Modern History of Jehovah’s Witnesses

Part 18—Second World War’s Christian Neutrals in British Commonwealth

IN THE “Battle of Britain”—including its terrible ordeal of air war—less than a dozen of the more than 12,000 witnesses of Jehovah then residing in the British Isles lost their lives. True, many witnesses suffered injury and lost their homes and Kingdom Halls in the Nazi air “blitz”; nevertheless, they kept right on in their way of worshiping Jehovah, the living God. House-to-house preaching they maintained at a high level. Congregational meetings had to be transferred to Sunday afternoons to avoid dangers of night air attacks, but all such were regularly held. The great preaching campaign, which kept on operating and expanding even in those war years, brought much comfort and hope to thousands of honest-hearted ones.

Large zone assemblies were held right on schedule as if no war existed, some sessions even being held during actual bombing raids. In a night raid Manchester’s large Free Trade Hall was demolished just after Jehovah’s witnesses had completed their 1940 national convention in that city. Most amazing was the convention held at Leicester, September 3-7, 1941, where some 12,000 witnesses assembled for a five-day theocratic festival amid war’s intense heat. In the face of unfriendly forces, almost insurmountable obstacles at every turn had to be overcome—as to feeding, accommodation and transportation—to assemble such a vast number. The recordings of Judge Rutherford’s principal lectures at the St. Louis convention the month before in the United States had been sent by air mail to London just in time for the censors to clear for this British convention. What a spiritual lift this assembly proved to be! What a spirit of unity and loving cooperation was manifested! It strengthened all to endure the trials of the war years.a

An embargo was placed on receiving shipments of literature from Brooklyn. Then ensued a struggle for paper supplies to enable the Society to undertake and carry forward fairly large printing operations inside Britain, for keeping up the flow of publications into the field where a large band of active pioneers was serving many thousands who realized their spiritual need. Later, importation of the Watchtower magazine was banned as sent to subscribers in the British Isles. However, local printing of a form containing the main study articles of The Watchtower was not prohibited, and thus there came to be no interruption of the monthly spiritual-feeding program for hundreds of weekly Watchtower study meetings; the British brothers being spiritually kept fully abreast with their American associates. Several pioneer homes were supported in various large cities to keep the pioneer service operating in areas where congregation publishers were few.

Military exemption was refused to the brothers by many of the judges at the tribunals. This meant that 1,593 convictions followed, with total prison-sentence time exceeding six centuries. Of these, 344 were convictions of women who, equally with men, were required to spend time in prison for failing to accept national direction to perform war duties.b In Britain there was total regimentation of both males and females. Prior to the war many witnesses had fled as refugees from Poland, Germany, Austria, Belgium, and, finally, France. These refugees had become pioneers in Britain, but later, when the war intensified, the government interned them in a camp on the Isle of Man for the duration of the war. Also American and Swiss nationals of the witnesses were deported from the British Isles.

So, despite heavy restrictions and war limitations, Jehovah’s witnesses in Britain maintained their neutrality, keeping their integrity to their God. The fight for freedom to worship Jehovah did not subside or die out in Britain. Rather it was waged more intensively than ever before.

In Canada, too, the story of the exploits of Jehovah’s witnesses became truly thrilling. In earlier years of the Society the work in Canada developed under the Brooklyn office along with the American congregations. Eventually, in 1918, a separate branch office was established in Winnipeg.c Then after the close of World War I, and shortly after removal of the ban against the witnesses in Canada January 1, 1920, the Society’s Canadian office was transferred to Toronto.d In 1925 the charitable corporation named INTERNATIONAL BIBLE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION OF CANADA was organized, it becoming the owner of the branch headquarters property.e The work advanced fairly well through the years but, due to the deflection of some, administrative changes were necessary in 1936. Better spiritual conditions resulted, with a greater forward movement in the witness work.f All along, in Catholic Quebec strong opposition was encountered, including continued arrests. However, the real “Battle of Quebec” came to be reserved for oncoming postwar years, as we shall later see.

On July 4, 1940, at the peak of Hitler’s European conquests, the then Canadian minister of justice Ernest la Pointe, a Quebec Catholic, passed an order in council that placed a total ban on the activities of Jehovah’s witnesses and their Canadian corporation, the I.B.S.A. of Canada.g With war reversals at their peak for the democracies, Jehovah’s witnesses were made easy scapegoats. A modern Inquisition followed. Spying upon neighbors was encouraged, homes were raided, private libraries seized, Bible meetings broken up, Memorial celebrations interrupted, and even copies of the well-known King James Version of the Bible were confiscated and ordered destroyed. The press was bitter in its attacks. These outrages swept from one end of the country to the other.h While all this took the Canadian witnesses suddenly by surprise, they by no means took it lying down. There soon followed the build-up of an extensive efficient underground system that enabled them to meet in small groups for Bible study and to carry on their preaching activities. Though men had placed a ban upon them these zealous preachers of the kingdom of Jehovah were convinced that He, the living God, had placed no ban on their worship of Him and their sincere efforts to do His will. Therefore, in obeying God rather than men they were following a course pleasing to their heavenly Father even though it meant suffering punishment at the hand of earthly authorities who presumed to interfere with man’s free worship of Almighty God. (Acts 5:29) At length some five thousand publishers got back on their feet again, carrying on back-call and Bible study work. One morning in November, 1940, these “locusts” rose early and flooded the country from one end to the other in a “blitz” witness placing hundreds of thousands of copies of a special booklet under the doors of the homes, entitled “End of Nazism.” This display of courageous activity terrified their enemies. The opposers were able to arrest only ten. As the war years progressed other such daring exploits continued to keep up the flow of spiritual food to persons of good will.i

