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Anti‐war organisations in a society at war, 1914–18Ann‐Mari Jordens a

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Anti-War Organisations in aSociety at War, 1914-18

Ann-Mari Jordens

What happens to anti-war organisations when a country is mobilised for war?How do pacifists cope with conflicts arising from their own socialisation andfrom the hostility of the community in which they live, especially when theyhave been accustomed to regarding themselves as respectable communityleaders? Historians of the home front during the Great War have focused theirattention principally on those whose rejection of war or conscription wasbased on socialist or religious ideology, and have tended to assume that bodiesmobilising against the war were the product of working-class or ethnic groupswhose interests were damaged by war-time conditions.' The growing ranks ofthe dissatisfied undoubtedly augmented the membership of anti-war bodies,but much of the ideology and organisational structure of such groups derivedfrom the involvement of middle-class liberal internationalists who had spentmany years fighting what they perceived to be the growing militarisation ofAustralian society. The war-time environment caused socialist and liberaldissenters to collaborate within new and more comprehensive anti-warorganisations than those which had existed before the war.

Anti-war groups in Australia since the turn of the century had beendominated by liberal ideology. The anti-Boer war Peace and HumanitySociety in Melbourne and the Anti-War League in Sydney were founded in1900 and 1902, largely by clergymen and academics. Their members were, onthe whole, particular-war objectors rather than absolute pacifists for theyopposed the war on the grounds that the South Africans should be allowed todetermine their own form of government. However, they were also con-vinced that arbitration, not war, was the best way of settling internationaldisputes. In 1905 the Reverend Dr Charles Strong founded a branch of theLondon Peace Society in Melbourne and in 1907 in Sydney, Hobart andAdelaide.2 The objects of the Peace Society were based solidly on the tenets ofliberal internationalism — the settlement of international disputes by arbitra-tion, arms reduction and the 'cultivation of International Brotherhood andGoodwill'.3 These groups were local manifestations of a movement whichattracted a considerable following in many parts of the world. In Australia it

1. Such as J. Turner, Industrial Labour and Politics: the labour movement in eastern Australia 1900-1920, Canberra 1965. L.C. Jauncey.The Story of Conscription in Australia. Melbourne 1968. M. Lake, A Divided Society. Tasmania during World War 1, Melbourne1975. D. Coward. 'The Impact of War on New South Wales. Some Aspects of Social and Political History', PhD AustralianNational University 1974. and R. Evans. Loyalty and Disloyalty, Sydney 1987.

2. For list of the committee members in all four states in 1907 see the Second Annual Report of the Peace Society. AustralasianBranch — Melbourne Centre, 1907. Mitchell Library Manuscripts (hereafter ML MSS) 38/55. item 1.3. ibid.

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attracted solid, respectable and generally obscure members of the middle classwhose ideology embraced the spectrum of anti-war positions ranging fromabsolute pacifists, to supporters of a defensive army at home and an 'inter-national police force' to enforce the decisions of an international arbitratingbody.4

Most anti-war organisations reacted very moderately to the outbreak ofthe war. They did not question the necessity of Australia's involvement butdid their best to minimise the social conflict it would cause. The AustralianFreedom League, which opposed compulsory military training, and hadattracted an estimated 55,000 members from its formation on 24 May 1912,suspended its operations in order 'not to hamper the Government in thedischarge of their grave responsibility.3 The Peace Society in Melbourne, incollaboration with other Victorian anti-war associations, collaborated inbringing out a manifesto in which they argued that the outbreak of war wasnot proof of their failure, but of'the incapacity of a "defence alone" policy tobring about or maintain peace'. They appealed to Australians to show noanimosity towards Germans or Austrians in the community. The great bulk ofthe peoples of those countries, they argued, 'have no more desire or respon-sibility for this war than we in Australia have'. Those who were fightingvoluntarily, they pointed out, have acted 'from the same trust in their rulers,and the same unconscious bias in their country's favour, that we deem so noblein ourselves, while tens of thousands of unwitting combatants are accountedfor by the coercion of universal military service'/' The New South Walesbranch of the Peace Society immediately set up a fund 'to minimise the distresswhich may be created in our midst'.7

The personal and social tensions created by the war, however, soondestroyed the internal cohesivencss of these bodies. Some members were ableconsistently to maintain their pre-war anti-war activism; others wholeheart-edly supported Britain's policies and were thus rendered politically impotentfor the duration of the war. They devoted themselves to self-education orraising money for war-related charities. The reasons for these differing reac-tions cannot be explored because of insufficient biographical data on ordinaryPeace Society members, but what we know of some of the Society's leaderssuggests that those whose pacificist principles were stronger than their pro-imperial socialisation, or whose cultural formation included Irish or Europeaninfluences, were able to take an active role in the amalgamation of the smalland diverse elements of the anti-war movement.

These divisions first manifested themselves in the debate within thePeace Society of New South Wales on whether Britain or Germany was moreto blame for causing the war. Rose Scott, the Society's president since itsformation in 1907, was born and educated in Australia and belonged to afamily that had made a significant contribution to the history of New South

4. For a detailed account of this movement see Ann-Mari Jordens. 'Against the Tide: The growth and decline of a liberal anti-warmovement in Australia l905-1918', Historical Studies, vol. 22. no. 88. April 1987, pp. 373-94.

5. Jauncey. op. cit., p. 103.6. Pax (the journal of the Peace Society of New South Wales), no. 26, September 1914, p. 5.7. Annual Report. 1914, p. 5. Poace Society of NSW Annual Reports 1908-17. Sydney 1927 (hereafter Annual Report).

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Wales since their arrival from England in 1820. She had taken a prominent partin the women's suffrage movement of the 1890s and became a respected publicfigure through her participation in various other social reform movements.8

She was solidly pro-British in her outlook. The other most powerful figure inthe Society was Marian Harwood, editor of its journal Pax from 1912 to 1916.Born in Scotland, she was raised in Belfast and had studied RomancePhilology in Zurich University before coming to Australia in 1885 with herhusband. A graduate of both Sydney and Melbourne universities, she spokefluent French and German and represented Australia at an international peacecongress in Stockholm in 191().y She was much more critical of Britain's role inthe war and used her position as editor to publish views sympathetic to theGerman position. Conflict erupted in October 1914 when Rose Scott objectedto Marian Harwood's remarks on Britain in her article in the forthcomingissue of Pax. Harwood claimed superior knowledge by virtue of her overseasexperience.

