Since the Anglo-Boer War, women who wanted to have the vote and their say in public affairs had become increasingly active in many countries. They had a worldwide organisation, the International Woman Suffrage Alliance (IWSA), with a newspaper, Jus Suffragii, published in London and abroad. Many believed in peace. Rosika Schwimmer, a Hungarian described as a fiery feminist, was press secretary and correspondent for various papers. With Millicent Fawcett, vice president of the Alliance, she organised a peace rally in London for the holiday Monday, 4 August. Millicent was criticised for her action. Lord Robert Cecil, a strong supporter of her suffrage programme in Parliament, reminded her that in order to have male support her members must be shown to act ‘responsibly’. After this they followed the government line.5 Millicent regarded Emily as a traitor for her work in the Anglo-Boer War and specifically did not want her there; in this she was gratified.6
Emily was unwell and staying in Oxford.
However, hopes for peace were short-lived, for by the time the rally had started German Battalions had begun their march through Belgium. Britain had promptly issued an ultimatum that unless the German Army withdrew by midnight they would be in a state of war. Germany did not withdraw.
On 5 August Leonard wrote to Emily:
We can only exchange sorrowful feelings today … My view now is that we can say nothing about neutrality or make no criticism of policy until the country is out of danger … I wrote Ll[oyd] G[eorge] a strong letter yesterday saying that if he did not leave the Govt the Radical party was … broken. But war being declared I should not urge him to do so now until the naval question is settled …7
Leonard feared a major naval battle. He was also worried about conscription. His son, Oliver, aged 22, was a scholar at Oxford University.
The war feeling in Britain was so strong that all the principal newspapers, including the Manchester Guardian, gave full support to the government. Leonard explained gloomily to Emily, 8 August: ‘A paper wh occupied itself with attacks on the war might live for three weeks, but hardly for more.’ He continued:
I am not affected by the White Paper wh I have read, as it is clear that Grey, [Sir Edward Grey, British Foreign Secretary] (1) never warned Russia that we shd not back her in the quarrel. Had he done so she wd probably have withdrawn (2) made no attempt to bargain our neutrality against Belgian integrity – a bargain which Germany tentatively approached, and might conceivably have accepted.
Next, as to mediation. You will fret yourself in vain if you talk of it now … If Germany wins she will annex Belgium and dismember France. If we win we shall impose such terms on Germany as will prevent her from being the menace that she has been for Western Europe for 40 years. You must remember that the whole of the armed peace, the doctrine of force wh has taken possession of Europe, and formed it into a camp, is Prussian in origin. Since 1871 [Franco-Prussian War] no Frenchman has had an easy mind. If France wins she will rightly demand the cessation of this menace. It will therefore be useless to talk of mediation until the combatants are exhausted or one is beaten. It is miserable, but it is best to face the facts.
It is bitter for me to realise all this. All our hopes for political and social progress are shattered once and for all … As to Liberalism, it died last Monday. There will, I expect, be a coalition Govt, the Irish will be thrown over, and a small handful of radicals and Labour men will be left. We may write finis to our work, and hope that civilization may rise again elsewhere.8
So Leonard was for supporting the war while the danger lasted. He believed in the rights of small nations, and the reports of atrocities committed by the Germans as they moved through Belgium must have strengthened his resolve. To Emily war was obscene and nothing could mitigate that. After stating that she always longed to go to Germany she gave her position on the first page of the Journal, which she wrote later. She entitled it:
The Story of My Visit to Germany
June 7 – June 24, 1916
During the Great War
From the very beginning of the War – viz in 1914 I was filled with a longing to go to Germany. Holding as I do, that a War is not only wrong in itself, but a crude mistake I stand wholly outside its passions and feel, while it lasts, a spectator of a scene I deplore, but with which I am in no sense a part. I give, have given and will give nothing to any fund to aid war or warriors. My small means are devoted entirely to help non-combatants who suffer in consequence of war and in supporting every movement making for peace. I believe it useless to soften or civilize war, that there is no such thing as ‘Civilized War’; there is war between civilized peoples certainly but as we now see that becomes more barbarous than war between barbarians. I believe the only thing is to strike at the root of the Evil and demolish War itself as the great and impossible Barbarity. Hence all the Governments concerned in making this War are to blame in my eyes, none better than the others though possibly some worse. They follow blindly an outworn and impossible system that must be swept away. I blame them all and am against them all equally. On the other hand my heartfelt sympathies lie with all the peoples of Europe, sacrificed, ruined and destroyed by their blind incompetent rulers. They are also to blame in so far as they allow their better judgment to be led astray by their rulers and do not rise up in a body to stay the tide of bloodshed. But they are to be pitied for the poverty, starvation, misery and universal ruin fall upon their shoulders, besides disease destruction and countless worse evils …9
Emily was often unwell. Her doctor from Italy, Dr Francesco Forlani, wrote to her, in flowery Italian on 11 August: ‘However good your health situation may be, every preoccupation or apprehension can be extremely dangerous for you. So, be strong and don’t listen to the noble voices from your spirit which will incite you.’10
For the moment she took his, and Leonard’s, advice, but she wrote to her South African friend Jan Smuts, a prominent member of the government there, on 8 August: ‘It would be some satisfaction if we could put Grey in a battleship by himself and William II in another and let those two sink each other if they are so anxious to.’ She had little sympathy with Grey’s policies or the people with whom Britain was allied and she did hope South Africa would be able to stay out of the conflict.11
But, the Dominion countries of Australia, New Zealand and Canada had followed Britain into war and the Union of South Africa which also had Dominion status felt obligated to follow suit. Prime Minister Louis Botha thought the Union’s role would be a passive one but he was at once called on to capture the ports in German South West Africa, now Namibia, a matter on which he said he would have to consult the Union parliament.
