Explain why some people objected to the war

As the war progressed, more and more soldiers were needed to help out in the war to replace the large amounts of soldiers with casualties, as the amounts of volunteers were declining each month. There were many men who were eligible to fight but were not volunteering, so conscription had to be introduced to keep the numbers of soldiers great enough to defeat the Germans. In January 1916, The Military Service Act was introduced.

All unmarried men and widowers without children or dependants between the ages of 18 and 41 were all forced to join the war. This Service Act did not apply to unmarried men who were in reserved occupations, the people who were the sole supporters of a household, those with medical disabilities or men who objected to the war on moral grounds, who had to claim exemption. This Act later proved to be flawed as it was based on the unreliable National Register which did not include large numbers of men who were not traced. On May 3rd 1916, conscription also applied to all men regardless of their marital statuses, between the ages of 18 and 41. Universal conscription had then become a fact when Britain started using conscription like all of the other countries involved in the war.

Conscription being brought about started a general resistance by some people, who claimed they could not fight on the grounds of conscience - these people became known as conscientious objectors. The conscripts who tried to claim exemption had to plead their case before a Military Tribunal, who would decide whether they would be free from military service. The tribunals had to choose between four decisions when deciding what to do with the people claiming exemption.

The first was absolute exemption; the individual was declared unconditionally exempt from service which could include them having dependants, or they could be disabled. The tribunal could also give conditional exemption to the individual, which means that they had to become in work of national importance, such as coal miners or industrial workers. In some cases, soldiers who were actually fighting were sent home as there were insufficient amount of workers in work of national importance, as a lot of volunteers came from industrial workers and coal miners. These two occupations can need extra men as they supply us with important necessities.

There were some conscientious objectors who were exempt from combatant duties, another one of the four possible outcomes. They had to join the arm forces, but they would not have to fight if they didn’t want to. These men usually worked as medics or messengers, and some of these people were religious, such as priests. If the people who objected to war were not given any of the above three possible outcomes, then they were rejected. The individuals had to join the army and they were subject to normal military discipline. There were around 16,000 non-combatants, and then about ...

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The Military Service act produced two kinds of conscientious objectors: ‘non-combatants’, whose beliefs prevented them from fighting but who were prepared to enlist and accept army discipline, and the ‘absolutists’, who refused to perform any military service at all. These conscientious objectors were made out to be bad people, and the nickname ‘conchie’ was made up as a derogatory term to shame, belittle and embarrass them. The ‘conchies’ even lost the right to vote in the 1918 general election, and soldiers who were 19 or 20 were allowed to vote.

There were several organisations and individuals who were against the war, some who were better known than others, such as the Society of Friends; a non-violent religious sect of Quakers, people who believed in non-violence, who gave funds to the Union of Democratic Control who were also against the war. The UDC were set up in 1914, and they argued that the war had been started because of the secret diplomacy of the government; the prime objective of Britain and France's diplomacy being to evade another war with Germany - a war that could not be paid for in their current economic status. The organisation had many Labour MPs, with ED Morel being one of the main leaders, among its membership. The Union of Democratic Control received sympathy to their aims from left-wing newspapers, The Manchester Guardian and The Nation.

The Quakers who were conscripted believed in non-violence as a part of their religion, but these Quakers were made out to be cowards, traitors or criminals. A lot of pressure was put onto them, especially since propaganda posters, including one0 with a picture of a man just sitting down relaxing while his whole family are at the war helping out in their own particular ways, were created to make them look like bad, lazy people. Not many people or organisations supported the Quakers, however, there were still a few. Some magazines gave them support and also some organisations like the No Conscription Fellowship, consisting of other ‘conchies’. Clifford Allen, who believed in freedom, was one of the founders of this organisation, and he was the first chairman. As a punishment for refusing to join up, he received several punishments including imprisonment and hard labour.

The No Conscription Fellowship (NCF) was formed to support those who objected to taking up arms in the First World War. It was an organisation that encouraged men to refuse war service. When the war began in the autumn of 1914, the editor of the strongly anti-war ILP newspaper Labour Leader, Fenner Brockway, invited those who were not prepared to render military service to get in contact. There was an immediate response to this and the whole organisation, The No Conscription Fellowship, was created, with around 300 initial members.

