Archibald McColl Learmond Baxter (13 December 1881 – 10 August 1970) was a New Zealand socialist, pacifist and conscientious objector.
Early life Baxter was born at Saddle Hill, Otago, on 13 December 1881, to John Baxter and Mary McColl. He was one of eight children. His father had migrated to New Zealand from Scotland in 1861. Leaving school at 12, Baxter worked on a farm and became head ploughman at Gladbrook Station.
During the 1899–1902 Second Boer War New Zealand sent troops to help the British. Baxter considered enlisting, but heard a Dunedin lawyer, possibly Alfred Richard Barclay, speak about pacifism before he did so and decided against enlisting. He read pacifist and anti-military literature, forming a Christian Socialist view. Baxter also heard British Labour Party leader Keir Hardie speak during his 1908 visit to New Zealand and concluded that war would not solve problems.Advertisements Column 7, Otago Daily Times, Issue 14105, 8 January 1908, Page 1 He convinced six of his seven brothers that war was wrong.
World War I Conscription With the introduction of conscription under the Military Service Act 1916, Baxter and his brothers refused to register on the grounds that all war is wrong, futile, and destructive alike to victor and vanquished."Forced to the front", Bridget Jones, New Zealand Herald, Auckland, 19 April 2014
The Act did not recognise their stand, as the only grounds for a man to claim conscientious objection were:
That he was on the fourth day of August, nineteen hundred and fourteen, and has since continuously been a member of a religious body the tenets and doctrines of which religious body declare the bearing of arms and the performance of any combatant service to be contrary to Divine revelation, and also that according to his own conscientious religious belief the bearing of arms and the performance of any combatant service is unlawful by reason of being contrary to Divine revelation.
This was a considerable contraction of the exemption allowed under the Defence Amendment Act 1912, which had provided under Section 65(2)
On the application of any person a Magistrate may grant to the applicant a certificate of exemption from military training and service if the Magistrate is satisfied that the applicant objects in good faith to such training and service on the ground that it is contrary to his religious belief.
The 1916 Act meant that only Christadelphians, Seventh-day Adventists, and Quakers were to be recognised as conscientious objectors. As Baxter was not a member of one of these, he could not apply for objector status. According to the Act, Baxter was automatically deemed to be a First Division Reservist. The Act also required all eligible males to enroll in the Expeditionary Force Reserve or face up to 3 months imprisonment or a fine of £50. Baxter had not enrolled. Failing to enroll and being convicted of it also meant that Baxter could be immediately called up for service. Failure to report for duty became either desertion or absence without leave, offences under the Army Act.Defence Act 1909 – definitions
Baxter and two of his brothers – Alexander and John – were arrested by civilian police in mid March 1917 for failing to enroll under the Act and were first imprisoned in the Terrace Gaol, Wellington. They were subsequently transferred directly to Trentham Military Camp when their appeals as conscientious objectors were rejected. On 21 March Archibald and John Baxter and William Little, another objector, refused to put on Army uniform; Alexander Baxter refused to work. All were court martialed, all stating that they did not consider themselves soldiers, having never volunteered or taken the oath of allegiance. None was represented by legal counsel.Objectors on trial, Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3044, 3 April 1917, p. 8 The four were sentenced to 84 days imprisonment with hard labour, served at both the Terrace Gaol and Mount Cook Prison."Soldiers punished", Evening Post, Volume XCIII, Issue 82, 5 April 1917, p. 8 At the end of their sentence they were to be sent back to Trentham Camp."Recalcitrant Reservists", Auckland Star, Volume XLVIII, Issue 83, 7 April 1917, p. 6 Back at Trentham after release, Archibald Baxter continued to refuse orders and was sentenced to 28 days detention.
Deportation to the front
In 1917 the Minister of Defence, Sir James Allen, decided that all men claiming to be conscientious objectors but not accepted as such should be sent to the Western Front.Field Punishment Number One, David Grant, Steel Roberts publishers, Wellington, 2008, page 39, Accordingly, orders were given by Colonel H R Potter, Trentham Camp Commandant, that he along with 13 other conscientious objectors – his two brothers, William Little (Hikurangi), Frederick Adin (Foxton), Garth Carsley Ballantyne (Wellington), Mark Briggs (politician), David Robert Gray (Hinds. Canterbury), Thomas Percy Harland (Roslyn, Dunedin), Lawrence Joseph Kirwan (Hokitika), Daniel Maguire (Foxton), Lewis Edward Penwright (Geeverton, Tasmania), Henry Patton (Cobden Greymouth) and Albert Ernest Sanderson (Babylori, North Wairoa)Maoriland Worker, 28 July 1917 – were to be shipped out. On 24 July they were embarked on the troopship Waitemata en voyage to Cape Town, where a measles epidemic on board caused the ship to stop. Archibald, Jack and Sanderson and some troops were taken to hospital, and the ship was condemned by the port authorities as unfit for troops, necessitating the civilian liner Norman Castle being used to take the main military group, including the other COs, to England.
