A PRO-GERMAN SCHEME

Evening Post, Volume XCIV, Issue 38, 14 August 1917, Page 7

A PRO-GERMAN SCHEME

SOME IMPORTANT OPINIONS.

"Much cry and little ■wool" is thought likely to result from the proposed International Socialist Peace Conferences at Stockholm, says the Literary Digest. It will be recalled that the State Department at Washington' lias refused to furnish passports to the American delegates, and the French Premier, M. Ribot, announced in/ the Chamber that France would follow this example so far as the French delegates were concerned. The German Conservative; papers have long been violently opposed to the conference, but recently there has been a sudden change of heart. Writing in the Berlin Tag, Baron yon Zedlitz, the leader of the Free Conservatives says:— "The German participants will have & Chance to explain to their Russian confreres the real situation, and as presumably the former have the confidence of the latter, this interchange of views ought to prove effective. Scheidemann, in particular, may, instead, of chasing the mirage of international -peace on the Scheidemann principles, earn great credit in- ending the world-waT. His discussions with the delegates from other countries will convince him that peace with-, out victory is an illusion, and that a victory by us over England is a vital condition for peace. Scheidemann >is an orator of great power. If hc'ilses his gift in the right direction he can not" fail to bring the truth home to the Russians. His responsibility will be ftll the greater if he fails to do his duty and the world this great service." Xhis about-face on the part of the Ger-. man Junkers is explained in the London Observer by that veteran Socialist, Mr. H. M. Hyndman, who condemns the conference, root and branch, as ,-in insidious device of the enemy. He writes: "This conference pretends to be that which it most emphatically is not. It iias no mandate and no object which its promoters dare avow. The whole thing \a *, bv&p arranged and manipulated to I wxrurft « German -peace. The delegates, ■ feeiiig«eßtß and, uautrftlo a&ke, will ..be

mostly Germans, pro-Germans, or avowed champions of general surrender to Germany. Far too much importance's being given to this unauthorised : gathering, even by those who recognise that it means mischief to the Allies. But who ■called the conference? A small Dutch section,^'chosen only to keep the formal business of the International Bureau going during the war. A single fact will show how completely this coterie is subject to German influence. Of the three Dutch members who signed the invitations, one, the deputy Troelstra, a man of. ability and an excellent speaker, received, like the Zimmerwaldian Russians and Loninists from Zurich, a safe conduct through Germany. But Troektra went much further than they did. He visited Berlin, avid there had a long personal interview with the German Minister for Foreign Affairs, Herr Zimmermann. What fof? To obtain instructions for the conference? This alone ought to convince the world how little the convenors of the conference are to be trusted."

Tile mysterious feature of the conference, says Mr- Hyndman, is the countenance lent it by Mr. Hjalmar Branting, the anti-German leader of the 1 Swedish Socialists, whose opposition to the somewhat pro-German activities of Mr. Hantmerskjold led to that gentleman's overthrow as Prime Minister of Sweden:

"An astonishing feature of the business in view of all -this is. that Hjalmar Branting should have consented to preside. Branting is a 1 man of ability, uprightness, and distinction. "' From the, very first he denounced the German Government as responsible for tho war. He is still of the same opinion. It is most regrettable, therefore, that he should allow his name to be_ used and his chairmanship advertised in support of such a pro-German meeting as this." However much Mv Branting may appear to be flirting with the conference, Secretary Huysmans ; of the Socialist International, in an interview with 'an American correspondent in Stockholm, made it very clear that he perceives the enemy behind the whole movement, and he urges American Socialists to disregard the conference and "support the President's war-aims to the hilt." Ho says: , ' "America was forced into the war by Germany. She could not avoid it. It is a wipked lie to suggest that she sought the war. Socialists are not necessarily non-militant. They must fight in selfdeFence. America is fighting in selfdefence and in defence of the world's democracy. America's fight in this war is the same as that of Socialisml. The Socialist who can not be a good patriot cannot be a good internationalist. 1 tell American. Socialists clearly and emphatically that a man can simultaneously be both a good Socialist and a good American. Tho world's, Socialists . - . highly approve and thoroughly endorse President Wilson's declaration of war-aims."