Stephen Hobhouse is an example of a Quaker. Even though he was actually physically unfit, he claimed exemption because the war was totally against what he believed – non-violence, so Hobhouse preferred to stay at home and help the less fortunate and because of the way he claimed exemption, through religion, he was punished and was then known as a conscientious objector so he was sentenced to two years of hard labour. What being punished only made him do, was it made him confirm what he had already believed.

Since the conditions down at the front were so poor, there were soldiers who still fought, but who were not supporting the war as they believed that there were better ways to settle disputes. Siegfreid Sassoon was a soldier who thought the war was unnecessary, even thought he fought and managed to win the Military Cross. The government tried to prevent the people at home from knowing about the conditions at the front, as they would scare people away, preventing them from volunteering, so Sassoon tried to let the people back at home know about how terrible the conditions really were through poetry which he wrote. He attacked the generals, journalists and politicians in his poetry.

The conscientious objectors given exemption from combatant duties usually still went to the front and could have worked in the ambulance units. There were some people, who were still against the war and against violence, but they could still sometimes go out to the front to help out by healing the wounded and suffering, or they carry the stretchers. These people were put under a lot of pressure when they were called up, even though they might have got exemption from combatant duties, because they had a large amount of responsibility on their shoulders, and they were always worried about making a mistake as it could even cost someone’s life.

There were many conscientious objectors who had believed in the brotherhood of all nations. Stuart Beavis had great belief in that, so he refused conscription and plead for exemption because of his beliefs. It didn’t go his way, as he was taken out to France in May 1916. Since he was actually in the war zone he had no choice but to either fight or he would be shot for failure to follow orders. Beavis was later tried, and he was given the death sentence but it was later changed to ten years in prison. The Revolutionary wing of the socialist Second International was against the war; they rejected war between workers and said that it had been forced on the public by politicians and businessmen who were only interested in making money and increasing their power through the war. Socialists and Communists also helped out in this opposition; they believed in a brotherhood of working men across all nations.

The absolutists who refused to undergo any form of military discipline, to join the army, to wear any uniform or to follow any orders would have been ordered into the army. These people who believed in freedom could be court-martialled if they refused to obey any orders, or they could even be shot as well. These absolutists could also end up being sent to prison or sentenced to do hard labour. Around thirty conscientious objectors died because of the conditions they were forced to stay in when locked up; roughly ten of them had died while in the prison.

The conscientious objectors also received other harsh treatment, such as being sent to live Home Office Work Centres; were the conditions could sometimes be so cold that pneumonia broke out, killing several people. In Hertfordshire, in the Home Office Work Centre Broxbourne, the ‘conchies’ were given the job of handling the rotting corpses of animals, and at Princetown on Dartmoor, they had to either break rocks or sew mailbags. By April 1919, around 73 conscientious objectors had died as a result of the way hey were treated in the Home Office Work Centres and just over 30 ‘conchies’ were driven insane.

The ‘conchies’ were seen as important in a way, as they helped to safeguard an individual’s right to freedom of choice and expression. The high profile of conscientious objectors served to make their people recognise their own obligations. The were also used as an example of what would happen to you if you refused to join the war; some conscientious objectors were even crucified, being forced to stay up on a cross for two hours. On their second evenings they were forced to have their face facing the barbed wire, which could easily tear their skin with a slight move of their heads.

The ‘conchies’ received no sympathy from ordinary civilians, only from soldiers. One conscientious objector received moral support from five soldiers who were arrested, they each told him to stick to his beliefs and not give in to those who are giving him orders. The civilians gave no sympathy or support as they were shown the conscientious objectors as weak cowards, who were willing to let other men fight for their freedom, without even assisting in any shape or form. Members of military tribunals would try and break them down, forcing them to join, by insulting them. They would say comments like “You are nothing but a shivering mass of unwholesome fat…” or “A man who would not help to defend his own country is a coward.”