On This Day, 11 February 1916

Birmingham Daily Gazette

Friday 11th February 1916

THE CONSCIENCE CLAUSE

The conscience debate at the Birmingham City Council yesterday was not very pleasant. But it may have done good in bringing home to all concerned, some on the Council, some on the Press and some among the public, that the right of honestly grounded conscientious objection to combatant service has been recognised by the State, and that it is the bounded duty of the members of Tribunals to treat this matter with discretion and sympathy. The Act contemplates objectors who are not confined to the Society of Friends, though some perverse commentators seek to insinuate that it doesn’t. Nor does the Act contemplate victimisation of the kind which made the Eccles Town Council dismiss a servant who claimed exemption on grounds of conscience. That bad case of industrial compulsion should receive the drastic attention of the L.G.B [Local Government Board]. It violates every Ministerial assurance, and is a disgrace to the public body concerned.