The King and Country Debate was a debate on 9 February 1933 at the Oxford Union Society. The motion presented, "This House will under no circumstances fight for its King and country", passed at 275 votes for the motion and 153 against it. The motion would later be named the Oxford Oath or the Oxford Pledge.
It became one of the most controversial topics held within the Union, driving debate between the older and younger generations about patriotism and pacifism, and whether this motion would actually help or hurt war prevention efforts.
Winston Churchill charged that the Oxford Oath affected certain decisions made by Adolf Hitler during the World War II. American pacifists would take their own version of the pledge, and several anti-war strikes would take place with the pledge as the main drive.
Background
Prior to the debate, a similar motion had been proposed at the Cambridge Union by Arthur Ponsonby in March 1927: "That lasting peace can only be secured by the people of England adopting an uncompromising attitude of pacifism". The motion was passed by 213 votes to 138 and attracted no public attention.
The Oxford Union motion was proposed by Kenelm Hubert Digby of St John's College and opposed by K. R. F. Steel-Maitland of Balliol College. Among other speakers, Quintin Hogg argued against it. Digby found some difficulty obtaining a noted speaker to support the motion: Norman Angell, Bertrand Russell, Beverley Nichols and John Strachey were all unable to attend. Finally, philosopher C. E. M. Joad agreed to come and support the motion. Joad and David Maurice Graham of Balliol, the Union's Librarian at the time and the original drafter of the motion, argued in favour at the debate.
The teller for the Ayes was Max Beloff and that for the Noes was R. G. Thomas. The President of the Union was Frank Hardie.
Debate
Digby addressed the packed chamber: "It is no mere coincidence that the only country fighting for the cause of peace, Soviet Russia, is the country that has rid itself of the war-mongering clique. The justification urged for the last war was that it was a war to end war. If that were untrue it was a dastardly lie; if it were true, what justification is there for opposition to this motion tonight?"
Isis, a student magazine of the University of Oxford, reported that Digby had a "tub-thumping style of oratory which would be more appreciated in Hyde Park than in the Union".
Hogg argued that the policy that Digby advocated would cause, not prevent, war. In his opinion, a powerful England was a factor for peace and a disarmed Britain would have no more influence for peace in Europe than it had in the Far East, with the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.
Joad delivered what was described as a "tour de force of pacifist rhetoric". He claimed that the motion really meant "that this House will never commit murder on a huge scale whenever the Government decided it should do so" and argued that although limited wars might have been justified in the past, the scale of destruction now possible with modern weapons meant that war had become unthinkable. Joad also postulated that any invasion of Britain could be defeated by a Gandhian campaign of nonviolence.
All told, there were five opening speakers, nine others supporting the motion and ten against. Future Oxford Union President David Lewis was the eighth of the nine speakers in support of the motion. When the motion was put, President Frank Hardie declared it carried, 275 votes to 153. Digby went to shake hands with Hogg, but his opponent refused to do so.
Reaction
A Fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford, R. B. McCallum, claimed that the "sensation created when this resolution was passed was tremendous. It received world-wide publicity.... Throughout England people, especially elderly people, were thoroughly shocked. Englishmen who were in India at the time have told me of the dismay they felt when they heard of it.... 'What is wrong with the younger generation?' was the general query".
Initially, the debate gained little media attention, but the Daily Telegraph ran an article about the debate headlined "DISLOYALTY AT OXFORD: GESTURE TOWARDS THE REDS". The Daily Express wrote: "There is no question but that the woozy-minded Communists, the practical jokers, and the sexual indeterminates of Oxford have scored a great success in the publicity that has followed this victory.... Even the plea of immaturity, or the irresistible passion of the undergraduate for posing, cannot excuse such a contemptible and indecent action as the passing of that resolution".