I claim to know something more than you read in the dailies, becausehaving lived in Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland etc. I haver heardother sides of the question, and I don't think England has always beenfree of blame or that she has set the other nations an ideal example. Weall blame German militarism, but if Lord Roberts, Baden Powell etc.had their way England would be just as bad.

In her Annual Report for 1914, Scott condemned Germany for 'breaking thesolemn treaty with brave little Belgium, and above all [for] the turmoil,destruction of home life, cruel slaughter, and demoralisation of War, we feelthankful our own country is helping Belgium and France'. She was con-demned for this statement by one correspondent who was an absolute pacifist,and praised by another.'"

A vice-president, and probably the Society's only Catholic, Dr CharlesWilliam McCarthy M.D., approved of war totally. 'It is a just war on the partof the allies. Even pacifists must admit that. It will probably end by arevolution in Germany. If the Kaiser be allowed to continue to reign we willhave the same thing over twenty years hence', he wrote in September 1914.Although he remained a member of the Society, he resigned his position on itscommittee, realising that his views made any further anti-war activity impos-sible for the duration of the war. It.'nullifies any present practical efforts on thepart of peace promoters and pacifists generally', he wrote, decrying thehorrors of Prussian militarism under 'that supreme criminal the Kaiser (thevery man on whom many of us built our hopes as a peace preserver)'. LikeScott he also objected to the views Marian Harwood expressed in the Society'sjournal. He was annoyed by her editorial in January 1916. In it she asserted that

8. For further biographical information on Rose Scott see A-M. Jordens. 'Rose Scott: making a beginning' in J. Walter andR. Nugent. Biographers at Work. Griffith University. Institute for Modem Biography, Nathan, 1984. pp. 26-35 and GeoffreySerle (ed.), Australian Dictienary of Biography, vol. 11. 1988, pp. 547-49.

9. Pax. no. 35. July 1915: Daily Mail. 8 August 1934. For further biographical information on Marian Harwood see H. Radi, ed.,200 Australian Women: a Redress anthology, Sydney 1988.

10. Marian Harwood to Rose Scott, 15 October 1914. ML MSS A2281.234. and Pax, no. 27. October 1914. Annual Report, 1914p. 9. P. Hansen to Scott 9 January 1915 and George Fallman of Wallerawang, 3 May 1915. ML MSS A2281.256 and 262.

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those who knew Germany 'doubted if she would ever be beaten to her knees',and called for the crushing not only of Prussian militarism but also Frenchmilitarism and 'English marine-ism'. As well as abusing the Kaiser and allthose who have shares in Krupps, she argued, pacificists must also condemnBritish peers, parliamentarians and parsons who had shares in English arma-ment and shipbuilding firms. McCarthy retorted that Britain should have avictory, not a draw, and that the strength of the British navy was a greatpeace-keeping factor.''

At a committee meeting held in December 1914 the Reverend WilliamPage, a Congregational minister of Marrickville, put himself in the Harwoodcamp by drawing attention to Christianity's debt to German theologians andstressed that 'brotherhood knows no one as an alien or foreigner', while aQuaker, William Benson, cautiously approved of the war. While lookingforward to a time when force would no longer be needed he admitted, 'whenrightly directed and controlled, force . . . may have its allotted place in humanaffairs'. Although he did not blame one nation for causing the war, he believedthat the military caste was stronger in Germany. l2

As editor of Pax, however, Marian Harwood had the upper hand, andover the next two years of its existence she continually sniped at Britishmilitarism, published articles drawing attention to pacifism in Germany and toits tradition of liberal democracy and theological scholarship. She had the lastword on the subject in the final issue of the journal, in which she condemnedthe recent execution of Irish rebels by the British and quoted (from theReverend Albert Rivett's Federal Independent) a condemnation of the Britishblockade of Germany which asserted that 'morally, there is not a pin to choosebetween starving women and children and drowning them'. Her critical viewof Britain was shared by E. E. Dillon, secretary of the Melbourne PeaceSociety. He believed that militarism characterised the Allies as well as Ger-many, and that both sides believed they were fighting in a just cause and onlyfor self defence. It was also closer to that of the secretary of the London PeaceSociety, Dr Evans Darby, who believed Britain was at fault in going to warover Belgium. i3

Anti-war dissenters were also divided on the issue of peace negotiations.On 23 May 1916 a public meeting of the Peace Society of New South Walespassed the Reverend Albert Rivett's motion 'that sufficient ground exists tojustify immediate pourparlers for peace, and would urge this view on the actingFederal Premier'. Rose Scott, its president, strongly objected to it. By May thefollowing year the society committed itself to supporting peace by negotia-tion, not victory or exhaustion. Rose Scott opposed it on the grounds 'thatGermany, the aggressor, cannot be trusted; the rulers of Germany arc like

11. ML MSS 38/53, c. p. 67; Mass card giving McCarthy's date of death as 7 June 1919. ML MSS 38/32. p. 267; in memoriam poemon McCarthy by Roderick Quinn, Catholic Press, 12 June 1919. ibid. p. 269; 24 September 1914 and 13 July 1915. ML MSSA2281.232 and 277. Pax. no. 40, January 1916, pp. 1-3. 27 February 1916. ML MSS A2281.314. and 29 February 1916. ibid.317.

12. Pax, no. 29. pp. 6-7 and mating November 1914, ML MSS 38/52, p. 382.13. Pax, no. 29, January 1915, p. 16; no. 34, June 1915, p. 2; no. 35, July 1915, pp. 19-20; no. 37, September 1915, pp. 10-18;

no. 39. November 1915. p. 4; nos 44 and 45, May and June 1916, pp. 1-4; no. 33, May 1915, pp. 20-24. Evans Darby to RoseScott. 26 February 1915, ML MSS 38/51, item 1, pp. 61-2.

