The Untold Story Of Following Jesus During World War 1 - Part 6

If we remember yesterday, yesterday was November 11th. 105 years ago, on November 11th, 1918, at 11 a.m. Central European Time, which would be Paris time, the armistice was declared between the Allies and Germany, effectively ending World War I. We're going to switch gears today and zoom in and look at conscious objectors in the country of the United Kingdom and Great Britain, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. This map shows that a picture of that. So we're going to first look at a couple of verses on loving our enemies, and then I'm just going to go into the sermon. This is just a refresher for us. So we remember these verses. It says Matthew chapter 5, these are verses 10, 11, and 12. "Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when they revile, and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Skipping down a little further into the chapter, verses 43 and 44. "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you." We're going to skip to another passage dealing with this. This is in 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verses 4 and 5. "The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God, for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God."

So one of the people we're going to be talking about this morning is this person. His name was Herbert Asquith. He was the Prime Minister of Great Britain from April 5th, 1908, to December 5th, 1916. So we're going to look—just a brief refresher of how Great Britain became involved in World War I. As I said, in the past we looked at what happened in the United States. Today we're focusing on Great Britain. They had conscious objectors just like we did.

So on June 28th, 1914, Archduke Ferdinand and his wife Sophie of Austria are murdered in Sarajevo by a radical Serbian nationalist. And then Serbia declares an ultimatum—sorry, Austria-Hungary declares an ultimatum on Serbia, which Serbia rejects. Austria-Hungary declares war against Serbia on July 28th, 1914.

Then Russia, having ties with Serbia, then mobilizes and they declare war. Then Germany declares war on Russia on August 1st, 1914. August 3rd, 1914, Germany declares war on France, which is the Catalyst. If you just look back at that map, it says you can't tell, but here's France and then Germany, and then that little tiny country right there is Belgium. And it was the quickest for Germany to come through Belgium. So Belgium had signed a treaty guaranteeing its neutrality. And Germany, Austria, Russia, France, and Great Britain were all guarantors of that treaty.

So this is now August 4th, 1914, which was a Tuesday.

And Germany had just started invading Belgium. Britain issues an ultimatum to Germany in the morning, giving him 12 hours to respond to guarantee Belgium's neutrality, which Germany ignores. So at 11 p.m. August 4th, Britain declares war. And here's what the newspaper says. That's called the Westerham Herald from—this is a Great British newspaper. Date is Saturday, August 8th, 1914. We're going to zoom into this little clip right here, and we'll just read it.

It says, "The reply was demanded by midnight, and the following announcement was issued at the Foreign Office at 12:15 a.m. Owing to the summary rejection by the German government of the request made by His Majesty's government for assurances that the neutrality of Belgium would be respected, His Majesty's ambassador in Berlin has received his passport, and His Majesty's government has declared to the German government that a state of war exists between Great Britain and Germany as from 11 p.m. on August 4th."

When I looked at that, I said, "That's terrible. Now we just declared war." But that's not what Great Britain thought. That same newspaper said the same evening—look at that—it says popular feeling. This is that same evening. We'll read that thing. "Patriotic feeling in England and the Empire was now running high. In Fowler Square, thousands of people waved flags and made repeated attempts, not always successful, to sing the national anthem, which would be God Save the King at this time period because they had King George V. Hundreds of people climbed upon the plinth of the Nelson Column, and the King Charles statue was almost entirely hid by swarming figures." And we'll just look down the zoom down the bottom for a second. "As soon as the knowledge that war had been declared became known, excited crowds assembled in various parts of the West End, cheering and singing patriotic songs.

Buckingham Palace, from half an hour after midnight till well into the small hours of the morning, was the center of attraction for a huge concourse of people, all extremely enthusiastic, many of them clamoring for the appearance of the king."

That's not the reaction I would have when I just, like I said, heard war was declared.

Well, what happened then? What made different in Great Britain at this time period than all the other countries that were involved in World War I is Great Britain did not have a draft immediately. The United States, when it came into the war in 1917, Russia, Germany, and France all had a draft almost immediately. Great Britain did not.

