CONSCIENTIOUS • OBJECTORS.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPECTATOR:A
SIR,—Seeing the letter • signed " Without Prejudice " in your issue of January 22nd, may I, as a- Quaker, protest against the Mint which I fear the world is forming about the Society of Friends ? This misconception is excusable, and no doubt due to the proceedings of a certain section of Quakers who have seen fit to send up minutes to the Prime Minister on the subject of conscription, &c., and the man in the street naturally concludes this is the view of the SOciety at large. It cannot be too widely known that there-is A large section of Quakers whose opinions are not voiced by these manifestoes—a section who do not write to the papers, or send up minutes to the Government, but who for over a year have been ailing according to their consciences, and not talking - Between two and three hundred young men Quakers have joined H.M.'s Forces in defence of their country and its honour, and already several have made the supreme sacrifice. Whilst respecting the really religious conscientious objection to combatant service, it is to many of us quite incon- ceivable that any man can receive and enjoy the protection he does (due entirely to the Army and Navy) and yet refuse to aid his country and stand by her in her hour of distress. The suggestion of " Without Prejudice " that every man who claiths exemption on conscientious grounds should pay to the State a sum (the problematical value of his life—the life he is saving by the death of other men) seems an economically sound one, and certainly a just one. Others are giving their most precious possessions, the lives of their dearest and best. It is mere casuistry to pretend that Quakers are of one mind in this terrible crisis of their country's history ; while eminently a peace-loving community, it ought to be known to the world that Quakerism is not primarily a " Peace Society," but goes much deeper.—I am, Sir, &c..
A QUAKER MOTHER OF THREE OFFICERS.
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