OBITUARY.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 19 November 1924, Page 7

OBITUARY.

MB. E. D. MOREL.

LONDON, November 14. The death has occurred of Mr E D Morel, M.P. for Dundee.—A. and N.Z. Cable Assn.) Mr Morel’s death was not unexpected, for he had been suffering from heart trouble for some time. Edmund Morel, born in 1873, first came into world-wide prominence twenty years ago. through his fine work in exposing the appalling conditions in the Congo Free State. He founded the Congo Reform Association, and no one did so. much to awaken the conscience of the world in respect to these iniquities. Then he; became a vehement critic of international aiplomacy, especially in relation to Morocco. He was a member of the Liberal Party, but left it when the war broke out. Of the war and the policy of England and France before the war he was a bitter opponent. His hostility took jnaoiveal shape in the foundation of the Union of Democratic Control, of which he was secretary. Mr Morel was one of the most conspicuous of the little group of intellectuals who could see little or no good in the Allies’ cause, and worked for peace by negotiation. He was imprisoned during the war for a bleach of the war regulations. After the war he continued the work of criticising the Allied cause and policy, end conducted “Foreign Affairs” for that purpose. In the election of 1922 he was elected for Dundee (when Mr Churchill lost his seat there) and was re-elected in 1923 and this year. He ivas an able man, with a gift for clear, forcible w’riting, but he suffered disastrously from what Herbert Spencer called the. anti-patriotic bias. He brought great industry and much knowledge to bear on his discussions of international affairs, but his prejudices were so deep and Fitter that his work has little value as a contribution to history.