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Chapter 7: Letters 1916
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 April 2017
Extract
On the ‘fateful day’, 5 January 1916, Asquith introduced the first National Service Bill or ‘Bachelors Bill’. It conscripted all single men (and widowers without dependent children) aged 18 to 41, apart from those that local tribunals exempted on grounds of ‘work of national importance’, hardship to their families or businesses, ill health, or conscientious objection to war. Sir John Simon resigned as Home Secretary rather than accept the bill and it was condemned by a special Labour Conference on 6 January. On the First Reading the same day, the Bill was opposed by 105 MPs. For Asquith and Simon's speeches see Hansard, 5th series, 1916, LXXVII, 949–962 and 962–978. But despite this opposition, the bill had overwhelming political support and it was law by the end of the month.
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References
1 The FAU had run the British Red Cross's hospital at Abbeville 23 July 1915–8 January 1916, when it was closed. They also operated two hospital trains and acquired a third in January 1916. A fourth was not obtained until August 1916.
2 Meeting for Sufferings on 7 January 1916 reaffirmed Quakers' total opposition to conscription and informed the PM that the Cabinet's Bill did not meet the needs of COs.
3 A.S.R. had tried to speak in the Second Reading debate on the Nat. Service Bill, but without success.
4 The Irish Nats' opposition to the Nat. Service Bill was largely symbolic as Ireland was excluded from its provisions. They voted against the First Reading on 6 January but abstained thereafter.
5 Hansard, 5th series, 1916, LXXVII, pp. 1684–1687Google Scholar for A.S.R.'s speech on the Second Reading of the Nat. Service Bill. He pointed out that many COs wished to serve their country in a non-combatant role, but those who could not do this should not be persecuted and that local tribunals were not ideally constituted.
6 A.S.R. was returning from York, where he had attended two very divided meetings with York Libs on his attitude to the Nat. Service Bill; see Yorkshire Herald, 15 01 1916.Google Scholar
7 Hansard, 5th series, 1916, LXXVIII, 83–106 and 141–155Google Scholar for amendments to this effect from William Du Pré and Sir Ivor Herbert.
8 Hansard, 5th series, 1916, LXXVIII, 261Google Scholar. A.S.R. supported an amendment moved by T.E. Harvey, allowing a CO's case to be considered by a tribunal even if he had not applied for exemption within the allotted time.
9 Sir William Pollard Byles (1839–1917), Lib. MP Shipley 1892–1895, N. Salford 1906–1917; kt. 1911.
10 A.S.R. and T.E. Harvey tabled an amendment that allowed tribunals to exempt COs from all military service if they performed work of ‘national importance’. Bonar Law accepted this amendment on behalf of the Cabinet and this concession was followed by Harvey's speech; Hansard, 5th series, 1916, LXXVIII, 430–431, 431–436.Google Scholar
11 An adjourned YM on 28–30 January 1916 again considered the issue of conscription. YM confirmed it would support all Quaker COs, including those who refused any form of alternative service.
12 Alfred Barratt Brown (1887–1947), leading member FSC and No-Conscription Fellowship, later imprisoned as an ‘absolutist’ CO; Lecturer Woodbrooke 1912–1921, Vice-Principal Ruskin College 1921–1926, Principal 1926–1944.
13 Jonathan Edward Hodgkin (1875–1953), Quaker businessman from Darlington, mainly involved in the electrical engineering industry.
14 Walter Hudson (1852–1935), Pres. Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants 1891–1899, Irish Sec. 1898–1906; Lab. MP Newcastle 1906–1918.
15 David James Shackleton (1863–1938), Lab. MP Clitheroe 1902–November 1910; Senior Labour Advisor to Home Office 1910–1911, National Insurance Commissioner 1912–1916, PUS Ministry of Labour 1916–1921, Chief Labour Adviser 1921–1925; KCB 1917.
16 Corder Pettifor Catchpool (1883–1952) and Egerton St John Pettifor ‘Jack’ Catchpool (1890–1971), two Quaker brothers serving in the FAU. Corder was later welfare supervisor at J.P. Davies's mills 1921–1931 and worked at the Quaker Centre in Berlin 1931–1937. Jack was Sub-Warden Toynbee Hall 1920–1929 and First Sec. Youth Hostels Association 1930–1950. Neither accepted the FAU's new relationship with the War Office and Corder was imprisoned 1917–1919 while Jack transferred to the Friends' War Victims' Relief Cttee.
