Attitudes Towards International Affairs Among the Students and Staff of the University of Edinburgh 1914-1939 Niall T Stuart PhD The University of Edinburgh 2007 i Acknowledgements Many thanks to my supervisors, Dr Paul Addison and Professor Robert Anderson, the City of Edinburgh Archivist Mr Richard Hunter for extensive information about his grandfather Mr David Mackenzie, staff at the various libraries and archives used (especially the University of Edinburgh Main Library Special Collections), and family and friends for all their support and encouragement. ii Thesis Abstract This thesis examines attitudes toward international affairs held by students and staff at the University of Edinburgh between 1914 and 1939, particularly those relating to the issues of war and peace. Specific ideological areas to be looked at include religious influences, nationalism and imperialism, racial concepts, health, fitness and eugenics, and Marxism. Primary sources made use of throughout include the private papers and publications of officials and teaching staff at the university, newspaper letters and reports, University Court, Senatus, Faculty and other committee papers and minutes, official University publications and course text books, and student publications, society minutes and debating records. In the main body of the thesis the relevant positions of the student body and University official and staff are looked at separately and a generally chronological approach followed, with the overall period divided up into World War One, the 1920s, and the 1930s respectively. The conclusion seeks to evaluate the reasons why both students and staff offered up a generally vigorous support for Britain’s war efforts in both 1914 and 1939, this in spite of the widespread popularity of pacifistic ideas throughout the period covered. iii Thesis Declaration A) This thesis has been written by Niall T Stuart. B) It is all the author’s own work. C) Some of the factual material covering the 1930s period was previously included in an MSc Degree (by research). Signature: iv CONTENTS Title Page i Acknowledgements ii Abstract iii Thesis Declaration iv Introduction 2-28 Chapter One: World War One, Staff 29-68 Chapter Two: World War One, Students 69-104 Chapter Three: The 1920s, Students 105-152 Chapter Four: The 1920s and 1930s, Staff 153-206 Chapter Five: The 1930s, Students 207-253 Conclusion 254-258 Appendix 1: Major University Office Holders 1914-39 259 Appendix 2: Principal’s Report Covering War-Related Activities1914-18 260-262 Appendix 3: Female Students and World War One 263-266 Appendix 4: Political and Ideological Debates 1912-19 267-274 Appendix 5: University Statistics 1911-20 275 Appendix 6: Political and Ideological Debates 1919-29 276-287 Appendix 7: Constable Report on Athletics, 1927 288 Appendix 8: Political and Ideological Debates 1930-39 289-291 Appendix 9: University Statistics 1922-39 292 Appendix 10: Prominent University of Edinburgh Alumni 1914-39 293-310 Bibliography 311-323 1 Introduction University Rejoicings Music was supplied by the 2nd Gordon Highlanders and the Edinburgh Police Band and Pipers. Four thousand invitations were issued - 2500 by the University and 1500 by the Lord Provost and Magistrates. On the same night there was also a Cap and Gown Club supper in the Waterloo Rooms, and a torchlight procession, headed by the Q.E.R.V.B. band. The procession moved down the Bridges to Princes Street, along Charlotte Square, George Street, the Mound, and the Lawnmarket to the Castle Esplanade, where the torches were cast into an enormous blazing pile. It was said to be the largest, most brilliant, and best- organised torchlight procession that had ever been seen in Edinburgh. 1 In July 1933 the University of Edinburgh celebrated the three hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its foundation as the ‘Tounis College’ in 1583. The student population stood at a near all-time high figure of 4,243, and the first phase of a major new science and technology campus known as the King’s Buildings had just been completed. The number of Chairs had also increased dramatically over the immediately preceding period, and the institution enjoyed a world-wide reputation for academic excellence, especially its Medical Faculty. On the other hand just fifteen years prior to these festivities the University was hosting solemn commemorative events for the nearly one thousand members who had lost their lives during the First World War. As the 1930s progressed the international situation again rapidly deteriorated, and another worldwide conflict broke out in 1939 resulting in a further two hundred and thirty deaths among University members. Throughout the period at hand Edinburgh University was fully involved in British national and imperial affairs at the highest levels, both through the formal and 1 University of Edinburgh Press Cuttings