The Dominion MONDAY, AUGUST 13, 1917. THE. BRITISH LABOUR PARTY AND PEACE

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3161, 13 August 1917, Page 4

The Dominion MONDAY, AUGUST 13, 1917. THE. BRITISH LABOUR PARTY AND PEACE

To-day's cablegrams show that a state of considerable tension has been created in Labour circles in Great Britain by the proposal that British delegates should attend the projected • Labour and Socialist Peace Conference at Stockholm. As matters stand at the moment, a gathering of trades union leaders has decided by a considerable majority in favour of sending delegates, and the Executive Committee of.tho Labour Party has supported this decision by a narrow majority. It has yet to bo seen, however, whether the action of the Labour Party and trades union officials who have : prevailed to this extent will bo uphold by the rank an'cl file. There is already much to suggest that it will not. Mn. Arthur Henderson, the principal member of the group which favours British representation at Stockholm, has resigned from tho War Cabinet—an action distinctly suggesting that ho is conscious of having mado a false move —and there are other indications that in spito of the attitude of a section of their leaders the British workers are in general far from being inclined to endorse a policy which would be tantamount to affording tho enemy new and extended opportunities for intrigue. Mn. Havelock Wilson, secretary of the Seamen's Union, is taking preliminary steps with a view to securing a referendum on the proposal to send delegates to Stockholm, and the terms in which the proposal has been criticised by tho Labour Ministers who remain in tho Government, and, by a number of other prominent leaders, suggest that if a referendum wer<o taken the present decision would very probably be upset. On tho facts supplied it is certainly impossible to dissent from the view taken by Mn. Sexton and others that no case has been made > out for the appointment of delefatcs. The arguments advanced by Ir. Henderson in support of the proposal are manifestly weak and are heavily outweighed by considerations ho has elected to ignore. It seems evident that ho has yielded to the influence of the small pacifist group in Groat Britain which is out of sympathy with the general body of Labour as well as with the mass of tho nation. As Mr. Henderson himself remarks, only Governments can negotiate peace, and the grounds upon which he supports the proposal to send delegates to Stock-holm-are shadowy. Apart from his contention that a consultative conference would do good in enabling tho German Minority Socialists to inform the German people of facts which have been withheld from their knowledge—a contention of little weight in view of the> unsparing terms in which some of the German Minority Socialists have denounced their Govcrnmont-fho does not claim that results of positive value are to be expected from tho proposed conference. He urges, however, that it would bo dangerous for tho Russians- to confer with the enemy without hearing the. British side. As head of the British. political mission which lately visited Russia, Mr. Henderson presumably has some warrant for this statement, but if direct communications to the Russian democracy regarding British aims arc without effect, it can hardly bo imagined that better results will be achieved at such a conference as is proposed. Tho conference is boycotted by Allied countries other than. Eussia, and, for tho moment, Great Britain. Thus, as Mn. Sexton points out, I British delegates, if they attended, would confer with Germans on the one hand and Russians on the other, with Dutch and Scandinavian representatives voting for peace on any terms. It is not in these circumstances that Russian extremists will be brought to realise the weakness of their own. attitude tho justice of tho Allied causc. A striking indication that tho folly ol appointing representatives to confer with those of the enemy oil even terms is not likely to obtain the general opproval of organised Labour in Great Britain is to be found in the basis of peace formulated by a committee of the Labour Lxeeul;ive. This presumably has some representative value, it is consistent with tho past expressions of Labour Ministers and those of other leaders, apart from tho pacifists, who. admittedly represent an inconsiderable minority. According' to Mil. AVir,L Thorne, a proposal is to be ventilated it the Stockholm Conference that the Allies should contiibute more than two-thirds of the funds needed for purposes of reparation in Belgium, France, and Serbia. It is easy to believe, with Mn. Thorne, that the wage-earners of Britain will decline to listen to such absurd nonsense, and that they will not permit Germany to escape in this fashion the penalty of her crimes. There are as good grounds for believing that tho terms drawn

up by a committeo of the Labour Executive are those which British wage-earners, generally speaking, arc determined to impose. These, in their broad features, throw on the Central Powers and their allies the onus of making that reparation and restitution to the countries they have ravaged which justice demands, and they also provide for ■mil; punishment of guilty C4ovcrnmcnts and individuals. It is not necessary to discuss the_ details of the proposal. The spirit underlying them is such as to indicate that if thoy truly represent tho views of Labour in Great Britain there is no reason to fear that the British Labour Tarty will allow itself to be made a tool to serve the ends of German intrigue.