"Getting in Dutch vice president of Women's Enfranchisement League, Mrs MacFadyen, we have to educate women in South Africa slowly" Read the full letter
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Letter ReferenceThe Times, Wednesday 12 January 1916, page 5, column 1
ArchiveThe Times
Epistolary TypeLetter
Letter DateWednesday 12 January 1916
Address Fromna
Address To
Who ToThe Times
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Legend
This letter has been dated by reference to when it was published in The Times.
1SIR J. SIMON’S SUPPORTERS.
2---
3LETTER FROM 36 SYMPATHIZERS.
4
5The following letter was handed to Sir John Simon last evening:-
6
7We, the undersigned, desire to express our wholehearted appreciation
8of your action in regard to Conscription, and to assure you of our
9active and immediate support, whether as private individuals or in so
10far as we represent organizations in any opposition to the Bill you
11and your colleagues decide to organize.
12
13We realize that our names are representative of only a limited section
14of the public, but we have ventured to take the initiative through our
15conviction that these views reflect a widespread opinion in the
16country.
17
18Yours faithfully,
19C. G. AMMON
20W. A. APPLETON
21J. H. BANKS
22ELEANOR BARTON
23MARGARET BONDFIELD
24JOHN CLIFFORD
25G. D. H. COLE
26MARGARET LLEWELLYN DAVIES
27G. LOWES DICKINSON
28J. W. GRAHAM
29F. W. HIRST
30J. A. HOBSON
31HENRY T. HODGKIN
32GEORGE LANSBURY
33F. W. PETHICK LAWRENCE
34MARY MACARTHUR
35SAM MARSH
36CATHERINE MARSHALL
37H. W. MASSINGHAM
38FRANCIS MEYNELL
39J. S. MIDDLETON
40J. CAMPBELL MORGAN
41GRACE NEAL
42W. E. ORCHARD
43SYLVIA PANKHURST
44CLARISSA E. POTTER
45ALFRED SALTER
46OLIVE SCHREINER
47MARY SHEEPSHANKS
48ROBERT SMILLIE
49F. R. SWAN
50JOHN TURNER
51J. E. WILLIAMS
52ROBERT WILLIAMS
53J. WINSTONE
54---
55
Notation
Olive Schreiner and the other signatories, probably organised by Bertrand Russell, sent this letter of support for Sir John Simon to The Times in response to Asquith's wartime Coalition Government having introduced a Military Service Bill for compulsory conscription on 1 January 1916. Simon, the Home Secretary, resigned and led the Liberal, Quaker and ILP MPs opposing the Bill. After this letter was published, John Clifford, a leading Nonconformist, collected the signatures of more prominent thinkers and activists for a petition in support of Simon. However, the Government negotiated Labour Party support for conscription, and the Bill was swiftly passed into law. See Richard A. Hempel (ed, 1988) Bertrand Russell: His Works vol. 13 ‘Prophecy and Dissent’ 1914-1916 London: Unwin.