Agent of Peace Read online

  To my Grandchildren

  May they have a good life and have the courage to do what is right for the benefit of humankind

  JENNIFER HOBHOUSE BALME is the grand-niece of Emily. She worked in the publicity department of the WRVS for many years. On her father’s death she inherited a trunk of Emily’s papers, on which this book is based. She is the author of To Love One’s Enemies: The Work and Life of Emily Hobhouse, published by the Hobhouse Trust. She lives in British Columbia.

  CONTENTS

  Title

  Dedication

  Foreword

  Introduction

  1. A Cornish Background

  2. The Beginning

  3. 1915

  4. Hard Knocks

  5. Prelude to the Journey

  6. Emily’s Journal: Wartime Journey across Germany

  7. Emily’s Journal: Into Belgium, June 1916

  8. Emily’s Journal: Berlin

  9. Emily’s Journal: Disaster and the Return to England

  10. The Citadel

  11. Diary, July 1916

  12. Ruhleben and Peace

  13. August 1916 – Cloak and Dagger

  14. Belgium, Peace and the Push Back

  15. The Weary World Waits

  Bibliography

  Plates

  Copyright

  FOREWORD

  BY DR BIRGIT SUZANNE SEIBOLD PHD

  It is a great honour to write the foreword for Jennifer Hobhouse Balme’s book Agent of Peace. Jennifer Hobhouse Balme is not only the grand niece of Emily Hobhouse, she is the greatest and the most important of all the Emily Hobhouse researchers and holds the Hobhouse papers. Her first book, To Love One’s Enemies, is proof of her thorough research.

  Emily Hobhouse is probably best known in South Africa because of her enormous involvement with the Boers who had been interned in the concentration camps during the Anglo-Boer War.

  British officials found her a nuisance and sent a Ladies’ Commission, instead of her, to the concentration camps. The living conditions became slightly better. After the war, Emily Hobhouse carried on to help, and founded spinning, weaving and lace schools for South African women.

  When she came back to Britain, there were the first signs of an upcoming war. During the First World War, Emily Hobhouse joined the International Women’s League for Peace and Freedom and she worked for more than three months in Amsterdam. She travelled with a German escort from Switzerland to occupied Belgium to investigate the conditions of the Belgian non-combatants. She also reported on the state of destruction of every Belgian town she visited. She was forbidden to speak to the Belgians or to travel into the war zone. From Belgium she travelled to Berlin and met the German Foreign Secretary, Gottlieb von Jagow. She also enquired into the food and health situation in Germany. In Ruhleben, she visited the civilian internees camp and found, unlike in South Africa at the time, no raging sicknesses, no starvation and no deaths. The trouble in the camp was primarily mental – captivity was having a depressing, even maddening effect on many men.

  When she returned to England, Emily Hobhouse wanted to lay her information before the British Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey. She had three main objectives: to get peace talks moving, to obtain the release of civilian internees and to get better food and supplies to the Belgians. However, Sir Edward Grey did not want to talk to her. Instead she was questioned by Scotland Yard.

  In this book, Jennifer Hobhouse Balme publishes, for the first time, documents of that time. The reader finds most interesting letters relating to the peace movement, journal entries and a short diary by Emily Hobhouse herself.

  It is a fascinating book to read.

  Birgit Seibold

  Ludwigsburg,

  Dr Birgit Seibold was born and still lives near Stuttgart, Germany and specialised at Tübingen University on the effects of British colonisation in Africa. She is the author of Großbritannien und die Kolonialisierung Swazilands (Great Britain and the Colonialisation of Swaziland) and Emily Hobhouse and the Reports on the Concentration Camps during the Boer War 1899–1902. She is currently working on her new project, another book on Africa.

  INTRODUCTION

  In the preface to To Love One’s Enemies, I explained that I gleaned most of the information that I used from a trunk of papers I inherited from my father, Emily Hobhouse’s nephew. This trunk was the treasure chest that enabled me to expand on official sources to provide an interesting narrative. The book covered Emily Hobhouse’s work in the Anglo-Boer War 1899–1902 and also her life in a more general way. The aim, which I believe was accomplished, was to show that Emily Hobhouse did not exaggerate the condition of the camps, which were set up by the British Army for the families of Afrikaner nationals fighting to retain their independence, and that, in trying to improve conditions, she was not a traitor.