YLF 1041. Edinburgh Evening News 1 July 1933 2 personal connections of officials and members of staff, and widespread employment of graduates in the government itself, military and civil state bodies, and the established religions of the day. The theories and published works of many of the leading academic figures at the University also had a far-reaching influence. The aim of this thesis, therefore, is to uncover and evaluate the various ideas and activities related to international affairs in general, and war and peace in particular, present among students and staff at the University of Edinburgh during what were probably the most dramatic three decades of its existence. The introduction will outline the main political and ideological currents present during the period at hand, placing them into their contemporary historical context. Looking first at these ideas and agendas which tended to militate against international conflict and warfare, outright pacifism had been promoted down the years by a series of spiritual teachers. The founder of the Jain religion, Nataputta Vardhamana (599-527 BC) made Ahimsa , or absolute non-violence, the first of the creed’s ‘Five Great Vows’, and the Buddha (Siddartha Gautama, 563-483 BC) suggested to his followers that, “Putting away the murder of that which lives, he abstains from destroying life. The cudgel and sword he lays aside; and, full of modesty and pity, he is compassionate and kind to all creatures that have life.” 1 In the Sermon on the Mount recounted in the New Testament Book of Matthew, Jesus is quoted as stating that, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy…Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God…But I say unto you, that ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, 1 Foy, Whitfield (Ed), The Religious Quest. A Reader London: Routledge, 1978 p 199 3 turn to him the other also.” 1 These and similar sayings in The Bible meant that the Christian tradition always at least allowed for a belief in absolute non-violence. During the pre-war period the world-renowned author and spiritual teacher Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) sought to divest mainstream organised Christianity of what he perceived to be its contradictory and immoral elements, including those tenets which sought to justify warfare. He stated in 1908 that, “The Christian teaching in its true meaning…ruled out any form of violence and consequently could not but condemn the whole structure of the world founded on violence.” 2 Because of these widely promoted ideas he came into conflict with both the Russian state and its established religion, and was excommunicated from the Orthodox Church in 1901. The principal founder of the Labour Party in Britain, James Keir Hardie (1856-1915) also adhered to a form of spirituality-based pacifism, claiming that, “The idea of resolving disputes by resorting to murder in the mass outrages every sense of right.” 3 A number of Christian sects upheld wholly or primarily pacifistic beliefs, with the Society of Friends or Quakers representing by far the most important of such bodies in Britain during this time. The founder of the religion, Charles Fox stated in 1658, “Ye are called to peace, therefore follow it; that peace is in Christ, not in Adam in the fall. All that pretend to fight for Christ are deceived; for his kingdom is not of this world, therefore his servants do not fight. Fighters are not of Christ’s kingdom, but are without Christ’s kingdom”4, and a large number of members of the organisation were amongst those who refused to fight during World War One due to a ‘conscientious objection.’ As will be covered in greater detail later the only 1 The New Testament Matthew 5:7 – 5:39 2 Tolstoy, Leo A Confession and Other Religious Writings London: Penguin, 1987 p 175 3 http://www.alba.org.uk/scot99results/cr02.html 4 Amoss, George, The Works of George Fox 1990 Quaker Electronic Archive http://www.qis.net/~daruma//foxpeace.html 4 Edinburgh University student known to have adopted this anti-war stance, William H Marwick (1894 -1982) both took part in the Quaker relief effort in France, and became an active member of the organisation after the end of the war. By the late 1920s the reaction against the First World War had fully set in, and outright pacifism was being promoted in literature by authors such as Erich Remarque and Siegfried Sassoon. In 1933 the students of Oxford University passed the motion, ‘This House would under no circumstances fight for its King and country’ by 275 votes to 153, and their counter-parts at Glasgow elected the founder of the anti-war Peace Pledge Union, The Rev. Dick Sheppard (1880 – 1937) as their Lord Rector in 1937. Absolute non-violence therefore, whilst still very much a minority position remained widely understood and promoted in the years leading up to the outbreak of World War Two.