Rosika Schwimmer, active as ever, wrote to Emily on 18 August, saying she was leaving for the United States to see President Wilson and Mr Bryan, the Secretary of State, to put before them a concrete plan for mediation. She wanted a note from Emily expressing her belief in the necessity of urgent mediation. Emily wrote back on 21 August in the style she kept for such occasions saying that she honoured the spirit that prompted Rosika’s journey, though quite unaware of her plan, and said:
It would be a fine lesson for the World if America, like some great mediating Angel, put forth her arm, and stayed the Nations, ere greater carnage comes. Alas! I fear it is both too late and too early for such action on her part. Yet to America many of us look, trusting that She will exercise moral influence, and fulfil that lofty destiny amongst the Nations of the World which we once dreamt was England’s high calling. But again the use of physical force has triumphed and now America alone can intervene to uphold higher influences.12
Soon Emily herself was spurred into action. She had long been interested in the Quakers, otherwise known as the Religious Society of Friends. The Friends had suffered from religious restrictions in the past, and although by now they had equal freedom, their approach to war was different. Many were pacifists. A Christian Pacifist conference had been convened in Konstance, Germany, on the eve of the war. After leaving the conference Dr Friedrich Siegmund-Schultze,
a German Lutheran pastor, and Henry Hodgkin, an English Quaker, took a pledge that, as they were one in Christ, they could never be at war with each other and that they would continue in a life of service. In England this led to the foundation of the Fellowship of Reconciliation.13 Naturally Emily was interested in this group.
She wrote a flyer addressed to women throughout Europe – a church-going population would have recognised the quotation used to head the appeal:
To Women Throughout Europe
‘He took them up in His arms, put His hands upon them and blessed them.’*
Fellow Women,
The war is crushing helpless millions. These are mostly women and children. In Galicia, Serbia, Poland, Belgium, East Prussia, France and elsewhere the people are perishing.
Relief, however colossal, can but touch the fringe of the want.
If the war continues, die they must.
We ask: Must it continue? Can any good come by further bloodshed to weigh against such evil which could not be better attained by agreement and goodwill.
A hundred years ago men proclaimed they fought, as each country asserts it is fighting to-day, ‘to secure the rights, the freedom, and the independence of all nations’.
War failed to secure those objects then; can we reasonably suppose it will do so now? …
[She appealed to England to show the way and continued] Will you not plead on their [the children’s] behalf ere it be too late.14
Meanwhile, in South Africa, trouble was brewing. Naturally the wounds and sorrows of the Anglo-Boer War had not healed and some people among the Afrikaner community, including the old and revered General de la Rey, felt this was the time to break with England. But on 15 September, on his way home after a special parliamentary session which had approved action, he was accidentally shot.15
Unrest followed and on 26 October it was announced that rebellion had broken out. Three Boer generals were involved, the famous De Wet, whom Emily knew, Beyers and Kemp, and there were also other commanders. Their effort was generally thought to be not well coordinated.
On 28 October, Leonard was in touch with Emily:
You will feel with me that, whatever the origins and cause, the outbreak of civil war in S. African Union is an unspeakable calamity. You can influence a good number there who may be wavering and my suggestion is that you send a wire to Mrs Steyn [her friend, the wife of the ex-President of the Orange Free State]: ‘Trust South African women will prevent outbreak of civil war.’ At the same time the message would be given to the press.
If she agreed, he would have to contact Harcourt, the Colonial Secretary, about it. On 30 October Leonard wrote again: ‘On receipt of your evening telegram I sent a note to Harcourt by special messenger and received a reply from him at 11.39 p.m. saying “please send cable but don’t use my name.”’ The words Emily used were ‘I appeal to you to urge South African women to prevent civil war.’ Leonard told her she had done what she could ‘and if you only deter one doubting person from leaving his home and risking his neck in a mad enterprise it will be worth it.’ Emily received a cable back reading ‘Utmost being done Mrs Steyn’ and told Leonard he could use it as he wished.16
Emily wrote to Isabella ‘Tibbie’ Steyn (they were lifelong friends but remained formal in writing):
C/o Barclay & Co.Ltd.,**
137 Brompton Road,
London S.W.
