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Home , August 1914, June 1914, November 1914, October 1914, September 1914, White feather

No.1 21 one halfpenny

representative committee of : CONFLICT 14 Friends was appointed to consider the right course to AND CONSCIENCE pursue, and was asked to report as soon as possible. A suggestion was made that This newspaper, featuring articles by present-day the Meeting for Sufferings Q uakers and original 1914 contributions to The should be consulted, as the Friend, gives a taste of Q uaker lives, both then question was a national one. and now. We hope this juxtaposition will draw ’ parallels and invite reflection. SOLDIERS families Events viewed through to fighting joined the time can take on a texture Friends’ Ambulance Unit From The Friend, that distances us from (FAU). Nearly a quarter of 23 them. We tend to think a million sick and wounded meeting-house, that certain events couldn’t soldiers were carried by the use of which, on the happen now, that things FAU ambulance convoys, outbreak of war, was have changed. Research in and 21 FAU members died offered to the Lord Mayor, the Q uaker archives shows whilst on service. Other preferably for relief work, that sometimes the everyday Q uakers wanted nothing to has been in daily use reality and common reactions do with the war. Known ever since, by the Town about World War I had as absolutists, they risked An ambulance of the Friends’ War Victims’ Relief Committee and its proud driver in before setting off for or Hall Soldiers’ and Sailors’ been written out of the imprisonment and hard in the early months of the war. Families’ Relief Association. national memory. labour. For the first month 200 or In late 1914 British Many Q uakers were active Early Days those who wanted to 300 women applied every Q uakers faced national on the home front, providing offer non-military service. day for relief, this involving propaganda to enlist in a shelter for refugees and “Men have gone on in some cases the women ‘just war’. Some Q uaker ‘enemy aliens’ through their repeating and believing waiting an hour or more men decided to join the local meetings or collecting in the foolish old heathen YOUNG FRIENDS before they would receive army or navy. Others felt clothing and supplies for the maxim ‘If you want peace, CONSIDERING attention, and the chairs in their conscience prevented Friends’ War Victims’ Relief prepare for war’. They the lobby were soon found them from taking part in Committee (FWVRC). First have prepared for war, ENLISTMENT to be more comfortable than the war effort. The Q uaker set up in 1870, the FWVRC and war has come.” From The Friend, standing about in the street. movement was split in its was revived in 1914 and The Friend, editorial, 20 The Small meeting-house response to the war and did attracted nearly 500 members is used for taking down August 1914 At Warwickshire North not achieve unity of purpose during the war. Of these, details, and an upstairs room Monthly Meeting held on until 1915. The dilemmas 156 were women working Just three days after war as an office for the visitors the 10th inst. a letter was faced by individuals as doctors, teachers, drivers broke out, Meeting for in that District, which is one read from a Friend resigning surrounded by strident and administrators. Their Sufferings met to discern of the poorest in the city. his membership on account militarism and public opinion work included setting up and its position. The Society Over 10,000 women have of having enlisted. The exist today, just as they did running maternity hospitals issued a statement, To Men applied, and every case has Meeting was in much diffi- a century ago. and schools across . and Women of Goodwill in had to be visited. Being a Q uaker in wartime the , which culty as to whether to accept was not a simple story of 1914 articles from The Friend appeared in a number of the it or not, and eventually, a ‘cranks’ or ‘shirkers’, as (a Q uaker magazine still big dailies: portrayed by newspapers published today) are denoted “While, as a Society, we of the time. Some opposed by stand firmly to the belief that the method of force is no solution of any question, we hold that the present moment is not one for criticism, but for devoted service to our nation.” But the picture was not a clear one. The Society was divided and many Friends considered their stance. The peace testimony suddenly came under severe challenge. More than 200 young Q uakers had joined the army and 15 had been involved in recruiting activ- ities. Some wanted to assist the war effort but did not want to fight or kill, leading to the estab- lishment of the Friends’ Ambulance Unit, the Friends’ War Victims’ Relief Committee and the Emergency Committee. Others, known as absolutists, adopted a more pacifist attitude and refused to have anything to do with the war. 1914 was a time of deep discussion and spiritual In 1914 the Peace Committee of the Society of Friends produced questioning. In this poster asking all men (and women) to stay calm and carry on Yearly Meeting confirmed its and to remember that restraint and discipline in all things would commitment to but make the coming conflict easier to bear. was careful not to alienate page 2 No.1, 21 August 1914 No.1 21 August 1914 one halfpenny

