This story begins in 1942 at the Trentham military camp 25 miles north of Wellington, New Zealand. The cot next to me was occupied by a man from the same part of New Zealand as myself. He was a Baptist while I was a Presbyterian. We quickly discovered that we were both interested in the Bible.
After the day’s work, we would go to the recreation hut and read mostly the New Testament. After some study, we began to find that the teaching of Jesus was not compatible with service in the army. We put our doubts to the various army chaplains, but none of them could give us a satisfactory answer.
Reading Christendom Astray
One day, my friend came across a newspaper ad for Christendom Astray and sent for the book. I assume he was attracted by the title, as we had already concluded that our churches were astray on the teaching of Christ with respect to military service. He read about half the book and then passed it along to me. I began to read and became very interested. While my friend never followed the matter up, I was so taken with it that I visited the Christadelphian who had placed the ad.
When I could get Saturday off, I regularly visited the brother at his home, where we sat together and he taught me the true teaching of scripture. This must have taken some perseverance on his part as he had terminal TB.
After some months of studying with him, I was transferred out of the area. I continued my studies, finishing Christendom Astray and starting on Elpis Israel. After about six months of study, I traveled to Wellington for a trial confession of faith. As my understanding was incomplete in some areas, my baptism was postponed. The brother was being particularly careful in my case. He knew that once I was baptized, I would not put a uniform on again. We didn’t know what would follow, perhaps court-martial or jail, but we were sure that I would be standing before commanders and possibly civilian magistrates.
All of this was happening when the Japanese were threatening Australia and New Zealand with imminent invasion, so the situation was critical.
I was then transferred to a post near my home in Auckland. By this time, nine months had gone by since I had begun to learn the true gospel and I was ready for baptism. I wanted to be baptized by the Wellington brother who had taught me.
Leaving the army
When the time came for baptism and leaving the army, I wrote a letter to my commanding officer as I did not want him to think I was running away. I stated what I was doing and why, that it was a matter of commitment. I gave him the address of where I was going in Wellington so he would know exactly where to find me. Giving the letter to my father, I asked him to mail it after I left the base.
In Wellington, I was baptized by my friend who was now my brother in Christ. After emerging from the waters of baptism, I put on my civilian clothes and have never since worn an army uniform. I was 20 years old at the time.
In about 10 days, the army representatives came and arrested me. They took me back to the base, which was a converted race track, and imprisoned me in one of the ticket booths. As my jailer was himself a Christian, he was quite friendly. From time to time, we would sit down together and discuss the Bible.
In due course, I was brought before the commanding officer who was a Church of England man. I told him many things about the Bible that I had learned from Elpis Israel.
The army decided that they should send me for a hearing before the Armed Forces Appeal Board. Upon appearing before the board, they decided they only had jurisdiction over civilians and I was still in the army. So I was taken back to the base. That’s when an amazing series of events took place.
While my father was a veteran of World War I and had no sympathy with my conscientious objector position, he was a very fair-minded man and respected my changed views. He felt that a young man who volunteered for the army, which I had done, was still in the formative years of his life and was not really settled into an established attitude on religious matters. Being a lawyer, he had access to the law courts library in Auckland and researched laws pertaining to my case. To his surprise, he came across a law, written during the Boar War, which provided for a member of the armed forces applying to his commanding officer for a certificate of exemption. If the officer felt the request was genuine, he could send the application on to the nearest magistrate for a hearing. Otherwise he could destroy it.
Since the law was still on the books, we made application to my officer. He passed it on to the local authorities and, in due course, I appeared before the Auckland Chief Magistrate. He thoroughly grilled me on the subject then returned me to the army camp.
After a few days, the certificate of exemption was granted.
Then the question arose, what was the army to do about this certificate of exemption. Eventually, they decided they would not discharge me but released me on what they called “leave without pay.” To this day, that is my status with the New Zealand army.
The army again
Once free, I moved to Wellington where I found a job driving a truck for a grocery outlet. Six months later, I turned 21 and very shortly received a call-up notice from the army.
They noted that I had a certificate of exemption from military service. They claimed, however, that the certificate had been issued under the laws for the Boar War which were now superseded by the defense emergency regulations of 1941. When I refused to report, they arrested me and took me to Trentham military camp near Wellington, where this story began.
They tried to get me to take the oath of allegiance and put on the uniform, which I refused. I was then charged and had to appear before a magistrate in Wellington. He claimed that in the time between issuing the certificate of exemption and the call-up notice, I had become a civilian. The magistrate ruled I should be given an opportunity to launch an appeal before the Armed Forces Appeal Board which had previously refused to hear my case.
Before the appeal board
I decided to take that course, feeling it could well be the hand of God allowing me to appear before the civilian board. After a long hearing, they granted my appeal and I was a free man once more. If the appeal had been denied, I would have spent the remainder of the war in a concentration camp. As it was, I could take any job I chose with the restriction that any wages over a soldier’s pay would be donated to the Red Cross. Under these conditions, I went to work, about 60 miles north of Wellington, for a brother in Christ until the end of the war.
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One