APPEAL FAILS

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 117, 11 February 1941, Page 10

APPEAL FAILS

Case Of Sunday School

Teacher PACIFIST VIEWS Stating that he had been for several years preparing himself for Holy Orders with a view to missionary work, Henry George Bowyer, analytical chemist, submitted a 17page statement in support of his appeal on conscientious grounds before the No. 4 Armed Forces Appeal Board yesterday. He had beep called up for three months’ territorial service.

He said he had been a regular church attendant and communicant at • St. Mary’s Anglican Church, Karori, for six years. He had been a Bible class leader 'there for three years, a Sunday school teacher for five years (three as superintendent of the Sunday school at Makara). For four years be had been an altar server and for four years secretary of the local Bible Reading Fellowship. He was a bachelor of science. He was three years an executive member of the Victoria College branch of the Student Christian Movement, and was president last year. His father was in the Home Guard, but felt bis objection genuine. The Rev. F. M. Kempthorne, vicar or Karori, stated in a letter that appellant’s conscientious views had been genuinely held for several years; he did not agree with him. In his statement Bowyer said that when he passed his N.C.O. examination in the college'cadets, his father gave him two military manuals in which were illustrations of bayonet fighting. This made him realize that if he participated in war it would mean willingness to thrust a bayonet into someone he had never seen before, against whom he had no grudge and who was personally probably a likeable individual. By 1936, his first year at university, he decided to become a foreign missionary and communicated with the Board of Missions with this in view. In 1937 he took the pacifist view in Bible class discussion. , Next year he became a pacifist. . Appellant then read a letter which he wrote, appearing in the “Church Chronicle” in August, 1939, presenting an aspect of his views on war. He quoted a joint statement, made last June by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York to representatives of the Anglican Pacifist Fellowship, to which 371' clergymen belonged. This stated in part: “We have never ceased tq recognize the sincerity of pacifists nor have we retracted our declaration as to their right to expound their pacifist views within the Church of EngAppellant quoted a resolution of the Synod of the Christchurch Diocese, adopted in October, 1939, reaffirming the right of every individual to act according to his conscience in the tragically vital matter of war and military service. . He did not accept the Christian Pacifist view that pacifism was something that should be binding upon all Christions. .. He was willing to work with the ambulance corps of the army if he did not have to subscribe to that part of the oath requiring him to resist the King’s enemies. He would also want a guarantee of non-combatant service at all times. . , He had been offered a theological scholarship at Selwyn College, Dunedin, this year, and would prefer to do his alternative service in the vacation period. Had he gone into camp with the second ballot men he would have completed his training before the college year started. The appeal was dismissed.