THE ORIGINS OF however, that the French fleet was concentrated in the WORLD WAR I Mediterranean, leaving North German unification in 1871, Sea coasts exposed. The following the Franco- Cabinet eventually accepted a Prussian War, and its 1879 moral obligation to intervene alliance with the Austro- if Belgium or France were Hungarian Empire created a invaded – the instigator new industrial and military therefore being . power in the heart of Wider implications for Europe. This ushered in a British colonial interests in period of growing militari- remaining neutral were also sation and shifting alliances, present. culminating in the outbreak against Germany followed of World War I. on 4 August, after German had maintained troops entered Belgium. good relations with Germany but also sought access to the Mediterranean CONSCRIPTION and backed the Slav nations AND CONSCIENCE of the in their At the outbreak of war struggle for independence Britain was the only fighting from Ottoman (Turkish) nation without an army rule. The northern Balkans raised by conscription. It had bordered on - only a small standing army , which had acquired of volunteers, albeit one Bosnia-Herzegovina at the large enough to control a 1878 Congress of . vast colonial empire in Knockaloe Internment Camp on the Isle of Man held many ‘enemy aliens’ from November 1914. But over 40 per cent of and . Indeed, it was Volunteers of the Friends’ Emergency Committee visited to hold meetings for worship and give the Bosnian population widely considered un-British classes until they were requested to stop. were Serbs, whose natural to force men to enlist: affinity lay with Russia, and providing for exemption on Zealand. Mindful that many She blamed the generation tensions duly arose. By the “Compulsory service is, I conscientious grounds. There men on the home front were that sent him to war. But 1890s Russian relations with believe, as distasteful to had been debate on whether either engaged in essential most of all, she blamed Germany had cooled, and the nation as it is incom- or not it should be limited war work or permanently that unknown woman who in 1907 Britain, France and patible with the condi- to Q uakers – who in 1757 invalided out of the army, gave him a .” tions of an army like ours, had been exempted from the the government issued the Russia formed the Triple Francis Beckett, The which has always such militia – or defined in some Silver War Badge or lapel Entente, encircling Germany. Guardian, 11 November 2008 The calm exploded a large proportion of its other way. In the event, badges to distinguish them units on foreign service. conscientious objection was from ‘shirkers’. on 28 when AN ambulance Archduke Ferdinand, heir I hold, moreover, that not defined, and those who But how did white to the Austro-Hungarian the man who voluntarily implemented it had to deal feathers come to signify throne, was assassinated in serves his country is more with each case on its own cowardice? The story origi- to be relied upon as a merits. nates in at the From The Friend, , capital of Bosnia, 21 August 1914 by Bosnian-Serb nation- good fighting soldier than Those who refused to turn of the 18th century, alists. Accusing the Serb is he who is compelled to serve on religious, moral when cockfighting was a To the editor of The Friend, government of being behind bear arms.” or political grounds faced popular sport. Some of the great hardship. The birds tossed into the ring Dear Friend, – Some the assassination, Austria- Lord Roberts, British No-Conscription Fellowship, had white tail feathers. In members of the Society Hungary submitted a condi- Commander-in-Chief during an organisation founded in no hurry to fight, they with whom I have been in tional ultimatum, which the first two years of the November 1914 by pacifists would turn away from their correspondence feel strongly rejected. On 28 July Boer War in and members of the socialist opponents, displaying these that in this crisis in public Austria-Hungary declared affairs they want to render war on Serbia, having Now faced with a large Independent Labour Party, feathers – hence their associ- conscripted German army, it provided support for consci- ation with cowardice. some service more commen- obtained German approval. surate with their powers and Russia then mobilised, was thought essential that entious objectors and their Personal accounts illustrate as many men as possible families. Its leaders were the impact on some men of