Decision by Default Peacetime Conscription and British Defence 1919–39

Britain’s vast losses of men in the first world war produced a revulsion against conscription. Originally published in 1972, Peter Dennis here describes how conscription was introduced once more in 1939, when pressure from within Britain and from France forced the British Government to reverse its position.

With the use of original sources, Peter Dennis explores the development of British military policy between the wars, from the period of readjustment and realignment immediately after the first world war, up to the breakdown of the Chamberlain government’s pledge not to introduce conscription in peacetime. He points out that the politicians and the public were not afraid of conscription itself, but of conscription in peacetime as the forerunner of continental military adventures in alliance with France. He shows how the battles over conscription had a marked effect on the indecision of military thinking, and how, in 1939, conscription finally became the crucial issue in Britain’s preparation for war.