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criminal lunatics'. In November that year she resigned as president as she nolonger represented the views of the majority of the committee. She remainedvice-president until her death in 1925.14

Shortly after Rose Scott's resignation Constance Bonney resigned assecretary of the Peace Society. She had been associated with Rose Scott fromthe days of the Womanhood Suffrage League and shared her doubts about thesociety's commitment to an early peace. 'There is little for the Peace Society todo now. To my thinking before we can have a righteous and just peace, thecruel and despotic power of Germany must be overcome', she explained. Thefollowing month, to the utter delight of the censor who was monitoring hermail, she invested £20 in a War Loan Bond. '[T]he loss of Miss Bonney, aftersuch a long adherence to pacifist ideals, dating well back to pre-war days, willbe a severe blow to less conscientious protagonists,' he speculated.|D

Pacifists had not only to deal with the ties of patriotism but also with theeven stronger demands of family loyalties. The family of the Reverend DrThomas Roseby was torn apart by the war. Chairman of the CongregationalUnion of Australasia in 1913-16, he had joined the committee of the PeaceSociety in 1909 and was still a convinced pacifist in 1916 when he resigned asits vice-president, more from personal agony than from ideology. His twenty-two-year-old son was at the Western Front and he explained:

Tho' I naturally share the traditional feeling of a liberal and 'aDissenter' about conscription yet the urgency of the situation hascome not only to reconcile me to it, but to feel that it has now becomealmost a necessity. Why should these brave young hearts be leftwithout patriotic support in resistance to the Tyrant?

Another of his sons, however, was made of sterner stuff. In 1918 the ReverendThomas B. Roseby, Congregational minister at Orange, New South Waleswas attacked in his pulpit by soldiers who also damaged his church. He hadrefused either to stand or take off his hat during the playing of the nationalanthem. The incident, widely publicised in the Sydney papers, earned him thesympathy of pacifists but brought down the wrath of his sister on his head.She condemned him as an advocate of the 'cause of the cowardly and selfish. . . The "Cause" of which you speak seems to us all a glorification of theshirker.' Marian Harwood had no sympathy with Dr Thomas Roscby's'weaknesses' and in her history of the Peace Society she bracketed him with DrMcCarthy, Miss Bonney and W.A. Holman and 'fair-weather pacifists'.lf>

Having sons at war did not deter all pacifists. In June 1918 MarianHarwood recommended that Mrs Robertson should replace Miss Bonney as

14. Pax. nos 44 and 45. May and June 1916, p. 6. Committee meetings 9 and 28 May 1917. ANI. MS 2980. box 5.15. Constance Bonney to A. Rivett. 19 July 1918. Australian Archives Victoria (hereafter AA Vic.) MP 95/1. RE 1107. She

resigned as secretary of the Peacc Society 12 December 1917. Australian National Library manuscripts (hereafter ANL MSS)2980, box 5. Censor's note on Bouney's letter of 19 July 1918. AA Vic. MP 95/1, RE 1107.

16. T. Roseby to Rose Scott. 16 November 1916 and 24 July 1917. ML MSS A2281.348 and 362. For biographical information seeADB vol. 6, pp. 58-9. The incident was reported in the Sydney Morning Herald and the Daily Telegraph of 8 June 1918. Hissister's letter was dated 8 July 1918. but he also received a sympathetic one from W.A. Levy, 23 June 1918, AA Vic. MP 95/1,RE 1057. His action was supported by the Peace Society in its Annual Report 1918, ANL MSS 2980. Mrs S. Harwood. The PeaceSociety. Its Origin, Work, Diffienlties and Mistakes, Sydney 1921, p. 6.

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secretary, despite her 'domestic worries' — one son back from the war withshell-shock, another back at the front after having been wounded, and a thirdaged sixteen, who went to the war without her consent. Mrs Harwoodremarked with characteristic harshness, 'She cannot influence some membersat least of her own family in spite of genuine peace principles'. By this time sheherself had eight of her Irish cousins killed at the war and more were at thefront. Rose Scott's nephew, Hellenus Hope Wallace, whom she had raised as ason since his mother's death in 1880 volunteered in May 1916.i7

Although by 1914 anti-war activists were becoming aware that theiradvocacy of non-violent solutions to international disagreements was margin-alising them, these former community leaders were dismayed to find them-selves, from the outbreak of war, subject to the same sort of scrutiny as wasdirected at suspected spies and traitors. Nothing brought this home to themmore than the censorship of their mail and publications. The censors whoclosely monitored their correspondence were all solid representatives of thedominent ideology, and their comments on these liberal dissenters reveal thegrowing suspicion with which the pacifists were regarded by the communityin general.1"

The initial censorship of all mail addressed to people with German andAustrian names provoked the Premier of South Australia, Archibald HenryPeake. to protest on 20 August 1914 that 'Such action will affect and causegrievous dissatisfaction to many thousands of naturalized and native-borncitizens . . . who cannot possibly be suspected'. Four days later a circularissued by the Australian Friends' Peace Board drew the attention of the pacifistcommunity to the censorship of newspapers. Two members of the PeaceSociety of New South Wales, Joseph Jackson and William Cooper, weremembers of this board. The Society was initially regarded by the Chief Censoras a fairly harmless organisation. In 1915 its pamphlets were examined butonly one was suppressed. 'It is not considered unccssary to take any action tostop the publication of temperate advocacy of peace doctrines of a similar kindto 'Goodwill' and others which are allowed circulation in the United King-dom,' he directed. Attention by the censor probably improved the circulationof some pacifist pamphlets rather than hindered it. America's Part by an author'well known in Victoria' was sent to the censor marked 'pro-German' andthere was a great run on it in Victoria, where it became unavailable. A Sydneyreader of Pax found it on a ferry bookstall in New Zealand and sent it to RoseScott. '*'

As the political climate created by the war hardened, so did the attitudesof the censors. On 12 January 1916 censors were instructed to requestnewspapers not to give publicity to anti-recruiting circulars issued by the

17. M. Harwood to William Cooper, 28 June 1918 and Harwood to A.W. Van Sigthoff. 22 April 1918, AA Vic. MP 95/1.Paddington Recruiting Committee to H. H. Wallace, 1 May 1916. ML MSS 38/79.

