大象传媒

I was 5, and my brother D. and I were eating a salad out on the veranda, perched at the top of Zig Zag Road, and overlooking the whole of Ventnor and the English Channel below. Suddenly a spitfire appeared out to sea, it turned and flew straight at us. It was getting larger and larger, and was very frightening.

Doggy Green, our teacher, grabbed us and ushered us through the house to the shelter at the rear of the house. We later learnt that the spitfire had been captured by the Germans, and they were attacking the radar on St. Boniface Hill above us.

Later on holiday.
At home in Portsmouth, we were often woken up in the middle of the night. The wailing air-raid siren was shreiking and we made our way hand in hand through the dark garden to the air-raid shelter. We sometimes stayed all night in the cramped bunks.
One night a terribly loud explosion was very frightening. Next day we learnt that a land-mine had landed a few roads away, and destroyed several houses, and presumably their occupants and neighbours were killed and injured. These details were kept from us.
My next school.
This was at Twyford, south of Winchester,where I had been sent to be safe from the bombs. Once a week most of the school played at soldiers, instead of football. A gang of four kids, including me, used to help the headmaster by sweeping up leaves and doing other gardening jobs.We just thought it was silly to spend the afternood shouting "Bang! Bang!" at our mates.
At senior school, down in Dorset, Friday afternoons were spent playing at soldiers. This time it was more serious. We were training to take part in the next war. We, from privileged families, were being taught to be officers, who would teach conscripts to kill people from other countries. At this time we just did what we were told, and had no thoughts of the consequences to other people.

Becoming responsible.
At 15 I returned home and went to college.I met people from poorer backgrounds and came across different ideas. I started to think for myself, and met people who were against war.
I joined the Peace Pledge Union, and used to go the regular meetings at the local Quaker premises, where supporters of the Fellowship of Reconciliation met. Roger Rawlinson and his wife also had a few people round at his house, where we studied the 'Orchard Lea Papers' by Wilfred Wellock. These were based on the ideas of Gandhi and how they could lead to a more responsible way of life.
At this time I would sell Peace News in the centre of town every Friday.

Later, in London, where I was waiting for my tribunal as a Conscious Objector, I worked in the office of Peace News. During this time there was a general election. As I drove, each week I would take the P.N. van to south London with 'sale or return' supplies to newsagents. There I was supporting two candidates who were standing as 'No H-Bomb' candidates.
The first candidate I met was John Loverseed, an ex-R.A.F. bomber pilot, who became pacifist after his experiences during the war. He was a very convincing speaker and I joined his campaign going door to door in the council estate.
The other candidate was Eric Fenner who was standing as a candidate for the Independent Labour Party. I learnt about Kier Hardie, founder of the Labour Party, who was a pacifist, whose traditions the I.L.P carried on.

Later, with thousands of others, we marched at Aldermarston. I personally stopped demonstrating after the Cuban missile crisis, where the third world war almost started started. My reason was that many demonstrators were ill-disciplined and even violent, and once you behave like that, how can you properly demonstrate the evil of war, which is violence and brutality taken to the extreme?
PEACE.

漏 Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.