This is one of the most famous posters of that time period. George Kitchener who was the Secretary of State for War, this is his enlistment poster. Just giving you how it's different. Great Britain at the time of World War I had approximately 700,000 men, which sounds like a big army. But Germany, once war was declared, had 3.8 million men drafted, almost four times bigger. France had 3.7 million. Russia started with an army of approximately 1.4 million. When they declared war, they put a draft in. It became close to maybe 4 to 5 million. There's not exact numbers. So Great Britain having an army of 700,000 men is very small in comparison.

So, like I said, they put this poster out. Let's just read it. Lord Kitchener says, "Men, material, and money are the immediate necessities. Does the call of duty find no response in you until reinforced? Let us rather say superseded by the call of compulsion." And as I said, there was this ultra-patriotic thing in Great Britain, just like we had in the United States.

There's another one. "England expects every man to do his duty and join the army today." Here's a picture from London on August 1914 with the rush of all the men who were recruits going to the recruiting station.

It is estimated that approximately 30,000 men a day joined the British army in like August 1914, which is a considerable amount of men to join voluntarily. They were not—there was no draft. They voluntarily joined the army, like I said, because of these posters. Here's a picture of another newspaper clipping from the Manchester Guardian talking about that. "Bringing new armies into being. Response to Lord Kitchener's appeal. First 100,000 men now training."

They even thought at least there was at least a little bit of thinking that World War I would only be a couple of months, be done sometime that fall, early winter. That's a common thinking, which we know didn't happen.

In World War I, as we remember, Britain and France and Germany got stuck there, more or less right there where Belgium and Eastern France is and Western Germany. That's where they had the trenches, hundreds of miles of trenches. That was very early on. So they couldn't do anything because of the stalemate. Great Britain lost approximately 96,000 casualties in that first six months. Like I said, they didn't have a very big army yet.

At the same time period, I'm going to talk about this entity that plays a major role in Great Britain. I'm not going to go in a lot of detail, but it plays a major role. It was founded in November 1914. It was called the No Conscription Fellowship. It was formed to support those who objected to taking up arms. It was begun by Finnert Brockway, an independent editor of the Independent Labor Party of Great Britain.

He put an appeal out in the newspaper, and it was made up of both political objectionists like socialists and religious objectionists such as Quakers, Congregationalists, Methodists who made up this entity. And it pushed very hard to not have a conscription law in Great Britain.

It actually, when the conscription came effective, it actually played a very vital role in getting a conscience clause put into the Great British Conscription Act of 1916. And after the conscription became law, the No Conscription Fellowship became an organization to support the conscience objector. It kept very meticulous records, as it was said, of the person, where they lived, all the way down the line. And we'll look at that a little bit more.

So in 1915, British casualties was approximately 285,000 men. These were all volunteers. That's a very large amount of men. And this was getting out in the news that, hey, this was not going very well. So what happens then? The volunteers start to decline. And the British Empire realized this is not a good thing. We're not getting enough men to keep us going.

So they did two things in 1915 to try to address this problem. First, they did the National Registration Act of 1915, an act for the compilation of a national register that would be formed of all persons, male and female, between the ages of 15 and 65. So they more or less did what we would call a census.

And then Lord Derby, who was also part of the Secretary of the State of War and one of the people involved with enlistment, made a group system, he called it. Instead of you being asked to enlist and join right away as an individual person, you could go to the recruiting office and sign your name, giving more or less a promise or a pledge that you will join when you're called up. And they tried to only get a large group of men who would all sign that same pledge, and they'd call you up all together. You would not just join individually. It did bring a few more people in, but it did not stop the decline of the voluntary enlistment.

So what happened? The United Kingdom passed a Conscription Act, Military Service Act of January 27th, 1916. Here is a zoom-in of what the act is, and we will look at it. I'll zoom in so we can read it. This is from the United Kingdom Parliament legislation.

I'm just going to read this top one because it's kind of interesting because we're used to it. We'll start here. "An act to make provision with respect to military service in connection with the present war, 27th of January, 1916."

We'll zoom in a little bit more. Okay, I thought that would do that. We'll zoom in after I read that first sentence. I thought it was interesting how British legislation is written compared to the United States. "Being enacted by the King's most excellent Majesty, bind with the advice and consent of Lord Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in the same present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same as follows." And here's where they're doing the conscription or draft. "On the fifth, every male subject who on the 15th day of August 1915 was ordinary resident in Great Britain and has obtained the age of 18 years and had not obtained the age of 41 years."