17 The FAU Headquarters moved from Vere Street to 8 Weymouth Street in early 1916 and remained there for the rest of the war.
18 Hansard, 5th series, 1916, LXXX, 117–125Google Scholar for Balfour's statement in his capacity as First Lord of the Admiralty.
19 Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, Anglican missionary organization founded in 1701.
20 Hansard, 5th series, 1916, LXXX, 1101–1139Google Scholar. The debate was on a motion to devote £50,100 to buying the stud and two estates of Col. William Hall Walker, Con. MP for Widnes, tor use in breeding horses for the Army.
21 Hansard, 5th series, 1916, LXXX, 1291–1308Google Scholar for the debate and 1291–1297 and 1299–1301 for the contributions by Butcher and Harvey, who both opposed the closure.
22 Meeting for Sufferings decided it had no control over the FSC because both were only responsible to YM.
23 Hansard, 5th series, 1916, LXXX, 1401–1420Google Scholar for Balfour's statement and 1420–1430 for Churchill's speech. The latter had resigned as Chanc. of the Duchy of Lancaster in November 1915 and had been commanding a battalion in France.
24 John Arbuthnot Fisher (1841–1920), First Sea Ld 1904–1910, 1914–1915; cr. Ld Fisher 1909.
25 George Maitland Lloyd Davies (1880–1949), Asst Sec. FOR; imprisoned 1917–1919; later a Presbyterian minister and Christian Pacifist MP Univ. of Wales 1923–1924.
26 Herbert Ingle Waller (1879–1956), York Quaker, bro. of W.J. Waller of Rowntree & Co.
27 John Percy Frederic Fletcher (1884–1961), already had long record of opposing compulsory military training in Australia 1912–1915; leading light of the FSC and No-Conscription Fellowship. His exemption was overturned on appeal and he was imprisoned 1917–1919.
28 Hansard, 5th series, 1916, XXI, 397–407 and 407–409Google Scholar for the speeches by Derby and Kitchener. Derby defended his record in charge of recruiting and Kitchener called on all married men to enlist voluntarily.
29 This was the Cttee on Work of National Importance, or Pelham Cttee as it was chaired by Hon. Thomas Henry William Pelham (1847–1916), Asst Sec. Bd of Trade 1895–1913; T.E. Harvey was a member. Its purpose was to find work for COs who had been exempted from military duties by their tribunal.
30 McKenna imposed a tax on all railway tickets costing over gd and raised the duty on cocoa from 1½d to 6d per lb; Hansard, 5th series, 1916, LXXXI, 1058–1059.Google Scholar
31 Compulsion; the extension of conscription to married men.
32 Admiral Sir John Rushworth Jellicoe (1859–1935), Commander-in-Chief Grand Fleet 1914–1916, First Sea Ld 1916–1917, Gov.-Gen. New Zealand 1920–1924; GCB 1915, cr. Vt Jellicoe 1917, Earl 1925.
33 William Crawford Anderson (1877–1919), Lab. MP Sheffield, Attercliffe 1914–1918; Chmn ILP 1911–1913; m. 1911 Mary Reid Macarthur (1880–1921), Sec. Womens' Trade Union League.
34 Philip Snowden (1864–1937), Lab. MP Blackburn 1906–1918, Colne Valley 1922–1931, when cr. Vt Snowden; Chanc, of Exchequer 1924, 1929–1931, Ld Privy Seal 1931–1932. Chmn ILP 1904–1907, 1917–1920; m. 1905 Ethel Snowden (nee Annakin) (1881–1951), suffragist; Gov. BBC 1927–1933.
35 At a secret session of the Commons, Asquith announced a compromise to avoid the immediate extension of conscription to all married men; Hansard, 5th series, 1916, LXXXI, 2463–2466Google Scholar. The plan was savagely attacked and dropped by the Cabinet on 29 April 1916.
36 The Easter Rising by a section of the Irish Volunteers had begun on 23 April 1916.
37 About a dozen members resigned from the FAU in protest at what they saw as its co-operation with the imposition of conscription.