opportunities than is involved prompting a declaration of in the administration of war by Germany. France volunteered. The British accused of being pro-German being given a white feather: government duly launched a and a number were jailed. war relief at home. They followed in support of “My grandfather’s attempt huge recruitment campaign Q uakers have tirelessly feel perhaps in some cases Russia, and Germany to volunteer was turned that appealed to patriotism campaigned for the right to that this relief work is not invaded France via Belgium, down in 1914 because he and sense of duty. But as conscientious objection ever of the sort for which they violating the 1839 London was short-sighted. But in the war progressed, and since, and gradually it has are fitted, and that in any Treaty on Belgian neutrality. 1916, as he walked home huge numbers were killed, been accepted by more and case there are so many In Britain, the Liberal to south London from the enthusiastic waves of more countries and for wider well-qualified people anxious government, preoccupied by his office, a woman gave volunteers began to dry up. groups of people. From their to undertake it that what Irish Home Rule, kept its him a white feather. He Conscription was the inevi- offices in and remains over for them will distance; as late as 31 July a enlisted the day. table result, with first young Geneva, Q uakers work on not be sufficiently exacting majority of Cabinet members By that time, they cared single men and later married these issues at UN level, to satisfy their sense of were resisting being drawn nothing for short sight. men as old as 50 being encouraging human rights duty. into a ‘European quarrel’, They just wanted a body called up. norms to be accepted by the It is, on the other hand, a view supported by most to stop a shell, which But the Military Service few countries that still have very probable that at an of the press. Prior under- Rifleman James Cutmore Act 1916 was unique in no such provision in their early date the number standing with Britain meant, duly did in , conscription history by also laws. of persons available for dying of his wounds on ambulance work at the front March 28. My mother will be quite inadequate to WHITE FEATHERS was nine, and never got deal with the needs of the AND ‘COWARDICE’ over it. In her last years, situation. It has therefore The Order of the White in the 1980s, her once been suggested that young Feather was founded in fine brain so crippled by men Friends should form an Britain at the start of the dementia that she could Ambulance Corps to go to war by Charles not remember the names the scene of active opera- Fitzgerald. It encouraged of her children, she could tions, either in Belgium or women to hand out white still remember his dreadful, elsewhere. A certain number feathers to young men not lingering, useless death. of Friends have already in uniform in the hope of She could still talk of expressed their willingness shaming them into enlisting. his last leave, when he to join such an expedition The feather symbolised was so shell-shocked he and there is little doubt cowardice and effeteness – a could hardly speak and that a sufficient number will scornful statement that they my grandmother ironed shortly do so to make up were not real men because his uniform every day in an ambulance unit of forty- they were not fighting in the vain hope of killing eight. defence of their country. the lice. She treasured his Some Friends, however, The white feather letters from the front, as who would like to take part movement became very well as information about in such an expedition will popular, spreading to his brothers who also died. not be able to do so unless , and New She blamed the politicians. some provision is made for No.1, 21 August 1914 page 3 No.1 21 August 1914 one halfpenny

Q UAKERS HELP ‘ENEMY ALIENS’ More than 50,000 Germans were living in Britain before the war began, most of them in London. The Aliens Restriction Act, which came into force on 5 August 1914, required foreign nationals to register with the police and remain within five miles of their homes. There was huge antipathy towards those with foreign-sounding Soldiers recuperating at the Villa St Pierre Hospital in Dunkirk. names, and anti-German The hospital was staffed by doctors and nurses from the FAU. riots broke out in October 1914. These were confined to their travelling expenses and athlete), left for Dunkirk Deptford and other parts of for their maintenance while with eight ambulances. South London, but in May at the front. I shall be glad A few miles into the 1915 nationwide riots resulted to give further details to any Channel they came across in the wholesale destruction Friends who may wish to a torpedoed and sinking games; and the children of German property. subscribe. , HMS Hermes. They amused themselves with Those seen as a threat, There is perhaps