Stephanie1998's List: history 1.2

• Objecting to conscription

   

    First World War
• people who refused military service on political, religious or philosophical grounds
• Quakers, Christadelphians
• Seventh-day Adventists
• Most other conscientious objectors were imprisoned for up to two years with hard labour, and sometimes returned to prison if they still refused to go to war. Fourteen especially determined conscientious objectors were forcibly shipped overseas and faced severe punishments – they included Archibald Baxter who later wrote about his experiences. At the end of the war New Zealand was the only country to deny conscientious objectors voting rights or employment in the public service or local bodies – for 10 years.
• New Zealand was the only country to deny conscientious objectors voting rights or employment in the public service or local bodies – for 10 years.
• Conscientious Objection Committee,

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• He strongly opposed the WWI and played a leading part in forming the Labour Party in 1916. Later that year Fraser was arrested again – this time for sedition for advocating repeal of conscription and served a full year in jail.
• Fraser was elected Labour Party Leader and Prime Minister in April 1940, during WWII. Despite having gone to jail to oppose conscription in WWI, Fraser as PM introduced it for WWII.

• Fraser was elected Labour Party Leader and Prime Minister in April 1940, during WWII. Despite having gone to jail to oppose conscription in WWI, Fraser as PM introduced it for WWII.

  He also brought in general conscription of labour, press censorship, wage regulation and extended working hours. This attracted much opposition from within his own party and the labour movement.

  On the international front Fraser gained much respect
• This attracted much opposition from within his own party and the labour movement.

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• By the end of the war only 73 objectors had been offered exemption, and 273 were in prison in New Zealand for refusing to serve. As a consequence of their actions, 2600 conscientious objectors lost their civil rights, including being denied voting rights for 10 years and being barred from working for government or local bodies.

• There were several types of conscientious objector.

   

       

  1) Some were pacifists who were against war in  general.        2) Some were political objectors who did not consider the government of  Germany to be their enemy        3) Some were religious objectors who believed that war and fighting was  against their religion. Groups in this section were the Quakers and  Jehovah Witnesses.        4) A combination of any of the above groups.

• In some cases this social rejection extended to the children of conscientious objectors decades later.
• Duncan McCormack of Hamilton, now 80, still has memories of his treatment at school during the 1940s because his father and uncle were both conscientious objectors in 1916.

• Britain Calls on Her Empire for Men
• Although Britain was a small country with a small army, she did have an ace card: her empire.
• The British government pressed for more volunteers from Canada, Australia and New Zealand and many young men,
• the supply of recruits slowed. Once Britain introduced conscription, it was inevitable that the rest of the Empire would be forced to consider it too.

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• Again, a year later, while demanding  equality of sacrifice, a Truth article began: ‘No right-thinking citizen  wants to see a repetition of the grave injustices and vicious treatment  that were meted out to some objectors in the last war’.⁴ In Parliament, F. W. Doidge, an Empire stalwart, declared: ‘We on this side  of the House have every sympathy for those who are “honest-to-God” conscientious objectors and for those who are truly troubled  in their conscience. I do not want to see conscientious objectors forced  to go through what they had to go through during the war of  1914–18.’⁵ A few plain men spoke of tolerance and useful work on  farms or other production.