14 June 2016
3 hours

Archief Kees Boeke
(Archive box looked at: 434-444)
Archive Box 434. The cover states: Notulen van de conferenties en de maandvergaderingen van Paco . 22 mrt.1921-29 nov.1925 / "Besluiten". 22 mrt.1921-29 nov.1925.
- “Internationale Vereniging van Absolutistische Anti-Militaristen: de ‘Nooit Meer Oorlog’ Beweging – Paco Resoluties”
Notebook with 286 handwritten resolutions. Author: Kees Boeke. Date: 22 March 1921 – 24 November 1925. Format: folio. Unpaginated [ca. 100 pages]. Language: Dutch.
This volume contains the official Paco (to be pronounced as paatzo) resolutions. It starts with the founding conference, the Internationale Conferentie van Absolutitische Anti-Militaristen, in Bilthoven that took place form 22 March to 25 March 1921. At that conference they decided to adopt the name Paco.
Boeke signs the entries with his name and position, that of ‘schrijver’. Schrijver (clerk) is a Quaker term for the person who not just takes notes of whatever is decided, he or she is also instrumental in formulating the resolutions. Although Quakers may brush it off as a contradictio in terminis, within the Quaker community the position of schrijver/clerk holds by far the most power.

According to the official Paco/WRI history, it was decided in 1923 to change the name from Paco to WRI and to move its headquarters to London. Strangely enough there is no mention of any of this in the resolutions. As far as I can tell the name WRI comes up only once, in passing, in 1925. On 31 January 1925, though, Paco voted to change its name to Open Groep voor Collectief Anti-Militaristisch Werk (abbreviated as BGKAM).  
Another source of confusion is the relationship between Paco and the No More War movement (a group of British anti-conscription campaigners that was founded in 1921). Both groups were supposed to have merged, but according to resolution 19 the latter group merely joined Paco as a member and there is no mention whatsoever of a formal merger. 
 
Archive Box 435. The cover states: "Besluiten (klad)". 3 jun.1922-29 nov.1925.
- “‘Nooit Meer Oorlog’ Beweging: Paco – Besluiten (klad)”
Notebook containing handwritten resolutions. Author: Kees Boeke. Date: 3 June 1922–29 November 1925. Format: folio. Unpaginated [ca. 50 pages]. Language: Dutch. 
Incomplete draft version of the previous entry.

Archief Hein van Wijk
(Archive boxes looked at: 313-320)
Archive Box 315. The cover states: Correspondentie en aantekeningen inzake de WRI / 1951.
- “Non-Violence, British and Continental Pacifists”
Carbon copy. No author [Hein van Wijk]. No date [1951]. Format: B4. 10 pages.
A highly disillusioned Van Wijk (not a particular sunny character to start with) delves into the differences between the British and the continental take on pacifism and nonviolence. Without saying it in so many words he accuses British pacifists of being naïve as they have had no personal experience with what it’s like to have been subjugated by a brutal foreign totalitarian power, but only that of being an occupying nation themselves. “They have not suffered the complete decline of their national status and an almost complete break in their national history. Therefore they still can believe in the continuity of history. Continentals cannot.” The Brits (and Americans) can still have some faith in the power of rational sense: “In the long run humanitarian principles may win, if we keep loyal to them. Continentals know that reason is not a chief power in history; they know that irrational powers are driving men, as individuals and as groups.”
From these different experiences continentals and Brits have developed a different outlook on the power of nonviolence: “The experiences in Britain are not essentially contrary to non-violence; the decisive experiences on the continent are. At every step, consciously as well as unconsciously, the continental pacifist is hindered by his experiences, and the British is not, whenever they both try to value the principles of non-violence.” Where a British person such as Reginald Reynolds can still defend nonviolence, “the truth of the matter is that for the Jews of Europe salvation began at the moment armed resistance began.”
Also, Hein van Wijk isn’t much of a fan of Gandhi’s ‘saintly’ nonviolent principles (“We must be sane rather than saints”), the resulting oppression of aggression (Freud), voluntary simplicity(“I like my comforts”) and community living (“My home is my castle”) that he associates with Gandhian style nonviolence. 
According to Van Wijk, the great duty of Western pacifists is to look for a different kind of nonviolence. “I do not know what it will be. But a careful study is needed.”