So you have to be at least 18 and young under 41. "And there was a second condition. On the second day of November 1915, you were unmarried." So this initial draft did not do married men. "Or was a widower without any child dependent on him?

Shall unless he is either within the exception set out in the first schedule to this act or has attained the age of 41 years before the appointed date, be deemed as from the appointed date to have been duly enlisted in His Majesty's regular forces for general service with the color or in the reserve for the period of the war and to have forthwith transferred to the reserve."

So as far as I can tell, it drafted everybody. The United States, we had a draft lottery in 1917. You registered and you were chosen by lottery. Here, it looks like, as far as I can tell, everybody was drafted if you were between those age periods. Except it says there's a schedule that you can get an exemption. We will look at that.

So zooming into that schedule, when we read starting at number two and read down a little bit, this is talking about some of the exemptions. "An application may be made at any time before the appointed date to the local tribunal established under this act by and respect of any man for the issue to him of a certificate of exemption from the provisions of this act." And that's very important, that certificate of exemption.

And here's the four reasons you can get a certificate. "On the grounds that it is expedient in a national interest that he should, instead of being engaged in the military service, be engaged in other work." So if you're doing something very important, you can get an exemption if it's of national significance. "B, on the ground that serious hardship would ensue if the man were called for the army service owing to his exceptional financial or business obligation or domestic position, you could get an exemption if it wasn't caused severe hardship to you and your family." "C, on the ground of ill health or infirmity, they could get an exemption if you were sick," and that happened.

And the fourth one that we're going to be looking at most today, "On the ground of a conscientious objection to the undertaking of combatant service and the local tribunal, if they consider the grounds of the application established, shall grant such a certificate." So there we have it. And I said that No Conscription Fellowship played a vital role in getting that one in there, getting a conscientious objection. But if you notice, it says from combatant service, the same thing that the United States had, they could give you an exemption in combatant service.

So now zoom into that exemption in combatant service. It's still from that same Act of Parliament where the red box is. It says, "Any certificate of exemption may be absolute, conditional, or temporary as the authority by whom it was granted think best suited to the case. And also, in the case of an application on conscientious grounds, may take the form of the exemption from combatant service only or may be conditional on the applicant being engaged in some work which is, in the opinion of the tribunal, dealing with the cases of national importance."

So we'll just skip and look now at this tribunal. Okay, sorry. We'll look at all the exceptions they give that you cannot be drafted. And here they are. "Man, ordinary resident in His Majesty's dominion abroad or resident in Great Britain for the purpose only of their education." So if you're here, if you're not a resident of Great Britain, you wouldn't be drafted. Or you're here from when they're calling when they're in your provinces or colonies for studies, you wouldn't be drafted. Then they have, "Members of His Majesty's regular or reserve forces, men serving the Navy or the Royal Marine, men in holy orders or regular ministers of any religious denomination, men who have left or been discharged from the Naval or military service of the Crown in consequence of disablement or ill health."

And the bottom one, which we'll be looking at, like I said, in detail today, "Men who hold a certificate of exemption under this act for the time being in force, other than a certificate of exemption from combatant service only, or who have offered themselves for enlistment and been rejected since the 14th day of August 1915." And I just caught that when I was studying this. You get a certificate of exemption from combatant service only. You're not exempt from this overall thing. You're still required to come.

If you read that, you're not exempt from it. You were exempt from combatant, but you're not exempt from the draft. So here's what it says. This is a poster that they had. "Military Service Act, 1916. Any man who has an adequate grounds for applying to a local tribunal for a certificate of exemption under this act must do so before Thursday, March 2nd, 1916."

Now, the tribunal was just like we had in the United States. We had draft boards. And at the draft board, you as a conscientious objector would tell him, give him your information there at the draft board. It's the same idea as the tribunal. It was made up of the local men of your community. It usually had a military representative on it. Occasionally, you would have virtually no time to present your case, like one or two minutes.

Sometimes they'd give you maybe 10, 15 minutes, depending who you were. And they more or less had the ultimate authority of you if you got granted an exemption.