  Emily Hobhouse was in fact a remarkable and fearless woman. In the middle of the First World War she managed to visit occupied Belgium and Germany. A chance meeting with the German Foreign Secretary, Gottlieb von Jagow, led her to believe that peace talks were possible. She wrote a Journal about her trip but, because of the scope of To Love One’s Enemies and the length of the Journal, I was unable to include it in that book. There was also extra information, some on small scraps of paper, which had to be studied. It is for this reason I have come up with this book, Agent of Peace, and its sequel, Living the Love.

  Agent of Peace provides the background for Emily Hobhouse’s own Journal and describes her efforts to bring about a negotiated peace. Emily Hobhouse was a pacifist with an overriding belief that international disputes should be solved through dialogue. Unlike many of her compatriots, she had seen war at first hand and knew what devastation and misery it could cause. She was an English patriot whose actions went against the times. England, and its ideals, was the great love of her life.

  Her efforts have been studied by myself and others. In particular I would like to commend Diane Clements Kaminski who wrote her PhD thesis on Emily Hobhouse, and Birgit Seibold who, although her PhD thesis only covers the Anglo-Boer War, had many ideas on fields for research. Dr Seibold has been especially helpful with her work, and insights, into the German Official Archives – she has also provided help with translations. Without her, this work could not have been produced. I would also like to thank Lord Newton for his help and for introducing me to his grandfather’s diary.

  Emily Hobhouse lived in the days when the telephone was in its infancy and our modern reliance on technology did not exist. She and her friends were letter writers. It has been the greatest help to be able to find the letters she wrote to her brother, Leonard (L.T.) Hobhouse, and to some especial friends in South Africa and elsewhere. Most notable amongst these were Mrs Isabella Steyn, wife of the former President of the Orange Free State, South Africa, and General Jan Christiaan Smuts who held many important posts in both the South African government and also with the imperial government in London. Letters to Jane Addams in the United States and Dr Aletta Jacobs in the Netherlands are also included.

  I would like to express special thanks to my family and also the many people who have helped with typing and vetting the manuscript, especially Sarah Walker. I would also like to thank Giordano Venturi, for help with the Italian translations.

  In the letters that are reproduced in this book, I have maintained the abbreviations ‘wh’ for ‘which’, ‘govt’ for ‘government’, ‘cires’ for ‘circumstances’ but have written out ‘and’ for ‘&’ as the latter always seems clumsy.

  1

  A CORNISH BACKGROUND

  B orn in 1860, at a time when women had no status and were expected to be good, obedient and pure, Emily Hobhouse was the youngest of four girls. Her brother, Leonard (L.T. Hobhouse,
the noted sociologist and thinker), was four years her junior. Her father, Reginald, was rector of the small Anglican parish in east Cornwall and was later appointed as one of the two archdeacons for the Cornish diocese.

  The girls were educated at home and as they grew up, besides sports, art and music, their time was given over to good works, but when their mother died all the fun went out of the house. Their father became reclusive and Emily, as the last remaining girl at home, found the life of a Victorian spinster more and more repressive. Her only outlet was visits to her uncle and aunt, Arthur and Mary Hobhouse. They asked her to be hostess for them when they were in the country. With her quick wit and sweet singing voice she was an asset to any party. Arthur Hobhouse had been in India as the law member of the Governor General’s council. He was now a peer of the realm and a member of the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, the highest court of appeal in the British Empire.

  When her father died in 1895, Emily wondered what she could do. Through the wife of Edward Benson (their former bishop in Cornwall who had become Archbishop of Canterbury, the senior bishop in the Anglican Church), she went to Minnesota to carry out welfare work for the Cornish miners who had emigrated there. She found they were doing well, but there was plenty of work helping other miners – for example, she visited the sick and those in prison, started a library and organised entertainments. She also fell in love and became engaged to be married. With plans for her fiancé to follow her, she went to Mexico to purchase a ranch where they could grow coffee and pineapples. Unfortunately the relationship came to nothing. She returned to London to study child welfare and try her hand at writing.