18. The best source on censors and censorship in this period is K. J. Fewster, 'Expression and Suppression: Aspects of MilitaryCensorship in Australia during the Great War'. PhD thesis. University of New South Wales, 1980.

19. Telegram Peake to Secretary, Defence Department, 20 August 1914. AA (ACT). A2 1916/3607 (pt. II). Circular dated 24August 1914 and signed by J.R. Howie, Secretary, and Monthly Report no. 4 of the Australian Friends' Peace Board, 298October 1914. ML MSS 38/55, item no. 39. Memorandum for the Secretary of the Prime Minister's Department from theActing Secretary of the Department of Defence containing comments of the Chief Censor, 3 July 1915, AA (ACT) A2 1919/57,Letter Henry J. Smythe to Rose Scott. 19 July 1915, ML MSS A22S1.274.

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Peace Society, and its Annual Report for 1915, sent to the International PeaceBureau in Berne, was intercepted by a patriotic assistant censor who describedit as:

A disloyal publication condemning the Australian system of nationaldefence, supporting the Anti-Conscription League which holds thiscountry shall not be defended, also stigmatizing the Governmentpolicy of interning Germans; noting publication of documents appar-ently hostile to the cause of Britain and the Allies, accuses the censorof stopping articles on peace being published in the Press; scandilizes[sic] the numerous Australian and other British soldiers who wereministers of religion in civil life and classes the British free constitu-tions among the 'vile systems' of the world.

This quite innocuous document was also reviewed by a more senior censorwho added the somewhat amused comment 'perhaps the report is not quite soblack as it is painted', and allowed it to pass.2"

By the end of the war, the private mail of most of the Peace Society'sexecutive was being intercepted. The censors came to know their subjects'attitudes, economic situations and characters with a degree of intimacy previ-ously only permitted to their closest friends. However, these liberal inter-nationalists would have probably been astonished to learn that they weregenerally classified as 'socialist extremists'. Although an inaccurate descriptionof their ideology, it reflects a perception of anti-war dissenters which wasbecoming more widespread.21

Those who felt unable to take an active part in politically effective anti-war activities, were able to feel they were doing something by being involvedin the Society's Distress Fund, which, however, suffered from competitionfrom the great range of fund-raising organisations active during the war years.They could also continue their pre-war educational activities as Emma Ben-son, a Quaker, did when she became alarmed at the pro-military pressure inthe National Council of Women. She formed five study circles on internation-al relations under the directorship of Meredith Atkinson, organiser of tutorialclasses at Sydney University and President of the Workers' EducationalAssociation of New South Wales. He was also a passionate campaigner forconscription and secretary of the Universal Service League, becoming a liberalinternationalist and pacificist only after the war. The Sisterhood of Inter-national Peace, founded by Charles Strong in Melbourne in March 1915 was asimilarly genteel organisation which found itself limited to charitable andeducational activities.22

20. Chief Censor's diary, 12 January 1916, AA (Vic.) MP 390/8. Censor's note on Eighth Annual Report of the Peace Society ofNew South Wales, 20 January 1916, AA (Vic.) MP 95/1. RD 6763.

21. Peace Society committee members listed as 'socialist extremists' (that is those who took an active part in anti-war organizationsduring the war) were: A.F. and S.F. Allen. Frederick Allmann, the Reverend W. Beale. Mr and Mrs Benson, W. Cooper,F. Foreman, M. Harwood, J. Jackson, J .N. Price, A. Riven, Miss Swann, Mrs A.F. Wilkes, Mrs Timms and the ReverendT.B. Roseby, undated weekly A and B summaries of war intelligence, subject classified file, box 35, Australian War Memorial.

22. Emma Benson to Rose Scott. 2 September 1915, ML MSS 2281.284. For biographical information on Atkinson see Bede Nairnand Geoffrey Serle. ADB, vol. 7. Melbourne 1979, pp. 121-2. Eleanor M. Moore, Thc Quest for Peace As 1 have known it inAustralia. Melbourne 1949, pp. 27-8. M.H. Colligan. 'Brothers and Sisters in Peace: The Peace Movement in Melbourne 1900-18'. BA honours thesis, Monash University 1973, pp. 45-55.

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Attempts to change the conservative middle-class tone of Peace Societyactivities generally failed. In 1915 a new recruit to the Peace Society of NewSouth Wales, suspected by the intelligence authorities of being a member ofthe Industrial Workers of the World, suggested a programme whereby theSociety could broaden its class appeal. 'The public will respond to display andlight,' she wrote, recommending that they hold their meetings in a 'lower classof hall', sing peace hymns to popular tunes, and spread their message inworking men's club and factories and in large employment centres. She waswelcomed onto the committee but her suggestions were not implemented.2"1

The efforts of pacifists to use the press to publicise their opinions, as theyhad done with considerable success in the pre-war years were — if not ignoredaltogether — generally counter-productive. As the first conscription referen-dum approached, Rose Scott sought to make the Peace Society's oppositionknown by having a resolution passed and publicised. The Sydney MorningHerald commented on it unfavourably without publishing it, and a letter shepublished in the Daily Telegraph provoked an angry reader to respond — 'I seea gand of professed murderers, atheists and destroyers of property behind theanti-conscriptionists'. He accused her of 'working on behalf of the worstelements of the community and the deadly enemies of our Empire'. 'Womanlysympathy and honour', he concluded, ' . . . are priceless qualities in time ofpeace. They are dangerous in time of war". Despite their moderation, suchpacifists suffered social ostracism. Rose Scott lost many personal friendsthrough her public stance on conscription during this referendum and an oldfriend who shared her views observed that 'More old friendships . . . werebroken by reason of that Referendum than by any other of the big questions ofthe hour for the past forty years'.24

Those liberal internationalists who were not constrained by these pres-sures, however, played a useful role in consolidating the hitherto scatteredelements of the anti-war movement and linking them with overseas groups.The war had prompted a similar consolidation of pacifist movements abroad.In October 1914, at the request of Carl Heath, secretary of the NationalCouncil of Peace at Westminister, the Peace Society of New South Walesbecame affiliated with the International Peace Bureau in Berne. Heath hadstressed the importance of peace societies all over the world uniting. Despitethe complications of having first to secure the approval of the censor, the PeaceSociety subscribed faithfully to the Peace Bureau during the war years.25

In April 1915 representatives from twelve countries met at the Hague toform the Central Organization for a Durable Peace. Although they could notagree on what they termed 'the deeper causes of war . . . the connection of warwith the structure of our social system, the part played by conflicts of

23. Fanny Foreman to Pax. 26 June 1915, p. 273. Forman to Rose Scott. 30 June 1915, ML MSS A2281, p. 270. Australian WarMemorial. Subject Classified File, box 35, undated weekly 'A' and 'B' summaries of war intelligence.

