A TRIP TO THE FRONT

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 16921, 29 July 1915, Page 3

A TRIP TO THE FRONT

BEN TTLLETT'S CC'NVERSION

[From Our Corresponds*!.] LONDON, J«"» 18. That " stormy petrel" ojf the Labour worid. Mr Ben Tillett, has been to France to .see for himself those things i that ore to ho seen there if the auI thorities think it good for you to do ! so. B?n was not always psrsona grata in military circles; in I nave heard soldiers say some very hard things about Bon, and that worthy has no dcubt uttered things .about the military which he might not like to be recalled at this juncture. Bub though perhaps nob the power in ths Labour world that he was five-and-twenty years or so ago. he is still an item to bo reckoned with when Capital and Labour are at loggerheads, and there are few men who can talk to the horny-hancbd more effectually than Ben. So when Mr Tillett wanted to go to tho front to see things the authorities placed no obstacle in his way; indeod, it is said that he mat with distinct encouragement both from the War Office and from tho other Bide of tho water. And rather less than a fortnight ago Bon, with permits in his pocket", went over to France to see things at the front for himself. He went to Rheims, to tho Argonne, to Paris, and to Eritish Headquarters, • f ?nd ho spent a week there and with .he French troops, where the' Allied lines touch. The effects of his trip on Mr Tillett's views of the war a*v held by him ore he had fraternised with Tommy Atkins and his superiors at the front, axidl " se&ing things." are summed up in this pas'sago from an interview which Mr Raphael, the well-known ''Express" correspondent, contrived to obtain whilst the Labour man's im-pres-ioris still retained their pristine* vividne-ss. " T have learnt my lesson from my visit to France. I have learned that there- is another meaning to the word 'strike' now. " By Gcd, we've got 'to strike now, and every ounce of British grit, of Br't-'sh energy, and of British gold, of Britirh brain, has got to be behind the blow." "TO PEEACH BLOODY MURDER." And Mr Tillett is coming back in a frame of mind vastly different from that lie took with him. He tells us that ho is coming back to England to "preach bloody murder" wherever he can find an audience. Said ho to Mr Raphael:— "1 never realised what it was going to be at all. _ Like living in a very noisy, messy nightmare, it was. Somehow, th"e French front had been different. But out there in tho north, at and , and all other places 'that we mustn't mention, I kept on seeing visions, and kept muttering to myself, 'lf this were England ... I felt ashamed of being a civilian. I folt ashamed at the knowledge that everyone at home was not working as well as he could work. There shan't b? a slacker left, when I get back, if I can shame them out of slacking, and I know the boys at home. "When they realise what things are like out here they'll get their coats off and get at it. The officers are marvels, too. They are all learning to ignore class distinctions. The men are teaching thorn, and they like being taught. ' Let me do that, sir.' No, it interfere with discipline at all. There s no Pruesianism in the Briti h Army. " I know now why Germany Is going undrr in this war. No men in the world can stand against the spirit of our lads if our lads have proper backing and the proper tools to fight with. But they must have them, and thev must feel certain that the women and tho kids at heme are being properly after or they'd worry. By God, they shall have them, too, if I can do anything. NO KID-GLOVE BUSINESS. "The Germans have been getting ready to murder civilisation for forty years. We've got to hit back now Without a minute's loss of time, and to hit back hard—as hard as we can. There mustn't bo any kid-glove business, any sentimental serupks; slaughter for •civilisation's sake—that's what we've got to do. " Wc want shells, we want gas. we want every lied sh, death-dealing device wc can get out there, and we want the men and the 6pirit of men at home, too. The capitalists have got to say gscd-bye to tho idoa that war is being waged" merely to put money in their pickets. If we don't smash the Germans to-morrow, there'll be no British capit-1 sts the day after. Wheat must be sold at a fair V>r:ee, and the Government must fix it. So must all war - tores. " There's not giing to be any more trouble, about filling the workshops or getting men into khaki when they feel that Government is doing the fair thing by them and bv the women and ch'ldren. But, of course, they must be a sitr'd that they are going to sweat and labour ard d : e for their country, ind not merely to fill rich men's pockets." MUST BREAK THEM UP. Mr Tillett pro-cerled to dot the " i's " i"d cms? the " t's " of those who have '•yen preacfrng tb? gospel of hisrh ex7psiv.es. and to drive home the absolute n-ccsstty of onr guns beins kept T.ip'Mifd w'th a nevcr-fniline 6tream of -.hells. And ho : s goinsr to do what he on to get those shells and other rqn rites: "If rich men will play the gnme there won't be any more labour trou-

bles, I can promise you. Ive promised the boys at the front to tell people at home all the truth, and I'm going to do it. I've told the boys at the front the truth about home. They are cheerful; they've get their tails cocked ; they'll go on taking any amount of German gruel . . . but they want everyone at heme to know and understand that this war is no joke, and that the bovs at the front are giving their lives to save those of the people ! at home.

'' There must be only one object at home—tho crushing defeat of the Germans. Tho men who supply stores, the men who make leather, the men who sell food, the men who are making millions of pounds sterling out of the war must be content to make loss money and to do more, must bo controlled by Government and be content to be controlled. If they make no trouble, the men won't make any. They'll work. They'll listen to Ben. They know he dwsn't care a hoot in Hunland for anything or anybody, and that ho tolls them the sober truth. AND WIPE THEM OUT.

" I visited clearing hospitals, and the wounds of some of tho men were pretty ghastly. And every man I spoke to said tho same thing. ' Send out things to chuck at em, Ben.' they said. ' The blighters don't take any notice of us now." We haven't had a real scrap for weeks. They have asked for gar,, Ben ; let us have it to give them. 'Strath. B?n, they don't care what they do. Wo must give 'em some of it back.' That is the cry from one end to the other of the Fftuch and British lines. "Mind you, I've been friendly with Germans for thirty years, and I never really knew theni. They were toe cunning for me. I know them now. Thev u-ill stick at nothing. They don't understand common decency or ordinary manhood, and if v,'c've got to live in the future we must teach them their Psson. We must break them up. We must have the nation behind us to do it.

" There is only one word for it—patriotism. We must wipe them out or die. I know what they've done to women and children. I've seen what they've done to tha homes. I shivered at tho wrecked cathedrals, but I choked and swore at the wrecked kitchens and tho pathos of the broken toys and ruin of little lives."

You can judge the sort of gospel Mr Ben Tillett is going to preach up and down the Old Country as the residt of having "seen tilings for himself." H*e will do good—tboro can be no doubt about it. There are others holding more or less influential positions in tho Labour world who want their views of the war adjusting far more than Mr Tillett's did. After all. he lias never during the war fomented labour disturbances, whereas others have deliberately incited men employed in most important war work to "down tools" at the very time their labour waa most required in order to keep the front supplied. A visit to Flanders and a few days in the company of Tommy Atkins would probably effect a speedy change in these men's ideas on the war and on their duty to England.