38 Asquith announced the withdrawal of his compromise measure on 2 May 1916; Hansard, 5th series, 1916, LXXXI, 2611–2616Google Scholar. The next day he introduced the Military Service Bill (1916) which conscripted all men aged 18–41.
39 The first batch of COs arrived in France on 8 May 1916. Rendel Wyatt, a Quaker schoolteacher, was one of five court-martialled at Boulogne on 15 June 1916; four of them were condemned to death, but had the sentences commuted to ten years penal servitude. In all, thirty-four COs underwent this procedure in France.
40 Hansard, 5th series, 1916, LXXXII, 440.Google Scholar
41 Kitchener had already stated in the Lords on 22 May 1916 that the govt intended to place all ‘genuine’ COs under civilian authority; Hansard, 5th series, 1916, XXII, 14.Google Scholar
42 Arthur Keysall Yapp (1869–1936), Nat. Sec. Young Mens' Christian Association 1912–1929; KBE 1917.
43 A number of COs were being held in military detention for disobeying orders at Richmond Castle, Yorkshire.
44 Sir Cecil Frederick Nevil Macready (1862–1946), Adjutant British Expeditionary Force 1914–1916, Adjutant to the Forces 1916–1918, Commissioner Metropolitan Police 1918–1920, Gen. Officer to Commander-in-Chief in Ireland 1920–1922; KCB 1912, Bt 1923.
45 Christopher Rowntree, eldest child of A.S.R., born 1907.
46 Dr Bedford Pierce (1861–1932), Superintendent of Quaker asylum in York, The Retreat 1892–1922, and distinguished psychiatrist.
47 Mary Halliday Cross, eldest daughter of Richard Cross.
48 Sarah Cross (nee Halliday) (1869–1943), wife of E.R. Cross.
49 Margery Pierce (1894–1980), daughter of Dr Bedford Pierce; psychiatrist; worked at Tavistock Clinic 1925–1950, Gov. of The Retreat 1936–1969.
50 John Wilhelm Rowntree (1868–1905), eldest s. of Joseph Rowntree; partner in H.I. Rowntree & Co. 1889–1897, Dir. Rowntree & Co. 1897–1899 until ill health forced his retirement; leading figure in English Quaker Renaissance, and close friend of A.S.R.
51 George Barnard Black, Scarborough solicitor and partner of E.R. Cross.
52 Ellen Hurndall Rowntree (1859–1950), wife of Arthur Rowntree.
53 Alysonn Hurndall Rowntree (1897–1980), daughter of Arthur Rowntree; later became a doctor.
54 Josiah Hall (1850–1921), Quaker merchant from Cockermouth.
55 Wilfred Irwin (1858–1928), Quaker industrialist, living in Cockermouth; owned chemical plants at Flimby and Maryport; m. Mary Louisa (nee Grest) (1880–1926).
56 William Arthur Cooper (1883–1943), Quaker CO; later mathematics master at Bootham and Headmaster of Ackworth School.
57 Horace Gundry Alexander (1889–1989), Quaker CO; appointed Merrttens Lecturer in International Relations at Woodbrooke 1919.
58 Anna Mary Rowntree (nee Doncaster) (1849–1938), sister of A.S.R.'s stepmother; m. 1876 W.S. Rowntree.
59 William Stickney Rowntree (1848–1939), cousin of A.S.R.'s from the Scarborough branch of the family; in business as a draper and father of Ernest and Olive Rowntree.
60 Margaret Rowntree (1893–1973), daughter of John Wilhelm Rowntree; m. 1918 George Spencer Crossley (1892–1968), Dir. of Rowntree & Co.
61 George Prior (1846–1934), draper from Cumberland; active in Quaker mission work.
62 John Cross, bro. of Richard Cross.
63 Francis Sydney Marvin (1863–1943), Inspector Bd of Education 1890–1924. During the First World War he ran summer schools at Woodbrooke on ‘the fundamental unities which underlie and arc independent of national barriers and distinctions’.
64 A.S.R. considered asking W.C. Braithwaite to succeed E.R. Cross as Chmn of Dirs of the Nation. Braithwaite had become a Dir. of the JRSST, which owned the paper, in December 1915. In fact, A.S.R. took this role himself.
65 Since late July 1916 the Central Tribunal had been interviewing COs in prison and offering many of them the chance of release to perform work of national importance under the ‘Home Office scheme’. One option was to send them to Warwick Work Centre, in reality a disused prison. A.S.R. suggested Gilbert should be the Centre's first director.
