On This Day, 5 April 1916

Birmingham Mail

Wednesday 5 April 1916

BISHOP OF BIRMINGHAM AND CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS

In his monthly letter in the “Birmingham Diocesan Magazine,” issued to-day by the Midland Educational Company, the Bishop of Birmingham, touching on the subject of the conscientious objector to military service, expresses the belief that, though now and again appellants on this ground appeared to be unnecessarily self-assertive, as a general rule conscientious objectors are conscientious. “Many of them are objectors to other things besides war, having then bent towards that which is not generally received, and, of course, I feel that they have mis-read the character of our Lord Jesus Christ and the need for sternness in the healing of the world’s diseases. I think they are absolutely wrong in refusing to do war service of a healing kind, though I understand their argument. I cannot help feeling that the way in which they have been ridiculed by some parts of the Press has made them more antagonistic than they intended to be at first. I should like to acknowledge the dignified methods of the Birmingham Tribunal, which refrained from asking the questions which could not influence the appellant, and would only make him utter statements gratefully accepted by Germany, insulting often to our fine soldiers, and causing one’s contempt, perhaps unjustly, to burn fiercely.”