So, as I said, that's just looking at that. Now, we're going to skip to, since if you saw the exemption said from combatant service only, they created at the verge of the same time in early March, Army Order 112 of 10th of March 1916, because that's where they write their days in Great Britain, authorized the formation of the non-combatant corps under the Royal Warrant. Many matters relating to the establishment of the corps were dealt with in ACI 551 of 11th of March 1916. And this is what the non-combatant corps would do. Men accepted for service who hold a certificate of exemption from combatant service will be appointed by the area commander to the non-combatant's corps.

Companies will be trained in squad drill without arms and the use of various tools used in field engineering. Privates will be equipped as infantry but not armed. So yes, so non-combatant corps was under the Army's authority, just like we had in the United States when we had the non-combatant stuff that was defined by President Wilson in 1918.

So these are two charts. In Great Britain, just like the United States, there's an estimate of how many conscientious objectors there were. There's not an exact number, the same as we had here. So these charts, you can't see it, but these charts were based on more like 14 or 15, 16,000. The current research says there's closer to 20,000 conscientious objectors, give or take, somewhere in that area in Great Britain. This blue says it's approximately 50% religious objection. You had 2% unknown objection. 1% non-sectarian and political objection would be 46%. Like I said, that's based on about 13,000, 14,000 people. It's more like 20,000. So the religious objection in Great Britain was at least, as far as I can tell, over half of the conscientious objectors.

Here's a chart that just gives a breakdown of some of this person's research of some of the different types of religious. You had agnostic, Anglican, apostolic, Baptist, and then in Westland, which would be Wesley and Methodist. And his chart showed 8,200 approximately. But like I said, these numbers aren't these are approximate numbers.

So we will just look at what the Great Britain thought of conscientious objectors. These are authentic posters from Great Britain. And just look at that poster. We'll read it. The conscientious objector at the front. So you have the Hahn, this weak-looking guy, is the conscientious objector. What do you what he says? "Oh, you naughty, unkind German. Really, if you don't desist, I'll forget I've got a conscience and smack you on the wrist."

Like I said, they're making fun of the conscientious objectors. Two more of the same idea. The conscientious objector at the front, seeing the British soldiers firing their guns and they have these wimpy-looking people tied up. It says, "While the shot and shell are flying and the mighty cannons boom, he is hiding up the trenches with a dustpan and a broom." Again, making fun of conscientious objectors. The final one, row of Germans charging with their bayonets and those guys singing their songs. And it says, "You made me love you." Conscientious objectors. The gentlemen with conscience require no swords or guns. They're going to win the war by singing love songs to the Hahns.

Like I said, these are authentic posters from Great Britain World War I time.

So just like the United States, we had conscientious objectors in the United States who were absolutists, who refused to do any type of work. That'd be military or non-combatant or any type of alternative service. They'd be called absolutists. I've shared some about those before. The Hutterites, those Hutterite brethren who persecuted them dying in Fort Leavenworth, Bern Kessler, Maurice Hess, who were both German Baptists, and there were others. They would be considered absolutists who refused to do anything. You also had the alternativist who would do non-combatant work, in this case in the non-combatant corps, or serve in possibly the ambulance unit. In Great Britain, you had an ambulance unit under the military, and you had one that was voluntarily that was under the Friends ambulance unit, which Friends being Quakers.

Or you could perform work of significance, such as working in a hospital, agriculture, or vital manufacturing type thing. In Great Britain, as I said, there was about 20,000 conscientious objectors. The numbers aren't exact, but they're saying there was probably 1,500 or so who were absolutists who served some type of thing in prison in and out during the war. They sometimes were in and sometimes they were out. Maybe 10 to 13,000, depending where you look, of people who did some type of alternative service for national work of national significance. Five or so thousand of non-combatant corps and just a few hundred who got absolute exemption from being in the military at all.

So you had that big thing, and they only get, as I said, they only gave a few hundred absolute exemption. Like I said, there's not an exact number. I even called there to see if anybody had an exact number, and the person I talked to said no.

So here's two quotes from two American conscientious objectors who wrote about this idea of being absolutists. And I would agree with their quote. The first one, Ezra Deeder wrote to his parents saying, "A person has got to refuse any work at all or he is a goner." That's a very similar one by this Alan Christoffel. "The further you went with the military official, the further they managed one to go. The further I went, the less reason I could give for stopping. So I concluded the best place to stop was the beginning."