  Emily was always interested in current affairs and TheTimes was delivered daily, even in Cornwall. This she read at meals to her austere father but she had to be careful not to let him know of her Liberal views. He was a staunch Conservative, although Arthur and her brother Leonard were Liberals who believed in the rights of small nations.

  In 1899 the Anglo-Boer War broke out. It was really an issue about the gold mines in the Transvaal, South Africa. The Boers (Afrikaner people) had trekked hundreds of miles north of the British Colony at the Cape of Good Hope because they, and the people of the Orange Free State, wanted to be independent of British rule, and the British now wanted their say in the operation of their new territories. Because of his judicial position, Arthur Hobhouse was not able to take part in politics. However, some of his friends, including Leonard Courtney, the independently minded Liberal Unionist MP for the Hobhouses’ constituency in Cornwall, formed a South African Conciliation Committee. Emily, who knew Leonard Courtney, entered wholeheartedly into the campaign to find and execute a resolution to the conflict. She spoke publicly, and went on to form a relief fund for the South African women and children who were being herded into camps after their farms had been burnt or destroyed as part of British policy.

  Emily went to South Africa to take relief and found the conditions there were very bad. She did what she could there, and then in England, to get them improved. Her actions won for her the ire of the British government but led to the establishment of a Ladies Commission led by Millicent Fawcett* to investigate the camps. Emily was not permitted to take part, but their findings showed her to be correct and eventually lasting improvements were made. Meanwhile Emily had tried to go to South Africa again to see if she could do something useful, but she was deported.

  South Africa became one of her life’s passions. She went back soon after the war and prodded the government in the annexed territories (Orange Free State and the Transvaal), especially the Transvaal, to help rebuild the devastated country. She also developed a scheme of Home Industries – spinning, weaving and lace-making – to encourage young women to take pride in their accomplishments. This scheme was later taken over by the home government.

  Emily made many friends among the Afrikaner community, including Mrs Isabella (Tibbie) Steyn, the wife of the former President of the Orange Free State, and the brilliant young lawyer Jan Smuts, who had been a general in the Boer Army and was now in government. When in England, Emily introduced him to the British Liberal elite.

  Emily returned from South Africa in 1908 a sick woman suffering from neuritis, lumbago and a heart condition which was to incapacitate her for the rest of her life. She was an invalid and could not climb stairs. Cold weather plagued her, though she felt better in the summer warmth. She was not, however, totally inactive. She took part in the suffrage movement and was elected Chair of the People’s Suffrage Federation whose members included Leonard Hobhouse, Bertrand Russell and John Galsworthy. The People’s Suffrage Federation’s programme was ‘one man one vote; one woman one vote’ so differed from the suffrage proposals of Millicent Fawcett which advocated votes for women over 30 with some property qualifications, and no alteration in the male vote. Men at the time could have multiple votes. Equality, the Federation’s dream, did not finally take place until 1946. Emily spent the winters in Rome where she acquired a flat (apartment) and the climate was milder.

  In 1913 Emily returned to South Africa to unveil the monument in Bloemfontein to commemorate the 26,000 women and children who had died in British camps. She became sick but her speech was read for her. While she was there ‘Mahatma’ Gandhi appealed to her – the Indian community in South Africa was suffering and under great pressure. Emily persuaded him to have patience and was able to facilitate a meeting between Gandhi and Prime Minister Botha with whom she was staying, and thus helped resolve the ‘Indian’ problem. Much later she told a friend that she considered Gandhi to be far and away the greatest man she ever met.1 When she died in 1926 Gandhi wrote a glowing tribute to her.2

  Notes

  * Millicent Fawcett 1847–1929 was a woman with whom Emily often crossed swords. She was the very competent widow of a blind MP from a neighbouring Cornish constituency and was president of the National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies (NUWSS). Her sister was Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, the first qualified woman doctor in England.

