Treatment of Jehovah’s witnesses before tribunals was most unfair. In efforts to justify their attitude, judges and press began to claim that people became Jehovah’s witnesses to avoid joining the armed forces. That this was just false propaganda to justify their rulings against Jehovah’s witnesses may be noted from the fact that these same tribunals were quite sympathetic in their dealings with the nearly 60,000 provisionally registered conscientious objectors who were not Jehovah’s witnesses. The number of conscientious objectors imprisoned for refusing to comply with tribunal direction was 5,800, of whom 4,300 were Jehovah’s witnesses. Indeed, for the first few months of the war, a sure way to jail was to claim exemption on the grounds of being one of Jehovah’s witnesses. It was also a likely way of getting the maximum sentence, twelve months.

Finally, in 1942, the enemies’ attack moved toward the staff at the branch. The “assistant branch servant,” Pryce Hughes, with a prison record from World War I, was imprisoned together with Ewart Chitty, secretary of the International Bible Students Association, and Frank Platt, who had suffered most sadistic prison treatment in the 1914-1918 war. Still not satisfied that Platt was sincere in his Christian course, they sentenced him to another term of imprisonment later on in the war as they did with Hughes.

Imagine the situation confronting Pryce Hughes, still in Wormwood Scrubbs Prison with Brothers Platt and Chitty, when he received news of his appointment as branch overseer to replace the deported Schroeder.