no need helped rescue the crew and the toys provided for them, including German men aged to add that the expedition carried them back to . two rocking-horses and between 17 and 55, were would go under the auspices Setting out again, they a swinging chair being interned, at first in places of the Red Cross Society, were met at Dunkirk by specially appreciated. such as the Olympia Halls whose work of course horrendous scenes: rows of Later in the day all the in West London or on is entirely neutral. It is wounded French and Belgian refugees were welcomed into ships moored off the south possible that it would in soldiers housed in two homes in the city and the coast. Some men were kept various ways involve some railway sheds, which they neighbourhood… in totally unsuitable condi- personal risk to members christened ‘the Shambles’. In tions, including horse boxes of the Corps. But it would his diary, Colin Rowntree at Newbury and a wagon MACHINE GUNS probably result in the saving recorded that “most of the factory without heat or light WHERE TO SEND of a great many lives, and wounds were septic and AND DRONES in Lancaster. In 1915 more World War I came to be in the alleviation of a great some had not been dressed FUNDS permanent arrangements defined by the . deal of suffering among the for two or three days – the were made, and many saw A relatively new invention, war victims’ relief primary victims of the war. smell awful”. out the war in camps such its killing power drove both In its first six months, Isaac Sharp, 136, Yours sincerely, as Knockaloe on the Isle of sides to dig in, creating during which membership Bishopgate, E.C. Philip J Baker Man. the static horror of trench rose to more than 200, the Donnington, Harlesden, In August 1914 Meeting warfare. Until the late and friends’ ambulance unit FAU aided several thousand N.W. August 17th, 1914. for Sufferings established largely ineffective advent wounded men in Dunkirk William C. Braithwaite, the Friends’ Emergency of the tank, there was no and established four hospitals Castle House, Banbury. “ Committee to provide assis- real answer to its ability Binding Up the with around 400 beds. emergency committee tance. In the early days to cut down wave upon These were: a general one for helping aliens Wounds of War of the war it tried to find wave of advancing troops. at Villa St Pierre in Dunkirk homes for stranded people, Since then the human race W. Hanbury Aggs, with Hands of with 50 beds; the Q ueen and some members were has devoted so much of its 169, St. Stephen’s House, Mercy” Alexandra at Malo-les-Bains later given access to the time, resources and capability Westminster Bridge, The Friends’ Ambulance Unit for typhoid cases with 100 internment camps. The to devising new and more S .W. (FAU) was set up in August beds; a hospital for civilians popular press was enraged efficient ways of killing. One 1914, independent of the at with 120 beds; and Clothing and accused Q uakers of such weapon is the drone. Society but led by prominent a fourth at Poperinghe, the ‘hun-coddling’, but the Drones are unmanned war victims Q uakers. Allied to the Red Chateau Elisabeth, with a Society continued its efforts aircraft flown remotely by Cross, it was initially called similar number. Alfred H. Brown, and in 1915 James T. Baily ‘pilots’ on the ground or, the First Anglo-Belgian Field Some of those in the sheds 22, New Street Square, began visiting Knockaloe. increasingly, pre-programmed Ambulance. at Dunkirk were suffering E.C. to carry out missions. In September a training from typhoid. This became More on this in our next They can either be armed ambulance camp was held at Jordans in a major problem, especially edition. or equipped for recon- Buckinghamshire, where in Ypres, where the water Lady Newman, College naissance and surveillance. around 60 participants were supply had been destroyed of Ambulance, Vere St., WELCOMING , Afghanistan, Pakistan, W.; and Mrs Arthur taught first aid, stretcher- by German bombardment. refugees Libya, Yemen, Somalia Rowntree, Bootham, drill, hygiene and field The FAU carried out and Palestine have all been York. cookery. An office was set extensive inspections of From The Friend, subjected to drone strikes, up in Pall Mall, and on 31 sanitary conditions and 30 October 1914 aliens and their use is escalating. October a party of 43 men, purified the water supply …The large meeting-house As the West withdraws Secretary, at Committee’s including three doctors and for at least 10,000 people. (in York) is being used its troops from Iraq and Address (above). led by Philip Noel-Baker It also undertook the inocu- as a temporary shelter Afghanistan, its politicians (the well-known Cambridge lation of more than 8,000. and distributing centre and generals increasingly see for Belgian refugees, one drones as an alternative to visit for fear of becoming hundred of whom arrived ‘boots on the ground’. After targets. Amnesty Interna- on Thursday evening (22nd). all, drones do not have to tional and Human Rights On their arrival they were contend with climate, terrain Watch say Mamana Bibi entertained to tea by Friends or guerrilla tactics, and they is just one of 900 civilians in the small meeting-house spare politicians the trouble killed by drone strikes – the (which is not at present of defending protracted, result of mistaken identity required for the soldiers) costly conflicts. or collateral damage. Some and were welcomed to the The US, Britain and attacks, particularly in city by the Lord Mayor. A Israel insist that drones Pakistan and Yemen, may few of the refugees were can be relied upon for their amount to war crimes or invited up to the Retreat accuracy, but they have extrajudicial executions, and for the night, while the rest claimed countless innocent there is much legal debate slept on make-up beds on lives. In October 2013 over whether the regions the meeting-house premises. members of the US Congress where drones are used are They were up early next heard testimony from the indeed war zones. day, long before breakfast family of a 68-year-old Even with the very latest at eight o’clock. During midwife killed in a drone in surveillance technology, the morning the yard and strike in Pakistan a year it remains all too easy for the small meeting-house earlier. The victim’s two civilians to be wrongly presented an animated and grandchildren, who were identified as ‘combatants’ unusual scene; the women gathering okra with her – those carrying something Some of the young men who took part in the first training camp sat about sewing or looking that day, were seriously resembling a weapon or for volunteers to the FAU. Training for volunteers continued at who happen to be in the Jordans Meeting House throughout the war. at illustrated papers; the injured in the attack, and men smoked and played the wider family no longer wrong place at the wrong page 4 No.1, 21 August 1914 No.1 21 August 1914 one halfpenny

the most dangerous frontline lished in 1870 to help FRIENDS’ WA R combat roles. Statisti- civilians caught up in the ’ cally, those recruited as Franco-Prussian War. VICTIMS RELIEF children still face double Offers of assistance began From The Friend, the risk of injury, trauma to come in from Friends 20 November 1914 and death compared to and others. In November those recruited as adults, 33 volunteers departed for Despite all the many negoti- even though soldiers are no France, including doctors, ations successfully accom- longer deployed until they nurses, architects and plished and the many official are 18 years old. The MoD sanitary engineers, all deter- permissions received before is conducting a cost-benefit mined to provide practical the first Relief Party to analysis of its recruitment of help to those in need. The France left England, fresh under-18s. Currently, almost number of workers rose delays have occurred in , half of those enlisting at 16 during this period to 107, and at the time of writing drop out of training. with a further 50 working they are still waiting for Q uakers in Britain in Britain, either in gathering a final reply from General continue to engage with and transporting goods or in Joffre. this and wider issues secretarial or administrative It is disappointing to have around militarism. Ahead work. to wait, when the work of Remembrance Day 2013 The work in France was needing them so badly Q uaker Peace and Social varied. It included estab- is so near at hand, but Q uakers continue to campaign against the recruitment of minors Witness joined Child Soldiers lishing a maternity hospital meanwhile the party are all into the armed forces. Photo © UK MoD Crown Copyright 2011 International and a group at Châlons-sur- busy. Dr. Hilda Clark and of churches and children’s and providing shelter by Hilda Cashmore write that time become ‘legitimate’ came into force in 1916 organisations in calling for repairing damaged houses they were going into the targets. Drones have thus the War Office and the the MoD to stop recruiting and building small wooden Meaux district with G.H. become the latest weapon nation maintained that only minors. An open letter, cottages, using materials Mennell and J.E. Bellows, in the military’s arsenal to adults should be recruited. whose signatories included supplied by the French the nurses are helping inspire terror and wreak Since then standards have those in support of the authorities. Workers also district work in Paris, and devastation. A century of slipped. Today the Ministry armed forces, was addressed provided villagers with seeds the rest of the party are technological advance may of Defence (MoD) recruits to the Minister of State for to enable them to grow dealing with the stores and separate the machine gun 16-year-olds, and until the Armed Forces. Its