The Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at Otago University has determined Baxter and men of conscience are to be remembered.
Those who assemble at the dedication service will no doubt nod sagely at speeches opining that peace is a far better option to being blown to pieces or being cut down by withering machine-gun fire while advancing (under orders at a slow march) to meet their deaths.
If there is to be a memorial then let it be to those whose suffering has been overlooked.
Those were the boys to men who returned home suffering from shell shock and depression after enduring daily, unimaginable conditions at the Western Front.
Many broke under the constant strain of life in the trenches. Unbelievably, five young men, (two from Australia) were shot for desertion and one was shot for mutiny by the NZ army. Three of them were from Otago-Southland. One enlisted at the age of 18.
All were pardoned in 2002, thanks to MP Mark Peck and his private member’s Bill. Even the thought of life under fire was too much for 10 men who committed suicide in training camps in 1917 and 1918.
Archibald Baxter was one of the so-called men of conscience who refused to serve their country in World War 1, which presupposes that those who served their country when called to do so were without conscience.
The men who called themselves conscientious objectors due to religious dogma not only refused to fight for their country; they actively fought against their country’s decisions to participate in the war.
Author Paul Baker’s authoritative book King and Country Call outlines the extraordinary social upheaval which occurred before and during World War 1. Socialism v liberalism, Protestants v Catholics, rural v urban (still).
Prohibition divided the nation as did Bible reading in schools. Even during wartime, strikes were commonplace among watersiders and miners, who began a go-slow against conscription. They also sought a pay rise.
The birth of socialism gave great hope to the working man who had left behind the class system of the United Kingdom to come to this faraway land where Jack was as good as his master. It was this untried (socialist) political ideology that soon became an ideal option and stablemate to religious dogma for those who wanted no part of a war, especially as the war was seen to be supported by English class privilege. Conscription in 1917 added to the existing turmoil as the new political force of socialism gathered strength. These were the times and circumstances which shaped the strident anti-war attitudes of Archibald Baxter and many others.
Those who enlisted did their duty as they saw it during a time when service to King and Country was unquestioned by most. The numbers of voluntarists (as they were known) dwindled when the causality rates were posted. The attrition rate among the voluntarists soon made it clear that this war was not a realistic choice for those who just wished to escape the drudgery of work. Those contemplating signing up, quickly realised the carnage reaped upon the early voluntarists was almost an inevitable fate awaiting most as the war continued.
The public call during the latter years of World War 1 was for equality of sacrifice as so many eligible men refused to sign up. Concerns were even expressed in Parliament as to the future worth of the country, ‘‘sired by those who refused to do their duty”.
Conscription, therefore, was seen as the only fair way of ensuring equality of sacrifice. An estimated three to five thousand eligible men then left for Australia where there was no conscription. Some just went bush.
History tends to focus on the life and times of Archibald Baxter who appeared to find God and socialism around the same time. The three Baxter brothers, Archibald, Alexandra and John, registered as religious objectors but belonged to no church or even to an unrecognised religious denomination at that time. Baxter objected to assisting in every possible way — even as a stretcher-bearer or hospital orderly. He would have been described as just another shirker in the parlance of the day. He endured and returned home and started a family.
Baxter and 14 other conscience objectors were forcibly sent to France but were in many respects no worse off than the ordinary soldier suffering extraordinary deprivation on a daily basis. For Baxter and other objectors, their suffering however was entirely deliberate and constituted torture by today’s standards.
It is however former prime minister Peter Fraser who deserves a far greater scrutiny than Archibald Baxter.
Peter Fraser was also a conscientious objector who was jailed in 1916 for sedition and served a year in prison. Fraser was adamantly opposed to conscription. He went on to become prime minister of New Zealand from 1940 to 1949. He was prime minister when conscription was reintroduced to New Zealand during World War 2. It seems Fraser had a radical change of heart. Why Fraser has not been subject to rigorous inquiry by the Centre for Peace Studies at Otago University is inexplicable.
Peter Fraser and other notaries of the day included Paddy Webb, Bob Semple, Harry Holland — politicians all — who served as cabinet ministers in the first Labour government in 1935. They also served time in prison for sedition during World War 1. All vehemently opposed conscription during World War 1 but not World War 2.
What role, if any, did self- preservation play in their opposition to conscription? They all lived out their lives in New Zealand. So many who did their duty lie beneath a white cross in Europe. Those who survived, relived the horrors of war, perhaps daily, until released by death.
- Gerrard Eckhoff is a retired Central Otago farmer and former Otago regional councillor and Act MP.
