A significant group of this important Australian pacifist periodical. Frank William Coaldrake (1912-1970) was a Brisbane born Anglican priest and missionary who had ministered destitute men and boys in the Queensland outback. A staunch advocate for Christian pacifism, three weeks after Australia’s joining the Second World War in 1939, he founded the present publication the Peacemaker. This monthly paper was aimed at those conscientiously objecting to military service, and as such offers vital insight into a community whose voices are often overlooked or even suppressed in historical narratives of WWII.
The paper investigates various aspects of pacifism, from the moral and Christian justifications, the unbalanced exploitation of the working class, to the misuse of resources, analysis of specific blunders, and the violation of human dignity. There are reports on the fate of Conscientious Objectors in other countries, including their execution in Germany, and other global non-violence movements. These include articles on Central America, Gandhi in India, and peace protests in the US and UK. In the wake of the atom bombs is an increasing frequency of articles on matters pertaining to Japan, and indeed in 1946 Coaldrake went there to train for missionary service.
In the aftermath of the war, the paper focusses on the human cost of conflict, detailing the harrowing reports coming from concentration camps in Europe. In 1948, the then editor Anthony Bishop, travelled through Germany and came back with the following message: “But hell it is still. A hell of ruins and hunger. A desolate hell of shadows and despair. Maybe, too, it isn’t the only hell in this world of ours. Insanity turned to Eastern Europe first. But hell it is. And I want to tell you about it.”
Coaldrake remained in Japan until 156, and shortly after his return was made a canon of All Souls’ Quetta Memorial Cathedral, Thursday Island. In 1970 he was elected Archbishop of Brisbane, but died before he could be consecrated into office. The Peacemaker remained in publication until 1971.
