THAT MANIFESTO.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVII, Issue 17078, 29 January 1916, Page 8

THAT MANIFESTO.

Vert wisely, in his reply to the anticonscription manifesto the Prime Minister has declined to discuss the weird theories put forward in that document. He has also refused to be drawn into a controversy as to the respective merits of conscription and the voluntary system of securing soldiers. In a statement that gains force by its brevity, Mr Massey simply places facts against theories, necessity against preference, the stern realities of the time against the special political predilections of this class or that. It is but doing bare justice to the Working people of this country to believe that the manifesto grossly misrepresents their views and sentiments. The manifesto was drafted by a collection of men who are nominally in some sort of authority in the realm of organised labour, but we should despair for the future of New Zealand if we could accept it as expressing the collective opinion of the trades unionists of the Dominion. If it had been framed to voice the feelings of the workers, the document would not have been characterised by that unfortunate omission noticed byMr Massey and referred to in these columns yesterday. When only a telegraphed summary was available we commented upon the absence of any noto of patriotism, with the reservation that possibly the fault lay in the telegram and not in the document. The full text of the manifesto appears in another column, however, and we have to say. with very real regret and' some surprise, that we cannot discover anywhere in the lengthy statement a single patriotic line or phrase. In these times one cannot argue with authors of such deliverances. It is a sufficient reply to tell them that the more they dislike compulsion the harder should they work for tho success of voluntaryism, and that if the existing methods fail, compulsion must be adopted, whether they or anybody else like it or not. As the "Clarion," which Mr Massey has neatly turned against the authors of the manifesto, has put it: If defeat and invasion threaten, who will dare to oppose con-

scription ? Surely these unnecessarily alarmed anti-conscriptionists are not so dull as to think the war means nothing to the workers, to democracy, or even to Socialism. If so, let them take counsel from prominent Socialists and antimilitarists. Mr Hyndman will toll them that victory' tor Germany would inevitably mean a long set-back to Socialism and to democracy all over Europe. "Prussia, the headquarters of Junkerdom and militarism," he writes, "bristles with reaction. Her political system and methods of election are entirely behind the times. So far, also, notwithstanding the great

and growing power of Social democracy in Germany and throughout Prussia., it has been found impossible to introduce reforms. Not only so, but reaction has gained ground in the south. In Saxony, where Social Democracy had made most effective use of universal suffrage, that democratic right had actually been taken away from the people, and no offectivo protest was made by Social Democrats against this high-handed action of the reactionary minority. As tho Social Democrat poll mounted up. at general election after general election, the Junkers openly threatened to suppress universal suffrage throughout the Empire in the same way. Should they win in war they will carry out this policy in peace, and the countries they conquer, annex or put under tutelage will bo subjected in like manner to the rule of the sabre." That is what wo are fighting against. i\f. Anatole France, one of the greatest living men of letters, and a whole-hearted Socialist, too old . to hear arms, is editing a military newspaper for the French Government. Ho declares that no peaeo is possible fill the forces of barbarism have been broken. Mr Floyd Dell, a lending American Socialist, has a few words to say for the benefit of those who. like the authors of the manifesto issued from Wellington, fire "steadfastly opposed to the. spirit of militarism that made this war possible." lie says that more than anything else, in the light of Socialist purposes, the war against Germany assumes the aspect of a war against' militarism. " With Germany triumphant, tho success of militarism blazoned to the four ends of the earth, we must he prepared for a. period of militaristic enterprise too desperate for sanity to hold out against. It, is a, tragic necessity now to crush by force of arms the great, exponent of the virtues of militarism. The defeating of Germany is a task in which the Allies should have our Socialist .sympathies. In a very real sense this is 'our war.' " Let us add that we are not making these quotations in the hope of converting the handful of men responsible for the manifesto. Like Mr Massey. we hare not the patience to argue with them. But there is just the danger that they may oelude some of those whom, we are confident, they misrepresent.