Okay. Sorry, I just have to refresh my memory. So I wanted to look at two specific British conscientious objectors who were absolutists who were Christians. One was Norman Gotti. He was of the Congregationalist Church. He had a very powerful testimony of non-resistance and following Jesus. And the other was a man named John, sorry, John Hubert, which he went by Bert Brocklesby, of the Wesleyan Methodist.

Again, he had a very powerful testimony, I would say, of non-resistance and loving your enemies. I'm going to mostly focus on those two, but it's going to also include other conscientious objectors as well because the story is all intertwined.

So we're going to look at just a brief quote from Norman Gotti. As I said, he was a congregationalist who applied for absolute exemption. And here's about three sentences from his claim for absolute exemption that he gave to the tribunal. And I think it's pretty powerful. Let's just read it. "My objection to participation in the prosecution of war in any form whatsoever is based on the ground that to do so be a denial of my faith and belief in the fatherhood of God as revealed in the teachings of Jesus Christ.

I therefore claim absolute exemption in accordance with the provisions of the Military Service Act Number Two, having the deep conviction that to change my activities other than by the dictate of conscience would conflict with the profound belief I have."

Okay.

So, as I said, there were absolute conscientious objectors, the ones I'm going to look at. So they refused to do anything, just like when we read those stories before. These men, they didn't want to put a uniform on. They didn't really want to take orders. They didn't want to do anything around the military barracks. So, and they, like I said, Norman Gotti and these others all got combatant exemption as far as they can tell, and they were transferred to the non-combatant corps, which they didn't want to work in there either because it was still under the military control. So let's start with this video here.

And it kind of set the stage here with what happened.

So what happened is these 16 men, like I said, I'm talking about two specific, but there were 14 others. We'll look at all their names. All ended up being transferred to the non-combatant corps at the Second Northern Company, which was stationed at Richmond Castle. Richmond Castle still exists today. It was formed somewhere at the time of the Normans. So it's that old. And it was used in World War I as a headquarters for a non-combatant corps. These men, as I said, because they refused to obey, were put in the cell block, like the old type dungeons that you would think of, and were held there.

Some of the stories that I read about them as we just look at these people, I will go and share their names. Here's where we go. They were known as the Richmond 16. Among the conscientious objectors detained at Richmond Castle were the men who became known as the Richmond 16. They included Wesleyan Methodists, that would be like Bert Brocklesby, congregationalists such as Norman Gotti, a Quaker, international Bible students, later known as Jehovah's Witnesses, a lay reader, and socialists.

And when I counted, it was approximately 12 men who were there from churches or other religious organizations, and there were four there of these, the Richmond 16, four there for political objections, such as the socialists. So let's read their name and just share that. And we'll give a couple of stories there. So we start with Norman Gotti. He was a congregationalist.

That Alfred Martlow of the Independent Labor Party, Alfred Meyer, a Wesleyan Methodist, Charles Ernest Krier, a socialist, John Hubert Bert Brocklesby, a Wesleyan Methodist who later became a Quaker, Leonard Ritten, part of the International Bible Student Association, Charles Rowland Jackson, also of the International Bible Student Association, Robert Armstrong Lown of the Independent Labor Party, Clifford Cartwright, part of the Church of Christ, Charles Herbert Senior of the International Bible Student Association, Ernest Cholito Spencer, a Quaker, Clarence Hall of the International Bible Students Association, Stafford Hall, also of the International Bible Students Association, William Edwin Law, it doesn't say, but he was part of the No Conscription Fellowship, which all conscientious objectors were part of, Hubert George Law, a congregationalist, John William Routledge, a lay reader.

Here's some of the stories that I heard what happened at Richmond Castle. So most of them were in a solitary confinement. All 16, it's a real castle. That is a picture of Richmond Castle from the day. So it was a real castle. It still exists. And we will look at some more stuff of what the men did there. So one of the things they did is they drew pictures on the wall in their cell. Those pictures still exist today, and we'll be looking at some of them.

They also, as I said, when Bert Brocklesby was put in solitary confinement, there was a little hole. I'm not sure if it was an old veneer grate or whatever it was, but there was a little hole, and he was looking at it, and the grate moved back, and Norman Gotti was on their other side. So they actually were able to visit between each other, and they actually played chess through a small board. Norman Gotti had snuck a little pocket chessboard with him into there, and they actually played chess to keep themselves afresh.