For nearly two years Jehovah’s witnesses suffered in silence, gagged so far as opportunity of lodging formal protest and making any defense was concerned. Then, in June, 1942, opportunity was granted to them to make representations to a Select Committee of the House of Commons on the Defense of Canada Regulations. The committee unanimously recommended that the ban be lifted on the legal corporations of Jehovah’s witnesses, but the minister of justice refused to recall his banning order. Opposition to the ban began to be widespread, not only among units of the liberal press, but also in debate in the House of Commons. Finally, on October 15, 1943, the ban on the unincorporated society of Jehovah’s witnesses was lifted, but not the ban on their legal corporations. This partial removal of the ban still made it impossible to reopen the Toronto Bethel branch headquarters.j In June, 1944, a national petition was circulated, to which 223,448 signatures were obtained, requesting the removal of the ban on the I.B.S.A. of Canada. However, before the petition was presented the government decided to remove the corporation ban on June 13, 1944.

From the partial removal of the ban in October, 1943, the Canadian brothers made a rush to engage Kingdom Halls and advertise them as in preban days. In 1940, when the ban was placed upon the Canadian work, there was an average of 6,081 publishers, but when the ban was lifted three years later in June, 1944, there were 10,345 workers participating.k Truly a sizable increase during days of restraint, showing that worship of Jehovah cannot be stamped out. Persecution rather stimulates theocratic increase. The growth of the New World society in Canada continues to be remarkable, impressive and healthy. They are well able and ready to withstand any opposition.

In Australia religious leaders began to encourage political action against the energetic witnesses, also, from July, 1940, onward. On January 16, 1941, Prime Minister Menzies prematurely announced in Parliament his government’s proposal to ban Jehovah’s witnesses. The next day, January 17, the Order-in-Council was gazetted restraining the activities of the Society and its legal corporations, including the Adelaide Company of Jehovah’s witnesses which owned a Kingdom Hall building that the government soon took over. The Bethel headquarters were also taken and occupied by the government.l It is regrettable to report, however, that during the period of the ban many of the witnesses did not carry out a strict course of Christian neutrality. Rather, many of them participated in enterprises that gave aid to the nation’s war effort. Later the brothers realized their error and repented.a

A test was made of the government’s action to ban the activities of the Adelaide Company of Jehovah’s witnesses, Inc., which finally was heard in the High Court of Australia. The court gave a four-to-one victory to the witnesses. It held that the Order-in-Council, banning Jehovah’s witnesses in Australia, was illegal and ultra vires. The court ruled that the witnesses were not engaged in any seditious enterprise or engaged in publishing or printing literature that was seditious within the meaning of the criminal law of Australia. Further, the court said that they were not prejudicial to the official prosecution of the war.b Thus the brothers “down under” were also released from their restraints, to take up again their preaching activities. They, too, were victors in their fight for freedom to worship Almighty God against religious opposers.

As the Catholic-Nazi-Fascist war drive stampeded throughout Europe, bans, imprisonments and legal restrictions came upon our European associates in France, Spain, Poland, Belgium, Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Rumania, Yugoslavia, Estonia, Finland, Denmark and Norway. The continent of Africa, too, was affected, where restraints were placed upon the witnesses in Northern Rhodesia, Southern Rhodesia, Nigeria and the Gold Coast. What happened in Europe was duplicated in Asia and the Pacific area when the Japanese steam roller was set in motion in 1941. Bitter persecution of the witnesses and bannings ensued in Japan itself, the Philippine Islands, Burma, Malaya, Straits Settlements, Netherlands East Indies (now Indonesia), Fiji, New Zealand, India and Ceylon. This represented a veritable global demon attack on the witnesses. In each of these countries the story is one of their Christian courage in standing firm for neutrality and continuing in Jehovah’s worship, even though underground. Upon the winning of the war in 1945 by the democracies (the symbolic “earth”), the “river” of Catholic-Nazi-Fascist world conspiracy to destroy theocratic freedom was fully swallowed up in total defeat. Truly the “earth” helped God’s people. (Rev. 12:16, NW) This enabled the surviving witnesses to return to their “aboveground” public activities in performing their ministry of comfort to mankind and reconciliation with God.c

(To be continued)

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