The Press. Wednesday, July 24, 1918. A Delusion and a Snare.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16272, 24 July 1918, Page 6

The Press. Wednesday, July 24, 1918. A Delusion and a Snare.

Mr Arthur Henderson, whose vacilla- j tions and obvious want of clear judgment musf have discredited him with most thinking people in Britain by this time, has returned to the subject of an International Labour Convention to discuss peace terms. , He now urges the British Government to oommunicate with the' Allies with a view to ♦'enabling the Labour Party to par- " ticipat© in international conventions "organised by a distinctly neutral "committee." He says that while §uch conventions would not bind countries, he trusts that "they will point •' the way through which the Allies " could walk to an actual peace conference." Mr Henderson having once taken an idea into his head, is apparently incapable either of learning from experience or of originating anything new and practicable to take the place of a proposal proved to be full of objection. About the 6ame time as Mr Henderson went to Russia, immediately after the Revolution, on behalf of the British Government, three eminent Belgian Socialists, M. Emile Vandevelde, M. Louis de Bronckere, and Lieut. Henri de Man, went as a mission to the same country to carry to the Russian Revolution the greeting of the Belgian Labour Party, and to discuss with the Socialists of Petrograd the

juestion of the International Confer- | jnce at Stockholm. M. Vanderveldc bas published a deeply-interesting account of the experiences of the mission and the conclusions to which they arrived in a book entitled "Tliree Aspect's "of the Russian Revolution" (London: George Allen and Unwin, Ltd.). The Belgian delegates state. clearly and forcibly the reasons which led them to refuse emphatically to agree to the holding of the proposed International Congress at Stockholm, to discuss peace terms. Both Mr Arthur Henderson ana M. Thomas, the French Socialist, had agreed with the Belgians as to the attitude to be taken up on this subject, but, as M. Vandervelde puts it, Mr Henderson was 'Von over to agree to "a consultative conference." Returning to England, he carried the decision of the Labour Party with him. But after a conference of the Socialists of the Allied countries had been held in London (August 28th last year), and it was shown that there was hopeless disagreement among th© delegates, Mr Henderson veered right round once more. In an interview ho said that by reason of the great divergence of views that had been expressed in the interallied conference, it was evident that " an International Conference would be "not morely harmful, but disastrous." He added: "We cannot meet in an In- " ternational Conference so long as no " common ground of understanding be- " tween the working classes of the Allied nations has been discovered."

This was the view to which the com-mon-sense and clearsighted judgment of the Belgian Socialist leaders had guided them at a much earlier stago. Great efforts to alter their decision were made by as well as by the Soviet, by Herr Branting, the Swedish Prime Minister, by the Dutch Socialists, and others. But the objections seemed to them to be insurmountable. They foresaw that even among the representatives of Allied? countries there would be serious disagreements. It was probable there would be a unanimous statement in favour of the independence of Belgium, and that the immense majority would demand integral restoration by Germany. It would be the same possibly for Jhe reconstruction of Serbia and 1 Roumania, and the total evacuation of France. But it very likely would not be the same for other questions—that of ] Poland, or Alsace-Lorraine, or the Ger- j man colonies, for example. The spectacle of dissension among the Allies would be right into the Germans' hands, and they would certainly foment the disagreement and exploit it to the utmost. On the other hand, even sapposing in the end th© inter-aJlied Socialists agreed npon a programme, .t is obvious, as M. Vandervelde points out, that nothing could come of it so long as the German Socialists continue to'support their Imperial Government, and the latter remains unsubdued. The Belgian delegates went to the root of the matter in their Memorandum to the Dutch-Scandinavian Commission, in, which they say:— "We can conceive of no durable peace being, possible while the Hohenzollerns and the Hapsburgs keep thoir present power. If it were imposed on the world it would only lead to extension and reinforcement of tyranny, followed by a new war whose preparation would absorb for a generation probably the living forces <*f the world, and would condemn it to the most terrible material, political, and moral stagnation."