24. Annual Report 1914, p. 5. Pax, no. 35, July 1915, p. 24. Committee meeting 8 May 1918, and 12 June 1918, ANL MSS 2980.box 5. Emma Benson to Rose Scott. 2 September 1915, 17 May 1916. ML MSS 2281.284 and .321. Annual Report 1915, p. 7.Annual Report 1916, p. 186 and James Alexander Hogue to Rose Scott, 27 October 1916, ML MSS 38/20, pp. 287-9.A.H. Levy to Rose Scott, 18 January 1917, ML MSS A2281.351.

25. Pax. no. 27, October 1914, pp. 22-3. Lieutenant-Colonel J.F. Wilson, censor, to Rose Scott, 21 September 1915, ML MSSA2281.286.

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nationality the immediate occasions of the present conflict, the distribution ofpersonal responsibility', they had no doubt about the issues which theydescribed as the 'general causes' of the war. These they identified as lack ofrespect for the freedom and equal rights of 'nationalities' (distinct culturalgroups), the provocation of a conscienceless and sensational press fostered byarmament interests, imperialist expansion resulting in fierce rivalry for exclu-sive markets and colonies, disregard for international law, the progressiveincrease of armaments, and the concept of the balance of power whichintensified political antagonisms within Europe to such an extent that everylocal conflict was potentially a danger to world peace. It urged the calling of aThird Hague Conference to negotiate peace. Professional statesmen had failed,it claimed; now the masses must bring about peace. It issued a minimum peaceprogramme which included parliamentary control of foreign policy, free tradefor colonies, equality before the law for ethnic minorities, reduction ofarmaments, the banning of annexations without popular consent, and theestablishment of a Permanent Court of International Justice and a Council ofInvestigation and Conciliation. This organisation rapidly collected an impress-ive list of council members from all over the world including the secretary ofthe London Peace Society, Dr Evans Darby, Carl Heath of the National PeaceCouncil, and the American feminist Jane Addams. Both the Melbourne andSydney Peace Societies corresponded with it, and in 1917 it invited the Sydneysociety to appoint a member to its International Council. Marian Harwoodwas unanimously elected.26

Also in April 1915 an International Congress of Women was held in theHague to put women's 'special point of view on the subject of war'. Itsmanifesto made basically the same recommendations as the conference whichformed the Central Organisation for a Durable Peace, except that it insistedthat women should take part in a proposed permanent International Confer-ence and have a voice in the final peace settlement, that they should share civiland political rights and responsibilities on the same terms as men and that anypeace settlement after the war should extend the franchise to women. Theyalso protested vehemently against the rape of women in war. After theconference two of its delegates, Jan Addams and Dr Aletta Jacobs (president ofthe Dutch committee which had called the conference), toured Germany,Austria-Hungary, France, Belgium and Switzerland, visiting their respectiveministers of Foreign Affairs, as well as having an audience with the Pope.

As a result of this congress the International Committee of Women forPermanent Peace was founded under the chairmanship of Jane Addams.Branches were set up in a number of countries and existing peace societieswere encouraged to join it. Professor David Starr Jordan fostered the organisa-tion in the United Sates of America, and in Australia the Peace Society ofNew South Wales became affiliated with it, as did the Women's Peace Armyand the Sisterhood of International Peace in Victoria. A branch was established

26. Countries represented were Austria, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain and Ireland, Holland, Hungary, Norway, Sweden,Switzerland and the USA, manifesto issued by the Hague meeting was published in Pax. no. 35, July 1915, pp. 6-7, Councilmembers are listed at ML MSS 38/55, item 4, no. 97. For Australian involvement see letter from the Secretary of the CentralOrganization for a Durable Peace to Miss C.E. Bonney, 22 April 1916. ML MSS 38/51, item 1, pp. 75-7 and 78-82 and recordsof Peacc Society meetings 5July 1916 and 11 April 1917, ANL MSS 2980, box 5.

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in Western Australia under Bessie Rischbicth and Edith Cowcn, and another inVictoria by Eleanor Moore. (By 1923 a branch was being planned in Sydney.)The Peace Society also maintained its pre-war links with American andJapanese pacifists.27

A similar proliferation, and then consolidation, of pacifist organisationstook place in Australia. In November 1914 the Melbourne Peace Societydecided to join the 13 organisations affiliated with the Australian PeaceAlliance, formed the month before with F.J. Riley as its secretary. On 14 April1915 the Council of the Peace Society of New South Wales wrote to itsMelbourne counterpart inviting it to collaborate in forming a federation of allexisting peace organisations in Australasia (Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide andNew Zealand). On 30 November 1915 a Sydney branch of the AustralianPeace Alliance was established, but on 21 June 1916 it became the AustralianUnion of Democratic Control for the Avoidance of War, modelled on theEnglish Union of Democratic Control, led by E.D. Morel and RamsayMacDonald. Two vice-presidents and a committee member of the PeaceSociety, the Reverend William Beale, Stanley Allen and J.A.Jackson, becamerespectively the president, secretary and treasurer of the new organisation, andthree of the Peace Society's committee members — Florence Wearne, WilliamCooper and the Reverend Albert Rivett — were appointed delegates. Finally,on 9July 1918 the Union of Democratic Control (Sydney) and the AustralianPeace Alliance (Melbourne) amalgamated to form the Australian PeaceAlliance, thus forming one umbrella organisation embracing 54 anti-warorganisations.2S

This process of organisational amalgamation was seen by both conserva-tive pacifists and by the censors, who undoubtedly reflected establishmentopinion, as an indication of radicalisation. One of the reasons for Rose Scott'sresignation as president of the Peace Society in November 1917 was herobjection to the more militant tactics the Society had become involved inthrough its affiliation with more radical organisations. As she told theSociety's annual meeting in 1917, 'she did not believe in militant peacesocieties: she believed in waiting for opportunities and doing their bestunobtrusively.>2J