Oct 29 /14
Dearest Mrs Steyn
My thoughts are with you and the President in these days of sorrow and tension. This World’s War is piercing into every life. I know the form it is taking in South Africa will pierce deeply into yours and with varying emotions.
Today I ventured to cable to you to urge South African Women to stop Civil War with one voice. I thought remembering the Past and its Pain, its Dead and the old oft repeated … ‘Never again War in South Africa between Whites’ the women might rise in a body headed by your influence and demand that the men on both sides lay down their arms.
The censorship is strict and this may never reach you.
I long for more news and for news I can rely on, but I have little time to write and if the President is ill neither probably have you.
I send this to state the mere fact of having cabled to you to send my love and sympathy to you all.
Yrs ever
Emily Hobhouse
P.S. Of course I could not go to Italy this year, so I am in Cornwall and we look after Belgium refugees. Their tales are the same in every particular I listened to 14 years ago – the war-look stamped on their suffering faces just as those Boer women looked – but their sufferings are less for they are received here with open arms and every kindness is shown to them – and there is no want and sickness amongst them such as we knew of old.17
With her mind on South Africa Emily wrote to Jan Smuts:
I cannot bear to think that dear De Wet and Beyers and Kemp will meet a rebel’s death. You have asked too much of human nature … I write in a hurry to implore you if these men are captured … not to shoot them unless in open fight. The issue might be awful – an internecine struggle – an enmity never forgiven. They are brave, good men. Keep them in prison till the end but do not execute them, do not, do not, do not.18
As Leonard was still for supporting the war. Emily wrote to him on 3 November 1914: ‘However I suppose you are now friends again with the Government, and having fallen on the neck of Lloyd George you could maybe get him to intervene about the S African rebels if there is any idea of the extreme penalty wh I fear.’19
In time De Wet and Kemp were captured, while Beyers drowned trying to cross a swollen river. Only Jopie Fourie, a sharpshooter commander, was court-martialled and shot, an issue Smuts was not allowed to forget.20
At Christmas Emily wrote a letter for Jus Suffragii addressed ‘to the Women of Germany and Austria’ under the heading ‘On Earth Peace, Goodwill towards Men’. It was signed by 100 women and, it would seem, one man – Gandhi. She said:
The Christmas message sounds as mockery to a world at war, but those of us who wished and still wish for peace may surely offer a solemn greeting to those of you who feel as we do. Do not let us forget that our very anguish unites us, that we are passing together through the same experiences of pain and grief. Caught in the grip of terrible Circumstance what can we do? Tossed on this turbulent sea of human conflict, we can but moor ourselves to those calm shores whereon stand, like rocks those eternal verities – Love, Peace, Brotherhood …
She prayed for peace:
We urge that peace be made with appeal to wisdom and reason. Since in the last resort it is these which must decide the issues, can they begin too soon? …
Peace on earth has gone, may Christmas hasten that day … 21
Eleanor Hobhouse – Emily’s cousin, Henry’s* daughter – stayed with her that Christmas. She was a Red Cross nurse and had been in Belgium shortly after war began and from her, Emily was able to learn firsthand about conditions as she saw them there. Refugees had been arriving in England from Belgium, fleeing from German rule. Emily, who was always thinking up ideas, had written to her brother in September suggesting he contact their cousin Sir Charles Hobhouse, Paymaster General, with the idea that some of the empty boarding houses and hotels in health resorts could be used to house them at a fixed sum per week.22
Emily was also interested in the work being done for the relief of interned enemy aliens by Eleanor’s brother Stephen, a Quaker convert. As strong as Emily in his beliefs, he was soon to be in trouble as a conscientious objector.
The year ended with Emily still trying to convert Leonard to the pacifist cause and hoping he would bring the Manchester Guardian in as well. She was constant in her belief that Germany would give way on moral grounds. Leonard, however, was not moved.23
Notes
* Mark, Ch 10 v16.
** Emily used her bank address for many letters as she was continually moving around and the bank was prepared to keep the letters for her.
/> * Rt Hon. Henry Hobhouse PC, (MP, JP), 1854–1937, was head of Emily’s branch of the Hobhouse clan. He was a Privy Councillor and MP for East Somerset 1885–1906. He was married to Margaret Potter whose intellectually gifted sisters included Kate Courtney and Beatrice Webb.
1. JHB collection
2. Jagow, England und der Kriegsausbruch p. 3
3. Oxford and Asquith, Memories and Reflections vol. 2 p. 6
4. JHB collection
5. Patterson, The Search for Negotiated Peace pp. 30–2
6. Ibid.
7. JHB collection
8. Ibid.
9. EH Journal, ‘The Story of my visit to Germany. June 7–June 24, 1916. During the Great War’ pp. 1–3
10. JHB collection
11. EH to J.C. Smuts, 8 August 1914
12. JHB collection
13. TNA (British National Archives, Kew) CAB 24/34 Pacifism
14. JHB collection
15. Meintjes, General Louis Botha pp. 215–26
16. JHB collection
Agent of Peace Page 2