So Bert Brocklesby, from his testimony, says this is one of his conversations he had with one of the military officials. We will look at that. So the top line is the military official and Bert's answer. This is what's given there at Richmond Castle. So here it goes. The top, like I said, is the military official asking, and the next one's Bert. So it starts with, "Why are you a conscientious objector? War is great in the command. Thou shalt not kill." Do you think that those commands apply to individuals but not to the state? They apply to both. Are you a Christian? Yes.

There are thousands of Christians in the war. It's not my idea of being a Christian. I think that's a very powerful testimony to tell the war person, like I said, a military official, it's not my idea of being a Christian. Because that, just like the United States and Great Britain and Germany all said it, that war was holy. This is a righteous cause. And no war is not holy, and war is not a righteous cause.

Okay. So there's a picture of Richmond Castle. And I said, "All the slides showing a castle and my thing come from that castle." Like I said, it still exists today. You can tour it. You have to have special permission to tour where the men were there because it's an older part, and they're worried about that part, the drawings rotting away type thing.

So what happened to those men? On May 29th, 1916, those 16 men were released from the castle, which would be, I would think that should be good news. They were, you know, were they being sent to, I mean, like other prisons? And the answer was no. It was actually bad news. And now this is why. We'll read this telegram. This is a copy of a telegram sent by Arthur Rountree, MP being member of parliament, because it's mentioned many times. We don't think of that. For York, being York, United Kingdom, not the York, Pennsylvania, on the 29th of May, 1916, to his brother-in-law, Thomas Edmund Harvey, a Leeds MP or member of parliament. So this is what the telegram says.

We'll zoom in a little bit. If you're close, you might be able to read it. If you're further away, you can't. So I will read it out loud.

So to Edmund Harvey, and this says comments, have just wired McKenna as follows. My cousin visiting Richmond yesterday reports 16 conscientious objectors under detention refusing military duties or ordered France Tuesday with non-combatant corps. Surely sending these 16 contrary to arrangement made with war office. Trust you can stop this immediately. Have not wired Tennett, thought it better with you. See him if you can this afternoon and urge importance. Coming up tonight, Arnold.

So like I said, this is a telegram saying these men are suddenly released and kept in the United Kingdom or England were transferred to Boulogne, France, across the English Channel. There was an army camp of non-combatant corps located there. Tennett is the undersecretary of state of war, and I will be mentioning him a lot here in this discussion to help so you know who I'm referring to.

Okay. Okay. So now we're going to switch over to Boulogne, France. And in Boulogne, France, from Bert Brocklesby's testimony, we're going to look at his testimony. So here's what his testimony says. I'm sorry. Sorry. Sometimes it got mixed up here. So here's this Bert Brocklesby's testimony. This is beginning of June, 1916. Let's read it. The commanding officer told us that we're now in active service. The penalty refusing to obey orders was death.

In the United States, they only condemned a couple of conscientious objectors to death. So Bert's getting warned by the commanding officer, "You better obey or you get sentenced to death." He would give us 24 hours to think it over.

It's pretty strong. So later that day, they were actually given freedom. The conscientious objectors, on all these places, were actually given freedom, a lot more freedom than they were given in the United States. So the men were more or less under house arrest idea, but they were able to go through Boulogne, and they went to like a coffee shop or something, and they were all chatting. So they weren't locked in a jail type thing.

And here's what Bert asked the other men. This is a very famous quote. "How far are you prepared to go?" Bert asked Leonard Ritten. "To the last ditch," said he. And one by one, they all said the same, referring to that thing. "How far are we willing to go? Are we going to obey the military? They just threaten us. If we don't, we can be sentenced to death."

You might think that's an idle threat, but it's not. This slide we're going to read briefly from the British Military Law, Army Act of 1881. We'll zoom in a little bit. An act to consolidate the Army Discipline and Regulation Act, 1879. This would be under Queen Victoria's time. And we'll just read in exactly what they're referring to. Right here where the red is. "Every person subject to military law who commits the following offense, that is to say, disobeys in such manner as to show a willful defiance of authority, any lawful command given personally by his superior officer in the execution of his office, whether the same is given orally or in writing or by signal or otherwise, shall in conviction by court martial be liable to suffer death."