The process of institutional amalgamation provided opportunities forcross-fertilization between socialist and liberal international ideologies. Byassociating with socialists, middle-class pacifists came to include social andpolitical change in their vision of a post war order, as well as the legislative andmoral reform which had preoccupied them in the pre-war years. Socialists, inturn, came to place more faith in the efficacy of international law, and in thedesirability of establishing an 'international council' for the settlement ofdisputes between nations.3"

27. An article was published on the International Congress of Women in Pax. no. 37, September 1915, pp. 10-17.28. Pax. no. 32. April 1915, p. 5 and p. 19, Jauncey, op. cit., p. 113. p. 136 and p. 334. Moore. op. cit., p. 28, Annual Report,

November 1916, p. 4. The third peace conference held at the Society of Friends' meeting house, Sydney, NSW 29 March to 1April 1918, enclosure in 2MD censor's special and secret reports 169/1-73. April 1918-September 1919. AA Melbourne, MP95/12. Minutes of Peacc Society committee meetings 2 August and 12 September 1916, minute book 1916-24, ANL MS 2989,box 5.

29. Minutes of meetings 14 and 26 November 1917, ANL MS 2980, box 5.30. For a discussion of sociatist and liberal internationalist traditions of anti-war dissent see Alan D. Gilbert and Ann-Mari Jordens,

'Traditions of Dissent' in M. McKernan & M. Browne, Australia Two Ceuturies of War and Peace, Canberra 1988, pp. 338-65.

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The Sydney pacifists who transformed the local branch of the AustralianPeace Alliance into the Australian Union of Democratic Control for theAvoidance of War in June 1916, did so because, as the Peace Society's delegateto the Union, William Cooper, explained to Rose Scott, there were certainplanks of the Alliance that the Union could not accept. The break was madefollowing the first interstate peace conference at Easter 1916, organised by theMelbourne-based and socialist dominated Australian Peace Alliance, at whichevery motion put by the Sydney delegate and Peace Society member, theReverend A. Rivett, was rejected.31

The platforms of both organisations in 1916 shared common goals basedon liberal international principles. Although neither envisaged a withdrawal ofAustralia from the British strategic sphere, they both wanted machineryestablished, which would ensure both democratic control of foreign policy andenable each British dominion to have a voice in the foreign policy of theEmpire. Until such a 'Parliament or Council of the Empire' was established notreaty should be entered into in the name of the Empire without the sanction ofthe British parliament. The aim of British foreign policy should be theestablishment of both a 'Concert of Europe' and the setting up of 'anInternational Council of Parliament, world wide in scope, whose decisionsshall be public'. Until such a Council was established Britain should encourageother nations to use the peace-keeping facilities of the Hague Court and tofollow the guidelines laid down by the Geneva Convention. Both societiesadvocated the abolition by all countries of conscription and compulsorymilitary training, urged arms reduction and the nationalisation of their manu-facture, and stated that no part of the world be transferred from one govern-ment to another without the consent of the population of such territory.32

The Alliance diverged from the Union in specifying the inclusion ofwomen in the proposed international arbitration court, the enfranchisement ofwomen as a means of ensuring democratic control of foreign policy, and the'organisation of the trade unions and workers' associations, with a definiteview of ending the war'. It was probably the last provision that the Unionfound so unacceptable in 1916. By 1918, however, these inhibitions wereovercome and both organisations were united in support of a platform whichnow recommended the ultimate total abolition of armaments, the 'removal ofall unjust political or economic disabilities (including those of sex), that arefactors in the causation of war' and the education of children in the principlesof peace and arbitration. The committee of the amalgamated organisationconsisted of the Reverend A. Rivett, president, DrG.S. Thompson and A.J.McPherson, vice-presidents, Miss I. Swann, treasurer, and Stanley F. Allen,secretary. Rivett, Swan and Allen were long-standing members of the PeaceSociety of New South Wales.33

31. Minutes of Peace Society committee meet t ing 2 August 1916, Minute Book 1916-24. ANL MS 29811. box 5. Colligan, op. cit.,p. 58.

32. The 1916 constitution of the Australian Peace Alliance is in, Jaunery op. cit., p. 114 and the constitution of the Australian Unionof Democratic Control is among the printed leaflets and newspaper cuttings on the peace movement in Australia, 1904-24. MLMSS. 38/55 item 1.

33. Suggested amendments to the constitutions of both organizations are to be found in letter from the Australian Peace AllianceMelbourne to J. Yelland, Sydney, 4 June 1918. AA (Melbourne) MP 95/5 and letter S.F. Allen to G.V. Childe, 13 June 1918,AA (Melbourne) MP 98/t. The constitution agreed on is to be found in letter S.F. Allen to O. Blanc, 24 June 1918, AA(Melbourne) MP 95/1, RE 1062.

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This settling of differences between anti-war activists on the need fortrade union action to bring an end to the war particularly disturbed the censor,who intercepted some of the correspondence dealing with the amalgamation,despite Stanley Allen's use of couriers to avoid the mail. 'The most significantfeature of the proposed amendments,' he recorded, 'is the appeal to theworkers organisation; as pointed out previously, these people are prepared tocombine the most dissonant elements to achieve their object.' The union of theAustralian Peace Alliance with the Union for Democratic Control was nowseen by a censor to produce a 'purely anti-government agitating body'. Heproposed that the amalgamation be permitted and the authorities should smashit by means of the Unlawful Associations Act. He was quite disturbed when aresident of Moss Vale sent a 2s subscription to the new organisation. 'Writerpreviously unrecorded but a note of this kind from a quiet country town isvery ominous,' he remarked.34