After recovery, Archibald and the other two COs were taken on the civilian liner Llanstephan Castle, arriving at Plymouth, Devon, on 26 December. Baxter was still refusing to put on a uniform or do any work for the army. He was kept under detention at Sling Camp, Salisbury Plain, and then sent to France, Folkestone–Boulogne, and on to Étaples. British newspapers of the time reported that because he had been sent to the front he could be shot for disobeying orders."The New Zealand CO's", Birmingham Gazette, West Midlands, England, Wednesday 5 December 1917, page 5
There Baxter remained under detention and continued to refuse any military involvement. He had been assigned to E Company of the 28th Reinforcements, led by Captain Frederick Harold Batten, father of the aviator Jean Batten. He was placed under Lt Col George Mitchell, 3rd Otago Reserve Battalion, who investigated his case, questioning him about his beliefs, but ultimately finding that he was considered a soldier by the New Zealand Government. Mitchell told Baxter that if he did not obey military orders he should expect to be punished, as determined by Mitchell. Eventually Mitchell punished Baxter with 28 days of Field Punishment No.1 at Ouderdom (near Ypres in Belgium).
A doctor examined Baxter before the punishment, and despite telling Baxter he thought he was unfit for it, spitefully passed him as fit. Because the personnel at Ouderdom would not punish him, he was moved to Mud Farm near Dickebusch (also known as Dikkebus) in West Flanders, where he was put under two hours punishment each day. Eventually he was sent to Abeele and back to Mitchell. On 5 March Mitchell ordered him up to the lines at Ypres. Provost Sergeant Booth was put in charge of Baxter and at one time punched him in the face and beat him up, Booth saying he had been ordered to do so. Baxter was placed under Captain Phillips and taken to the Otago Infantry Regiment camp. He was then returned to Booth's supervision.
At one stage Booth, on direction from a Captain Stevenson, placed Baxter by an ammunition dump being shelled by the Germans. Despite a heavy barrage, Baxter was unharmed. After further abusive treatment including starvation, he suffered a complete physical and mental breakdown, and was sent to hospital in England about May 1918. According to his records, by the time he went to hospital he had been assigned to the 3rd New Zealand Entrenching Battalion.
Baxter was said to have been diagnosed as suffering from melancholia."Baxter's breakdown", NZ Truth, Issue 680, 29 June 1918, Page 6 He was returned to New Zealand, but during the voyage was diagnosed as being in good mental and physical health. He arrived on 21 September 1918, and returned to his Otago farm after the war."Conscientious objectors", NZ Truth, Issue 697, 26 October 1918, Page 1
The physical treatment given to Baxter can to a large extent be directly attributed to the attitudes of the Minister of Defence, Allen; the Commander of New Zealand forces based in England, Brigadiar-General Sir George Richardson, and General Godley, Commander of the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces."Military objectors", New Zealand Herald, Volume LV, Issue 16785, 27 February 1918, Page 9 Godley gave orders that if Baxter and the others failed to comply, they were to be "summarily punished or dealt with at reinforcement camps, where they are now, and that they are not to be sent up to the front." Neither Allen nor Richardson had any such qualms and were likely to be the reason behind Baxter being taken to the front.Field Punishment Number One, David Grant, Steel Roberts publishers, Wellington, 2008, page 106,
Reaction in New Zealand and England Concern about the fate of Baxter and the others sent to France began to be raised by the Dunedin branch of the Women's International League. The Canterbury Women's Institute also wrote expressing concern. In late 1917 English Quaker and wife of the late John Ellis, Maria Rountree, wrote about trying to find the fate of the 14 objectors, only to be stonewalled by the Commander of the New Zealand forces, Richardson."NZ Conscientious objectors", Maoriland Worker, Volume 9, Issue 351, 30 January 1918, Page 4 Harry Holland MP, citing an article in the Dominion on 21 November, deduced that the British Government had condemned the New Zealand government's sending of conscientious objectors to the front."The objectors", Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 49, 21 November 1917, Page 6Armageddon or Calvary, page 32 The paper had written, "the Imperial authorities have no wish to be troubled with men who will not fight,..". This effectively ended such deportations, but did not mean the release of those already in France.
In February 1918 the National Peace Council of New Zealand, wrote to the Minister of Defence, James Allen, expressing concern about the treatment of Baxter and the others. Of particular concern was the sending of the objectors to the front, where they could be court-martialled and shot for not fighting the enemy.Conscientiour objectors, Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16129, 6 February 1918, Page 9 Harry Holland MP also took up their cases, writing to the Prime Minister and newspapers."Conscientious objectors", Evening Post, Volume XCV, Issue 41, 16 February 1918, Page 4
As further news came of the inhumane way Baxter had been treated by the military, it was the subject of a Women's International League delegation to the Acting Prime Minister and Minister of Defence, Sir James Allen in June 1918."Conscientious objectors", Otago Daily Times, Issue 17354, 29 June 1918, Page 11 The treatment of both him and the other objectors continued to be raised after the war by Harry Holland MP and others."Outrages alleged", Grey River Argus, 25 October 1919, Page 3Archibald McC L Baxter, H E Holland MP, Armageddon or Calvary, Maoriland Workers Printing and Publishing Company, Brooklyn – Wellington, 1919, pages 75–87 In 2014 a docu-drama of his treatment entitled Field Punishment No 1 was televised.