men were sent back to fight. Once under military orders and mobilised any man refusing an order risked execution. 305 British soldiers were executed for cowardice, desertion or other military offences during the First World War. A memorial to those executed was erected in Staffordshire in 2001. It is a statue modelled on Private Herbert Burden who joined the Northumberland Fusiliers at 16 and was shot for desertion.
There was some opposition to conscription and a few brave people who supported the Objectors. The “No-Conscription Fellow ship”, was against any kind of conscription and stated that the act must be repealed in full lest “militarism will fasten its iron grip upon our national life and institutions”. Those who signed its leaflet, primarily from the Independent Labour Party and the Quakers, were all fined or imprisoned. Mainstream history records the prevailing jingoism and suffragettes handing out white feathers to men not in uniform. However, the suffragists joined with many trade union women in opposing conscription and in Huddersfield there was an active movement demonstrating at tribunals, blocking the arrest of Objectors and the council voted against the call-up.
It was to be many years before the brutal treatment of Objectors in the First World War was publicly acknowledged as wrong. On 18th October 1916, 26 year old Harry Farr was executed for cowardice. He had spent two years in the trenches and been hospitalised with shell shock for 5 months. He was unable to hold a pen when he was forced back to the front – he refused. His 21 year old widow lost her pension and she and her three year old child were evicted from their home for non-payment of rent. His own family, who had a military background, disowned him and never spoke his name again and his widow was in no position to resist societal censure. Just before her death she came into contact with Andrew MacKinlay MP, who was leading a campaign to obtain pardons for men like her husband. Harry Farr became a test case in that campaign and was pardoned in August 2006, ninety years after he had been wrongly executed.
World War Two and national service: Conscientious Objection in Britain
There was more humane treatment of Conscientious Objectors in the Second World War and a greater recognition. The tribunal system continued in a similar fashion but a right of appeal to an appellate tribunal, chaired by a High Court Judge, was introduced. The Government recognised and consulted the Central Board for Conscientious Objectors, an umbrella group for groups supporting Objectors, set up in 1939.
During World War Two, the numbers of objectors rose to 61,000 and women were, for the first time, required to do some kind of war service. By the end of the war over 5,000 men and 500 women were charged with offences connected with Conscientious Objection and most were sent to prison. A further 1,000 were court-martialled and imprisoned for refusing to obey military orders. Despite their greater numbers and more humane treatment, declaring oneself a Conscientious Objector still took considerable courage. Objectors were routinely ostracised, often abused and risked abuse of their families and future job opportunities. War propaganda again bolstered jingoistic sentiments. The fascist nature of the enemy in this war also split the socialists who had been one of the support bases of Objection in the previous war.
Conscription did not end with the end of the war. National Service required men of 18 years to spend two years in the army followed by three and a half years in the national reserves. National service was finally abolished in 1960 and the last conscripts discharged in 1963. Between 1945 and 1960 a further 10,000 Conscientious Objectors registered, some of whom went to prison.
Other examples of Conscientious Objection:
The US-Vietnamese war (1955 – 1975) resulted in hundreds of thousands of military and civilian casualties in Indo China and just over 58,000 US service members. It also resulted in anti-war protests across the world and a new generation of Conscientious Objectors in the USA. Many “Draft dodgers,” as they become known, left the USA and found sanctuary in other countries – particularly Canada and Scandinavia.
Greece, which requires its male nationals to undertake one year of military service, did not recognise the right of Conscientious Objection until 1998 and between 1950 and 1995 over 3500 Objectors were imprisoned. As always, there was limited support for the Objectors. In 1987 the London based Fall Out Marching Band spent three weeks in Greece supporting Michalis Maragakis who was imprisoned as a Conscientious Objector. Rupert and Mick Kahn, nephews of Frank Booth, were members of the Band and Mick joined the Greek trip.
Contemporary wars
Throughout the 20th century people were forced to fight in wars against their will and that continues in every continent. Britain is at war in Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya and though there is no longer conscription, people in the armed services are being asked to undertake duties against their conscience and refusing to do so. They face court martial for refusing to obey orders, though under international law they have a continuing right of conscientious objection throughout their military service.
Conscientious objection is an important and hard won right which needs continual defending but it is the scourge of war itself which is the root of the problem. The pacifists who were the bedrock of the Conscientious Objection movement of the First World War had a much larger vision of peace. The struggle for that vision is in its infancy.