Page:Hubert W. Peet - 112 Days' Hard Labour, Being Some Reflections On the First of My Sentences as a Conscientious Objector - 1917.pdf/8

 of a prisoner with a clippers and with an uncertain amount of experience. Up till Christmas men fell out during exercise and were barbered in the open air, even when snow was on the ground. At no time during the first two months did the direct rays of the sun shine on me when in the open air, owing to the earliness of the hour of exercise and the position of the yard.

Chapel and Chaplain

It will seem very curious one day again to attend a religious service at which the congregation is not regimented and watched closely by warders throughout the proceedings. Perhaps the officers are getting used by now to obvious and sometimes, I confess, almost discourteous differences of opinion with the preacher when he states, for instance, as a rebuke to the C.O. portion of his audience, that as a maker of tents

Paul was an Army Contractor

who was “proud to do his bit for his Empire,” or the comparison of Lord Cromer with Moses. After hearing discourses of this nature it was interesting to go back to one’s cell to read, for instance, that one of the indictments against the Abbot of Wigmore at the time of the Dissolution of the Monasteries was that he had taught that one should hate one’s enemies and not love them. On the other hand, I have heard one or two of the best of sermons, though especially in that of Christmas morning, when the text was “I came not to bring peace but a sword,” I imagine that while what was eloquently said was most encouraging and stimulating if interpreted spiritually, a more literal meaning was in the preacher’s mind.

The Chance to Use the Voice

I doubt whether prison chapels have often heard such hearty singing, however. It reminded me of the enthusiastic congregations met with when I accompanied General Booth on one of his tours some years ago. Indeed, on one occasion the congregation took the choice of the tune of a favourite hymn into its own hands and unconsciously but effectively drowned the playing of a less familiar air upon the organ. Singing often supplied both the opportunity for the utterance of real pacifist sentiments in many of the hymns and also the opportunity of using one’s voice again. The quickness with which one tired was the measure of its weakness from lack of use.

Quaker Meetings in Prison

Attendance at the Quaker meetings once a fortnight was a joy, though the presence of the officers with a reminder “You have come here to a religious meeting, not to enjoy yourselves,” and also the shortness of time available did not assist in the creation of the “atmosphere.” But to see people one knew and