So it's not an idle threat. In fact, about three weeks earlier, driver John William Hasselmoor of the British Army died 12th of May, 1916, age of 23, years executed for disobedience. So it wasn't an idle threat. They had this, like I said, about three weeks earlier, executed somebody for disobedience, disobeying orders.

So now we're going to skip to the parliament so we can actually see what's happening there. Mr. Rountree, the same person that came from that parliament, from that telegram, this is from the parliamentary records on 1st of June, 1916, says, "By private notice, I beg to ask the undersecretary of state of war, that is Tennett, whether it is true that the 16 men from Richmond and others from Albuquerque, who on conscientious grounds were resisting military orders in spite of instructions to the contrary, were this week sent to France. If so, what steps have been taken to bring them back without delay?"

Mr. Tennett responds. This is he's reading from his telegram that he sent to France. "Copy of telegram to the general officer commanding in chief, Northern Command, 30th May. It is understood that there are 16 men of non-combatant corps now in detention or recently released at Richmond due to the proceeds of France with their unit today. These men are said to have committed offenses against discipline on account of conscientious objection.

Take steps to ensure that they do not go to France, to remain to undergo sentence, or if released, or forward with attached to another unit of the non-combatant corps. If they have already gone, take steps to recall if still in this country, or state whereabout as far as it is known."

Now we're skipping down about three weeks. Mr. Harvey, the same person in that telegram, asks whether the now let's count them. If you count them all, there's approximately now 50 conscientious objectors who were sent to France if you count all the ones in this slide. Asked whether the 17 conscientious objectors who were sent from detention at Harwich to France at the beginning of May, the eight objectors who were sent from Seaward on the 30th May, that's 25, the 16 who were sent from Richmond on the 29th of May, that's 41, and those who were sent from Albuquerque on the 30th and 31st of May are still in France. At least 50 conscientious objectors were sent from Great Britain to the non-combatant corps camp there in Boulogne, France.

So what happens next? Well, we're going to see. Here's what happens. This is what happens at a court martial when the conscientious objectors, "You are sentenced to death by being shot." Just imagine you hearing that at an army camp with all the people lined up, and they have the dramatic, and they just read that. You come up to the front, and they pronounce by the court martial, "You are guilty. You are sentenced to death by being shot."

But it doesn't stop there. How do you stop these? There we go.

Can you stop this for me, Raleigh? Now it's gone. Good. Thank you. So what happens? They're still beeping. But it doesn't end there. This is what happens. After that dramatic break, it says, "Your sentence has been commuted to 10 years of penal service."

So they sentence you to death, and then you have this dramatic break, and then they give you 10 years of penal service. So we're going to look at what this is referring to. I'm going to read a letter from one of the conscientious objectors who this happened to.

We're going to read the letter. This was from a newspaper, Manchester Guardian, June 24th, 1916.

And we're going to read the letter from Howard C. Martin, who was a Quaker. And I'm going to start there at this letter on this next slide. "On evening of Thursday, June 15th, I heard the result of the court martial. It read out the local camp before a large body of men. The court found me guilty of the charges brought against me and sentenced me to suffer death by being shot.

This dramatic sentence, however, was commuted to one of penal service for 10 years. Similar sentences were passed from the three conscientious objectors tried at the same time at myself. I am still at the FP barracks and have not heard anything as to when and where I shall be removed. Through all I have been supported by a sense of the deepest peace and humble conscience of my own worthiness to bear my small share of testimony to the teachings of our dear Lord and thankful for the blessing of His Holy Spirit." Whoops. "Naturally, I think long and often of all the dear ones and sincerely hope that before being confined to prison, I may given the opportunity of seeing one or more of you, but as yet I know nothing of the future, which I have trustworthy and hopefully in the hands of her father in whose care I feel you all repose."

So there's a letter from one who received that sentence. Well, that's what does parliament say? So he was sentenced to death on June 17th. Well, parliament on the day of June 22nd, five days later, this Mr. Barnes asked the undersecretary, Mr. Tennett, "I desire to ask the undersecretary a question of which I have been given notice. It is in reference to a report current in the lobbies tonight that four men in France have been sentenced to death. These men are stated to be conscientious objectors." So he's asking Mr. Tennett, "Did this really happen?" Mr.

