The South Africa Conciliation Committee was a British anti-war organisation opposed to the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

. The committee was formed in 1899 in response to the outbreak of the war, for the "dissemination of accurate information", and to seek an early "peaceable settlement between this country and the Boer Republics". The Conciliation Committee campaigned chiefly for formal negotiations to end the war. Among other movements, the Conciliation Committee was seen to be taking the centre ground, aiming to keep South Africa in the British Empire rather than pressing for the British to withdraw unilaterally, making non- partisan appeals to reason. Founded by Catherine Courtney, its president was the veteran politician Leonard Courtney. Courtney recruited

Emily Hobhouse Emily Hobhouse (9 April 1860 – 8 June 1926) was a British welfare campaigner, anti-war activist, and pacifist. She is primarily remembered for bringing to the attention of the British public, and working to change, the deprived conditions in ...

as secretary. Jane Cobden Unwin, daughter of the Radical and Liberal statesman

Richard Cobden Richard Cobden (3 June 1804 – 2 April 1865) was an English Radical and Liberal politician, manufacturer, and a campaigner for free trade and peace. He was associated with the Anti-Corn Law League and the Cobden–Chevalier Treaty. As a you ...

, was a founder member, as was the suffragist

Elizabeth Maria Molteno Elizabeth Maria Molteno (24 September 1852 – 25 August 1927), was an early South African British activist for civil and women's rights in South Africa. Early life Elizabeth was born into an influential Cape family of Italian origin. She was ...

, daughter of the first Cape

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, John Molteno. Other prominent members included John Clifford, president of the Stop the War Committee, Allan Heywood Bright MP, Sir Wilfrid Lawson MP, publisher Thomas Fisher Unwin, left-wing journalist

Henry Brailsford Henry Noel Brailsford (25 December 1873 – 23 March 1958) was the most prolific British left-wing journalist of the first half of the 20th century. A founding member of the Men's League for Women's Suffrage in 1907, he resigned from his job at ...

, and

Robert Spence Watson Robert Spence Watson (8 June 1837 – 2 March 1911) was an English solicitor, reformer, politician and writer. He became famous for pioneering labour arbitrations. Life and career He was born in Gateshead, the second child of Sarah (Spence) an ...

, author of ''The History of English Rule and Policy in South Africa''. There was a considerable overlap with the members of the

Society of Friends of Russian Freedom The Society of Friends of Russian Freedom was an organization of British and American political activists and reformers who supported the Russian opposition movement against Tsarist autocracy broadly defined, at the end of the 19th and the beginn ...

. The 1900 general election was generally considered a "

khaki election In Westminster systems of government, a khaki election is any national election which is heavily influenced by wartime or postwar sentiment. In the British general election of 1900, the Conservative Party government of Lord Salisbury was return ...

", and candidates such as Bright and Lawson, who were identified as "anti war", were heavily defeated. Against this background the Committee drew considerable public opposition to its campaigning, particularly when it organised a women's demonstration against the war in the same year. However, the antagonism was not as strong as that provoked by the Stop the War Committee, with its religiously inspired utopian approach. The Conciliation Committee's distinctive role was seen by ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

'' as providing authentic information about the war. Emily Hobhouse visited South Africa in 1900–1; her 1901 report on the

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...

s led to the Fawcett Commission, which formally confirmed her findings. The South African branch of the Conciliation Committee was founded in Cape Town in early 1900, under the chairmanship of prominent parliamentarian John Molteno. It fought a long-running (though ultimately relatively successful) battle against state censorship and martial law.H.H. Hewison: ''Hedge of Wild Almonds''. James Currey Publishers. 1989. p. 102.

References

Notes Bibliography * * * * {{anti-war Peace organisations based in Australia Second Boer War South Africa–United Kingdom relations Organizations established in 1899