Middle-class and working-class dissenters struggled together during thewar years to have their opinions heard on issues raised by the war. The issueswhich most preoccupied them were the need to commence for peace negotia-tions and, during the referenda of 1916 and 1917, the undcsirability ofintroducing conscription for overseas service. Soon after the Congregationalminister at Orange, New South Wales, was attacked in his pulpit by soldiersfor his anti-war views, he was approached by S.G. Jeffrey, secretary of theFree Speech Committee of New South Wales. Jeffrey's letter, which wasintercepted by the censors, reveals the new environment in which middle-classdissenters now moved. Forced out of their comfortable meeting halls byregulations, they were exposed to audiences of a very different sort than theyhad been accustomed to, and sometimes to violence. Jeffrey wrote:

Re the lecture you was (sic) going to give under the auspices of theabove Committee, I regret to say that no hall in Sydney is procurablefor the above body, in other words the gag is to be applied as a list ofspeakers are (sic) in possession of all hall keepers. Mr Marshallexplained to me that if the above advanced your fare you would bewilling to speak at any time. If that is so kindly let me know by returnmail and we will bill you for the domain on Sunday next. Yours in thecause of Freedom of Opinion by Public Expression.33

The anti-conscription campaigns which culminated in the referenda of 28October 1916 and 20 December 1917, brought activists together. May Matth-ews, a public servant who worked in the Registrar General's office, unsuccess-fully fought the pro-conscriptionists in the National Council of Women at itsmeeting in August 1915. Rose Scott, the organisation's president, admired herspirit and the following year offered to assist her in organizing her anti-conscription campaign on behalf of the Labor Women of Australia, of whichMatthews was president. In November 1915 the Peace Society affiliated itself

34. Censor's notes on letter Dudley Graham, secretary of the Anti-Conscription. Freedom and Reform League to S.F. Allen, 21June 1918, letter S.F. Allen to G. V. Childe, 13 June 1918 and letter M. Harwood to S.F. Allen, 12 July 1918, L.W. Edgeworth,Moss Vale to S.F. Allen, 6 July 1918, AA (Melbourne) MP 95/1, RE 1087 and 1076.

35. Letter 6 July 1918, AA (Melbourne) MP 95/1, RE 1056.

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with the Anti-Conscription League, appointing William Cooper as its dele-gate. He and Rose Scott addressed a meeting of the League at the Trades Hall,attacking the agitation by the Universal Service League. Thus the PeaceSociety was drawn into contact with an organisation that had strong tradeunion links. On Sunday 9 July 1916 May Matthews addressed an Anti-Conscription League meeting in the Domain which was violently disrupted bya group of soldiers whom the police did nothing to subdue. This, argued theLeague's secretary, was practical proof of its contention that 'under conscrip-tion and consequently the domination of the military class, all freedom ofspeech and rights to organise will be dreams of the pastVv>

The growth in the number of organisations sending delegates to inter-state conferences indicated the growing breadth and consolidation of the peacemovement during the war. The first, held in Melbourne during Easter 1916and organised by the Australian Peace Alliance, attracted ten delegates fromfive states. The second, also held in Melbourne by the Alliance at Easter 1917,was attended by delegates from 39 organisations. The third, organised by theUnion for Democratic Control was held in Sydney from 29 March to 1 April1918. It attracted more than 100 delegates from 54 organisations in three states.Stanley Allen attended the second conference as a delegate of the Union ofDemocratic Control. He reported to the Peace Society that various opinionswere expressed at the conference but the questions most discussed concernedforeign diplomacy, the balance of power and the concert of nations."17

The Peace Society itself also initiated collaborative ventures. In October1917 it proposed a joint meeting of all organisations to urge the earlysettlement of the war by negotiation. William Cooper and William Benson,both Quakers, represented the Peace Society at the preliminary discussionswith the Union of Democratic Control. A planning meeting, held in Sydneyon 29 October 1917 was also attended by the Australian Labor Party, theSocial Democratic League and the Anti-Conscription League and chaired bythe Vice-president of the Peace Society, William Cooper. The public meeting,held on 12 February 1918 attracted an audience of 400 and was the largest of itskind in Sydney. Delegates were sent by the Australian Socialist Party and theWomen's Peace Army, as well as the organisations involved in its planning.The presence of the Labor Party delegates was very encouraging to the peaceorganisations as it appeared that for the first time the movement was begin-ning to attract working-class support. A resolution was carried calling for thecessation of the war through negotiations to be commenced by Great Britainand the Allies on a basis of no annexations and no indemnities, with the rightof all people to the government of their choice. The meeting also called for

36. Letter May Matthews to Rose Scott, 22 August 1915, ML MSS 2281.284 and Matthews to Scott, 5 October 1916, ML MSS 38/20, p. 403, Pax, no, 39, November 1915, p. 24, Annual Report 1915, p. 4. The Sydney Anti-Conscription League had delegatesfrom the executive of the Political Labor League, the Sydney Trades and Labor Council, the Boilermakers Union, theFederated Ironworkers' Union, the United Labourers' Union, the Metropolitan Board of Works and Sewerage Employees'Society, the Darling Harbour Branch of the Amalgamated Railway and Tramway Association, the Municipal Employees andWharf Lumpers' Union, among others, H. Charlesworth, of the Darling Harbour Railway and Transway Association was itssecretary and E.E. Judd its treasurer, letter by Charlesworth to the Sydney Morning Herald, 10 July 1916. Letter E.E. Judd, 9 July1916 and by May Matthews, 14 August 1916, ML MSS 38/35, item 3.

37. Jauncey, op. cit., p. 129, pp. 252-3 and pp. 331-2. Minutes of Peacc Society committee meeting 11 April 1917, ANL MS 2980,box 5.

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changes in the economic system to make commercial rivalries for foreignmarkets a thing of the past.3*

The high point of the peace movement was the third interstate confer-ence. The report issued after the conference expressed the belief that

After nearly four years of a war which is equally disastrous to bothsides, when the desire for peace has grown strong among the peoplewho bear war's burden, a note of panic is being deliberately soundedby those who fear that the rising tides of pacifism will sweep away thefoundations of their power . . . We arc being told that the Empire is indanger and that Australia herself is threatened with attack. By suchappeals do some of our Statesmen seek to kindle afresh the dyingflame of militarism and racial hatred.

The conference particularly directed its appeal to 'those numerous political andindustrial bodies, which during the last twelve months have proclaimedthemselves in favour of peace by negotiation.'

