Conscientious Objection

With the introduction of conscription, conscientious objection quickly became a contentious public issue. Provision was made in the Act for the exemption of members of religious bodies who had declared their objection to military combatant service before the war. Only 73 religious objectors had been exempted by war’s end.

Conscientious objectors who refused to enlist faced a tough, carefully regulated system of punishment designed to ‘educate the obdurate’ in their ‘duty to the country’. After a short period of detention they faced court martial, sentences of hard labour imprisonment, and if they still refused to enlist they faced further imprisonment or were forcibly sent to the front. Fourteen conscientious objectors were transported to the Western Front in 1917 and endured various attempts to break their spirits including Field Punishment No.1 (hard labour, lost pay & privileges, and tied to a pole, fence or wagon wheel), assaults, food deprivation, and warnings they would be shot.

Only two held out, one of which was Archibald Baxter, father of poet James K. Baxter, who was repatriated in 1918 after suffering a physical and mental breakdown. When the war ended 273 ‘conchies’ remained in prison in New Zealand, the last conscientious objector not released until November 1920.