As war grew closer in 1939, the issue of military conscription was introduced in the Summer issue of Plough in relation to the Military Training Act of May 1939 under which all British men aged twenty and twenty-one who were fit and able were required to take six months’ military training. The Plough comment was that it was well known “that under no circumstances will any member of our communities join the fighting forces or do any alternative form of service.” This had been confirmed at a Bruderhof meeting. In fact all the English Bruderhof members were over twenty-one, but it was noted that “some of the closer friends of the Bruderhof communities have refused to be conscripted, and have been put on the register of conscientious objectors.”

When Britain introduced military conscription, tens of thousands of Christians declared they were conscientious objectors.