  1. EH to I. Steyn, 27 April 1924

  2. Young India and Natal Witness, date uncertain; ‘She was one of the noblest and bravest of women … She feared no man because she feared God only.’ M.K. Gandhi

  2

  THE BEGINNING

  F Or working people the August bank holiday, the first weekend of August, was a wonderful time of year. All those who were able took trains to the sea and paddled in the water, ate ice cream or winkles (a local speciality) and crowded the piers to play the slot machines or to listen to the local band. But in 1914 the festive mood was dimmed by the sudden possibility of war with Germany. Young men, however, were excited. Their boring lives could now have new meaning as they could travel to and see places they had only dreamt about. Besides, everyone said a war could not last long. However, more thoughtful people were wary. Leonard Hobhouse wrote to his sister, Emily, on 2 August: ‘It is the most serious crisis in our lifetime. We are evidently in the greatest danger.’1

  Leonard was a member of the Neutrality League. Long fearing that war might break out, he and his group had written to the Manchester Guardian, of which he was a director, warning of the possible catastrophe and pointing out that Britain was not obligated to go to war. In fact he had two letters in that paper of 3 August with the same object. Emily had also written pointing out the misery of war to non-combatants.

  The crisis had been pending for years. Britain had watched with dismay as Germany built up its armaments and its navy. Many influential Germans, including the historian Treitschke, encouraged the German public with ideas of expansionism as a way to become a great power. This was what many wanted, an aspiration shared by their Kaiser, Wilhelm II, a grandson of Queen Victoria. Wilhelm was both Emperor and Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces so had considerable power. The Chancellor, Theobald von Bethmann Hollweg was appointed by him. In the German parliament, Reichstag, only the nobles could hold office. The system was archaic. There were many in Germany who wanted reform – not war.r />
  The present crisis was triggered at the end of June 1914 by the assassination in Bosnia of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir to the throne of Austria–Hungary. The perpetrator was a Serb national. Austria–Hungary responded angrily with a plan to incorporate the vulnerable Balkan country of Serbia into its own territory. It had only recently incorporated Bosnia. They got German support on 23 July. That made things worse. Czarist Russia mobilised to support Serbia and France supported Russia.

  The Germans feared they would be fighting on two fronts, against Russia and France, and decided to take action against the French whom they hoped to quickly defeat. The French had made minor incursions into Germany but, because the Franco-German border was heavily fortified, the Germans formulated a plan to attack France through Belgium. Britain had guaranteed Belgian neutrality under a treaty of 1839. Prussia (Germany) and France had been signatories. Chancellor Bethmann Hollweg sarcastically referred to this Treaty as ‘a scrap of paper’.

  On Friday, 1 August, the German Army violated Luxembourg’s neutrality. The Kaiser telegraphed his cousin King George V of Britain stating that he would not attack France, if France offered neutrality guaranteed by the British fleet and Army.2

  British action was uncertain. The government did not trust the Kaiser. The Cabinet was split. The City – the financial district – was against war. Henry ‘H.H.’ Asquith, the British Prime Minister, felt that it rested with Germany to keep the peace. He was concerned about the possible government resignations and felt that if Sir Edward Grey, the Foreign Secretary, resigned, he would follow. He believed in a strong France and that the British Navy must retain control of the English Channel.3

  Emily had been working to get everyone she could to stand against war. The Manchester Guardian’s editor, C.P. Scott, told her that he was trying to get meetings organised, and the Bishop of Hereford wrote to her that he had written to every incumbent in his diocese asking for action. She urged David Lloyd George, Chancellor of the Exchequer and future Prime Minister, with whom she had campaigned in the Anglo-Boer War: ‘to take a bold and noble stand against the very idea of England taking up arms …’ She told him in the outright language she used: ‘We Liberals cannot trust Imperialists.’ She also wrote to Ramsay MacDonald, another future Prime Minister and to Keir Hardie, the leader of the Independent Labour Party – both of whom stood for peace.4