The resolutions reflected both the legal and ethical preoccupations of theliberal international and religious pacifists and the political, social and econom-ic aspirations of the socialists. The influence of the former is evident in theresolution that 'every effort be made to educate the public mind in thedirection of international fraternalism and the settling of all Internationaldisputes by arbitration'. The Peace Society's pre-war tactics of politicallobbying were reflected in the resolution that deputations should be sent to theministers for education in each state in order that the 'flamboyant teachings ofImperialism which is so common, be discontinued and the virtues of Inter-national Peace and Brotherhood be enforced.' It is also to be seen in theresolution opposing the annexation of German colonies by Australia and in apeace settlement providing democratic control of foreign policy, the abolitionof secret international negotiations, universal adult suffrage, the cessation ofprivate or national manufacture of armaments with a view to ultimate univer-sal disarmament, the abolition of all forms of conscription, no annexations orindemnities and the compulsory reference of all international disputes to ademocratically constituted standing International Council of Enquiry, Con-ciliation and Settlement.

Socialist influence was evident in the observations that 'only by theabolition of the Capitalistic system can justice be secured and the fundamentalcauses of International friction be permanently removed', and for the vision ofpost-war Australia as one providing 'justice to all on the basis of productionfor use and not for profit.' They were also probably largely responsible forwelcoming Peter Simonoff as the 'representative of the first real democraticGovernment in Russian history', and for recommending that the Federalauthorities grant him official recognition as Russian Consul.39

38. Minnies o f Peace Society meeting 17 October 1917, ibid. and Jauncey, op. cit., p. 328. Annual Report 1918. A N L MS 2980, boxno. 5.

39. Simonoff, the secretary of the Brisbane Russian Workers' Association and editor of its newspaper, emigrated to Australia in1911 after some contact with the revolutionary movement in Russia. He became a canecutter and Broken Hill miner andworked actively to bring socialists and the Russian Association together. He was interned by the Military Policc in Melbourneon 3 November 1918, and supported the formation of the Communist Party of Australia. He left Australia in 1922; AlistairDavidson. The Communist Party of Australia A Short History, Hoover Institution Studies: 26, Stanford California 1969, p. 18 andR. Evans thesis, op. cit., p. 316 and p. 346.

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Other resolutions dealt with largely local issues which affected allpacifists. They condemned the system of censorship as 'the harshest in theworld, and alike partisan and political', and urged a full public investigationinto its operation. They demanded the abolition of compulsory militarytraining for boys and repeal of the unlawful Associations and War Precautionsacts in the interests of free speech, free press and the right of assemblage. Theyrecommended the inclusion of women in industrial and other bodies opposedto the war, condemned those ministers of religion and journalists whosupported it, and sought an amendment of the Australian constitution toprevent soldiers being sent to fight overseas. They also protested againstAustralia being represented at the Imperial Conference by W.M. Hughes andJoseph Cook 'believing Mr Hughes' attitude at the Paris Conference nowrepudiated by the Allies has in no small measure conduced to prolong thewar'.4"

The Australian Peace Alliance directly influenced decision-making at theinter-state conference of the Australian Labor Conference held in Perth from17-24 June 1918. E.J. Holloway, Secretary of the Melbourne Trades HallCouncil, received assistance from J.B. Howie of the Melbourne Branch of theAustralian Peace Alliance in framing his arguments at the conference, whichpassed a long resolution incorporating almost every point in the AustralianPeace Alliance's platform. It also decided upon a ballot of all members of theparty on the question of withdrawing the party's support for recruiting untilthe Allies had offered peace to Germany on a basis of no annexations and noindemnities. The war ended before these resolutions had any widespread effecton the party as a whole, although in 1919 the Manifesto of the Federal LaborParty declared its intention to abolish compulsory military training once it wasin power. The acceptance of such proposal is as much a reflection of thegrowing radicalisation of the Labor Party, and the class it represented, as of thegrowing influence of the anti-war movement.41

The war-time experience of liberal internationalists who had formerlyparticipated in anti-war and anti-compulsory military training organisations,suggests that they suffered from divisions similar to those of the rest of thecommunity, of which they were part. Their education, family ties andreligious affiliations affected their ability to persist as political activists. Thosewith strong English links or those who came to believe that by opposingconscription or questioning British war policy they were failing to supportrelatives who had volunteered, were rendered politically impotent for theremainder of the war, devoting themselves to self-education or fund-raisingactivities. Those belonging to non-conformist sects were more likely to find

40. Report of third peace conference held at the Society of Friends' meeting house, Sydney, NSW, 29 March-1 April 1918,Commonwealth Military Forces. Intelligence Report Files 'Enemy Trading and other suspicious acts week ended 27/5/1918'.Australian Archives (ACT) CP 407/1. bundle 2, item 168/6. The organizing committee consisted of Rev. F. Sinclaire ofMelbourne, president: W.M. Cooper. Vice President: Stanley F. Allen and T.J. Miller, Joint Secretaries; Mrs Scott Griffiths,assistant secretary and Miss Isobel Swann, treasurer. (Cooper. Allen and Swann were members of the Peace Society of NSWand Marian Harwood and William Benson were its delegates.)

41. Letter J.B. Howie to W. Cooper 8 July 1918 enclosing an account of the conference by E.J. Howie. AA (Vic.) 95/1, RE 1077,W. Farmer Whyte. William Morris Hughes, Sydney 1957, p. 367 and Jauncey, op. c i t . , p. 334 and p. 338, J. Merritt. 'TheAustralian Peace Alliance, 1915-1922', unpublished seminar paper. Department of History. Australian National University, 27October 1964, p. 8. Ernest Scott, Australia During the War, vol. 11. The Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18,Sydney 1936, p. 661.

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support for their anti-war views in their theologies. Anglicans, with theirstrong links with the monarchy, and Catholics with their tradition of the justwar', were unlikely to be found in anti-war organisations. Those liberalinternationalists who persisted during the war, contributed their organisa-tional experience and their belief in international law and arbitration to a muchwider section of the community than they had reached before the war. As aresult of the organisational amalgamation which took place during the war,liberals were introduced to a more radical vision of post-war society by theirsocialist colleagues, and were able to influence Labor Party policy on inter-national peace keeping and compulsory military training to an unprecedenteddegree.

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