Tennett says, "The undersecretary of state of war, Mr. Tennett, many rumors with regard to the treatment of conscientious objectors have been circulated, and the great majority of them are untrue. This is only, I assume, one of those." That's how I'd think they'll too. It's like, "You got to be kidding me that he doesn't think this is really happening." This is the undersecretary of war. And he's saying, "I don't think that really happened."

Well, then let's look at some of these other things I've found. Cornelius Barrett, one of the other conscientious objectors who was sentenced to death, was a Quaker. And his pay stub, you can't read it probably from the back, and it says June 10th, 1916 on his pay stub. And in that little handwriting, it says, "Sentenced to death, sentenced commuted to 10 years penal servitude by General Sir D. Hague." So there's a copy of a, like I said, slide for one of them showing that.

This is what Norman Gowdy said at his court martial testimony, knowing that I think that he most likely could be sentenced to death. He says, "My motive for refusing is because my religious convictions prevent me from taking any part in the military system, whatsoever, and am therefore forced to disobey any military orders in loyalty to those convictions, which are based on the spirit and teaching of Christ."

So here's now on June 26th when they actually acknowledge what happened. So Mr. Morrell asked the prime minister, that would be Prime Minister Asquith, whether Private Howard Martin, the one we looked at his letter, and three other conscientious objectors now serving in France, have been sentenced by court martial to be shot. And if so, whether these sentences have been commuted.

Mr. Tennett responds instead of the prime minister. He says, "It is the case that court martials held in France have the exercise of their judicial function sentenced certain men professing conscientious objection to death for offenses punishable by death under the Army Act." The Army Act we looked at. "In all these cases, 34 in number, I am informed the sentence has been commuted to penal servitude by the commander in chief in France." And of course, this news was in the newspaper from the Cambridge Daily News. It shows that on the next page, conscientious objectors, death sentence in 34 men commuted to penal servitude. And actually, the current research says it was actually 35 men who were sentenced to death, not 34.

But yes, they and stuff. So when I researched, I tried to figure out a little bit why, how did this all happen? And what they said happened is, and I'll show you the slide on the next one, that in May 1916, a delegation from the Non-Conscription Fellowship met with Prime Minister Asquith. And one of their concerns was the conscientious objectors. And Prime Minister Asquith told the delegation this. He being the president, I mean, Prime Minister Asquith, and this is what was recorded in their journal, says, "He assured the members of the deputation that the government did not intend the conscientious objectors to become liable to the death penalty. The Non-Conscription Fellowship kept the prime minister in touch during the crisis, and he reciprocated.

The commander in chief, Sir Douglas Hague, was directed that no conscientious objector in France was to be shot for refusal to obey orders. And although the order was not made public, notice of it was at once given to Marshall." That's referring to Catherine Marshall, who was the secretary of the Non-Conscription Fellowship. So the best of my information, the prime minister had told them that wasn't going to happen, but they didn't want to tell the public about this because I'm not quite sure why, but they didn't want to tell the public, so it was kept a secret.

So what happened to the men when they came back from France? Well, look, now we're going to look at that when they came back from France and as we conclude the sermon here. So this is a copy of the Daily Mirror newspaper, another British newspaper, where you can look at a couple of sentences that the prime minister says.

"Premier and more resignations, Mr. Asquith tells MP or the members of parliament to await developments, release for objectors." Let's read what he says and we're going to look at this. This is Mr. Asquith talking. "In reply to a number of questions on conscientious objectors, Mr. Asquith outlined the procedure which was being adopted under Army Order Number 10. He said that all men whose objection to active military service was founded in honest conviction ought to be able and would be able to avail themselves of the exemptions provided by parliament. But men who put forward objections of this kind as a pretext in the cloak to cover their indifference to their responsibilities to the national call were therefore guilty of the double offense of cowardice and hypocrisy and would be treated as they ought to be treated with the utmost vigor."

At the same time, when he made this announcement saying that you would be able to have your conscience, these guys were sent back from France, you'd be able to go to more or less a national board and you would have your application re-examined, the Home Office of Great Britain made what was called the Home Office scheme that was intertwined with this, that if you were found as a sincere person and you didn't want to, quote, do non-combatant service, you could work in a work of national significance and give you all or something like that. And of course, some of the conscientious objectors accepted that as my figures and the absolutists obviously did not. So one of the first things they did was they did was the Dice Work Camp near Aberdeen, Scotland, when you mentioned that this morning.