wide- basic foods and helped to improving their French. The from the drone, but in many recently 17-year-olds were ranging sign-off alone sent a bring in harvests that would hospital equipment, which ways they are the same. We routinely deployed in armed clear message to our policy- otherwise have been lost. they expect to require very are not so removed from the conflicts. Children fought makers: there may not be a The FWVRC gathered soon, is meanwhile being mechanised slaughter of the and died in the Falklands, consensus within society on over 122,000 items of prepared, and any gifts of Front as we like to the Balkans, Kuwait, the military, but we should clothing from the UK, unbleached calico sheets, think. Afghanistan and Iraq. all be united in opposing the Australia, Canada, North blankets or towels will be The choice to serve in recruitment of child soldiers. and and most welcome. Perhaps some WORLD WAR I the armed forces should be South Africa and sent them might prefer to promise all left to the individual, but AND CHILD Q UAKERS OFFER to France. Assistance was the requisites for one bed. Q uakers in Britain believe also given in Holland, E.W. Brooks, A. Ruth Fry SOLDIERS it should be an informed HELP TO THE which was affected by large P.S. – Since writing Throughout World War I choice made only by an VICTIMS OF WAR numbers of refugees from the above, news has been the minimum age for adult. Research by Child In , Meeting Belgium. In the first seven received that nine of the recruitment into the British Soldiers International shows for Sufferings revived the months of the war the party were about to leave Army was 18. Younger that current UK recruitment Friends’ War Victims’ Relief Committee collected a total for Vitry on Sunday last. – boys slipped through, policy results in the youngest Committee (FWVRC), of 38,000 – the equivalent A.R.F. determined to fight, but and most disadvantaged which had first been estab- of 3.3 million today. even when conscription recruits serving in some of

ABOUT The Testimony is a fictional newspaper inspired by Q uaker activities in World War I. Swarthmore Lecture Articles have been drawn from The Friend of 1914 and original articles have been written specifically for The Testimony. The Testimony newspaper is not intended to be a compre- “a world without war and the hensive record of historical events. practical steps to take to achieve this” The Testimony and a WWI timeline have been produced as part of the resource pack ‘Witnessing for peace on the centenary of World War I’ and to accompany a national Diana Francis will give the Swarthmore Lecture on Q uaker exhibition in 2015. Annual editions of the newspaper will be produced in 2014, 2015 Saturday 2 May 2015, exploring her vision of a world and 2016. without war and the practical steps Friends and others can take to achieve this. Diana has extensive experience Further resources helping people find constructive responses to conflict, Over the coming months we will be producing a range of resources including Journeys in mostly with local people in areas of political violence. the Spirit Youth edition and Children’s edition. We will have resources available to use in primary and secondary schools. In 2016 we will publish a book about Q uakers and WWI and our ongoing peace work. Teach Peace Pack by the The White Feather Diaries is an online storytelling project launching in August 2014. Using Peace Education Network extracts from the writings of five Q uakers during World War I, it charts their journeys and Assemblies and activities for exploring dilemmas as war unfolds. peace themes with 5- to 11-year-olds. Includes an assembly on the Christmas Copies of ‘Witnessing for peace on the centenary of World War I: a resource pack for Q uaker meetings’ are available from the Q uaker Centre; phone 020 7663 1030 or email Truce. Available from the Q uaker Centre bookshop: 020 7663 1030 or [email protected]. www.quaker.org.uk/shop 173 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BJ www.q UAKER.ORG.UK/WWI THE RED CROSS EMBLEM The Friends’ Ambulance Unit and the Friends’ War Victims’ Relief Committee displayed the red cross emblem during World War I. The red cross emblem is an internationally agreed symbol of neutrality and protection, the primary users of which are the medical services of the armed forces. Use of the emblem is restricted by both international and national laws. The Religious Society of Friends is grateful to the for their permission to use the red cross emblem in this publication. For further information about the emblem, please contact the British Red Cross.

Archival content from The Friend is reproduced with the permission of the Trustees of The Friend Publications Limited in so far as the copyright lies with them. All extracts © 2014 The Friend.

© 2014 The Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Q uakers) in Britain.