66 Lloyd George's interview with the American journalist, Roy Howard, published in The Times on 29 09 1916Google Scholar. It denounced any moves towards a negotiated peace and called for a ‘knock-out blow’ against Germany. Lloyd George's indiscreet conversation with Foch had been leaked to the Morning Post on 28 September 1916.
67 Marshal Ferdinand Foch (1851–1929), Commander of French 9th Army 1914–1916, Chief of Staff 1917–1918, Allied Generalissimo 1918–1919.
68 Gen. Joseph Joffre (1852–1931), Commander-in-Chief of French Army 1914–1916.
69 Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig (1861–1928), Commander 1st Army 1914–1915, Commander-in-Chief in France and Flanders 1915–1919, and Forces in Britain 1919–1920; GCB 1915; cr. Earl Haig 1919.
70 E.S. & A. Robinson, Liberal-owned firm of paper manufacturers in Bristol.
71 A conference with a group of Bristol trade union leaders (including Ernest Bevin). A further conference with local employers and trade unionists in February 1917 led to the creation of the Bristol Association for Industrial Reconstruction.
72 Presumably a member of the Wills family who owned Imperial Tobacco Co. Ltd.
73 Penscott Guest House in Shipham, Somerset, venue of the conference with Bristol trade unionists.
74 J.H. Whitley had been chosen in October 1916 to head a cttee on employer-employee relations.
75 George Masterman Gillett (1870–1939), A.S.R.'s first cousin; Dir. Gillett Bros. Discount Co.; LCC 1910–1922, Lab. (Nat.Lab. from 1931) MP Finsbury 1923–1935; PS Overseas Trade Dept 1929–1931, PS Ministry of Transport 1931; kt. 1931. In 1916–1918 served on HofC Appeal Tribunal for COs.
76 Alfred James Bonwick (1883–1949), Sec. the Nation, later business manager of various newspapers owned by the JRSST; Lib. MP Chippenham 1922–1924.
77 George Gilbert Aime Murray (1866–1957), Lib. academic; Regius Prof, of Greek at Oxford Univ. 1908–1936.
78 Walter Hines Page (1855–1918), US Amb. to Court of St James' 1913–1918.
79 Hansard, 5th series, 1916, LXXXVII, 711–750Google Scholar for the debate on the breaking up of a meeting of the National Council for Civil Liberties in Cardiff.
80 ‘Birmingham inquisition’; Brigadier-Gen. Groves, the officer commanding in Warwickshire and the Midlands, had asked a number of local pacifists and Quakers, including George Cadbury, to produce details of their finances and the causes to which they subscribed. The matter was raised in the Commons by A.J. Sherwell; Hansard, 5th series, 1916, LXXXVII, 566–567.Google Scholar
81 The Chanc. of the Exehequer had proposed in October 1916 that a quota set at one third of 1915 sugar usage should be imposed on the production of luxuries such as confectionary. In response, Rowntree & Co. decided to concentrate on its cheapest and most popular lines. Confectionary Alliance; Manufacturing Confectioners' Association, a group of leading confectionary makers formed in 1901 to lobby against increases in sugar duties.
82 Egbert Cadbury (1893–1967), youngest s. of George Cadbury; joined Royal Navy 1914, transferring to Royal Naval Air Service 1915; ended war as a Major, with DSC and DFC; Dir. British Cocoa and Confectionary Ltd 1921, Managing Dir. Cadbury Bros. 1943–1963; kt. 1957.
83 Wartime restrictions on imports produced an urgent search for substitute sweeteners and flavourings. In March 1915 Rowntrees set up Confectionary Ingredients Ltd to work on this subject and in November 1916 authorized it to investigate the production of saccharine.
84 Francis Henry ‘Frank’ Rowntree (1868–1918), first cousin of A.S.R.; Dir. Rowntree & Co. 1897–1918.
85 Basil Neave, commercial traveller for Rowntree & Co.; Quaker and CO.
86 Edith Harriet Milner, member of family of local landowners who had occasionally represented York since the eighteenth century; leading figure in York Primrose League, wartime super-patriot and indefatigable writer of letters to local press, often denouncing the Rowntrees.