The Red Fed Manifesto.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 15500, 29 January 1916, Page 8

The Red Fed Manifesto.

Most people, after reading tho manifesto issued by the Red Fed Conference, will have wondered how any collection of men ivhatsoever could in all seriousness draw up a document exposing themselves to the dislike and distrust of 999 out of every thousand people in the country. We shall not be far astray, perhaps, if we assume that the Conference knew exactly what it was doing and deliberately drew up its manifesto with the purpose of defying and affronting the public. That the public are affronted is obvious enough, for we see in all the local comments that the point which chiefly struck us has struck everyone else, namely, the absence of any loyal, patriotic or helpful word, either of condemnation of the enemy or approval of the cause of the Allies and the assistance NewZealand is giving. It cannot be urged that this omission is accidental. It

could not in any case be accidental, of course; that it is deliberate is made clcar by the fact that the Red Feds are doing exactly the same in this matter as they did at their congresses last July, when wo called attention to an exactly similar omission. Before tho war, as everyone remembers, these people were bitterly opposed to tho Defence Act, and many of them are today opposed to the policy of New Zealand in tho present war. Every volunteer is to them a fresh blow at their system of thought ; ho is a living proof of the failure of their soul-less teaching that the worker has no country to fight for, and nothing to think of but bis "chains. - ' They have seen how lightly-rooted are the weeds they have spent their dhys in sowing in the commonwealth. And their occupation has almost £oue: tlie.v are unhappy in the atmosphere of active loyalty that surrounds them to-day. But the psychology of the embittered Red Fed need not greatly concern us just now. The trade-unions, however, ought to be concerning themselves with it, for their interests are deeply affected. We know that 'Manifesto as a whole will be repugno'iL to the majority of trade-unionists, but the public cannot concern itself vitH trade-unionism except us it appear? a« an operative force through its leaders and the Labour Parliaments. If, despite their loyalty, the rank and file of organised Labour allow their affi» •:•••■ to be conducted and their name useu by anti-social and unpatriotic leaders, they cannot well complain if they are called upon to bear the burden of public dislike and distrust. This, to our mind, is the main thing to be considered. Tho Prime Minister's comments upon the manifesto are brief, but sufficient. He notes its un-British character and its pro-German nuances, and points out that if the delegates want to avoid conscription their proper course is to assist in making voluntaryism a success. This, we greatly fear, none of them will dream of doing, but it is the only proof of bona fides that the public will accept. No doubt it was in the minds of tho subtler members of the Conference that their manifesto would reach Germany, there to be handled by the Wolff Bureau in tho way in which it is doubtless meant to be used. They are very unwise.