A TRIP TO THE FRONT

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIX, Issue 181, 3 August 1915, Page 6

A TRIP TO THE FRONT

BEN TJLLETT'S CONVERSION

LONDON, Jane 18. That "stormy petrel" of the Labor world, Mr Ben Tillett, has been to Franco to see for himself those things that are to be seen there if the authorities think it good for you to oo so. Ben was not always persona grata in military circles;' in Tact, I have heard soldiers say some very hard tilings about Bon, and that worthy has no doubt uttered things j about the military which he might ' not like to be recalled at this June- i ture. But though perhaps not the power in the Labor world that he was , five-tand-twenty years or so ago, he is ' still an item to bo reckoned with when Capital and Labor are at loggerheads, and there are fey: men who can talk to the horny-handed more effectually than Ben. So when Mr Tillett wanted to go to the front to sco things the authorities placed no obstacle in ' his way; in deer], it is said that he : met with distinct encouragement both from the \\';n- Office and from the other side of the water. And rather leas than a fortnight ago Ben, with permits in his pocket, went over to France, to see tilings at tho front for himself. He went to Rheims, to the Argonne, to Park and to British j Headquarters, :i;r! he spent a week J there and with the Fn-nch troops, ' where th-e Allied Unrs touch. The effects of his trip on Mr Til- | Sett's views of I';;' u-M- as held by him j <V'p he had fraienwscd with Tommy f Atkirs and li!^:i|:;':^n; a!; the front,

in this passage from an interview which Mr Raphael, the well-known Express correspondent, contrived to obtain whilst the Labor man's impressions still retained their pristine vividness. "I have learnt my lesson from my visit to France. I have learned that there is another meaning to the word 'strike' now. '•By, God, we've got to _stnke_ now, and every onr.ee oi' British grit, ot British energy, and of British gold, of British brain, has got to be behind the blow." "TO PREACH 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 he is coming back to England to "preach bloody murder" -wherever he can find an audience. Said he to Mr Raphael:— "I never realised what it was going to be at all. _ Like.living in a very noisy, messy nightmare, it was. Somehow', the French front had been different. But out there in the north, at and , and all other places that wo mustn't mention, I kept on seeing visions, and kept muttering to myself. 'If this were England.' . . . . I felt ashamed of, being a civilian. I felt ashamed at' the knowledge that everyone at home was not working as well'as he could work. There shan't be a slacker left, when T get back, if I can shame them out of slacking, and 1 know the boys at home. "When thoy 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 ore teaching them, and they like being taught. 'J^et me do that, sir.' No. it doesn't interfere with discipline at all. There's no Prussianism in the , British Army. !"f know now why Germany is going under in this war. No men in the I world can stand against the spirit of our lads if our lads have proper back- ■ ing and the proper tools to fight with. But they must have them, and they must foe! certain that the women and the kids at homo aro being properly looked after or they'd worry- .By God, they shall have them, too, if 1 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. Thoro mustn't bo any kid-glovo business, any sentimental scruples; slaughter for civilisation's sake ; that's what we've got to do. "We want shells," we want gas, we want every hellish, death-dealing device we can got out there, and wo want the men mfn the spirit of men at home, Loo. Thpj capitalists h'\ve got to say good-bye to the idea that war is being waged merely to put moncv in tln'ir pockets. [fVoflmr't mnnid*—

the Hermans to-morrow, there'll be ; no British capitalists the day after, j Wheat must he sold at a fair price, j and tho (Government must fix it. -So '. must all war stores. ';

''There's not going to bo any more irouble about filling the workshops or getting men into khaki when th<?y feel that - (•overnmont is doing the fair thing by them and by the women and children. But, of course, they must be assured that tiw\v are going to sweat and labor and die for their country, and not merely to fill rich mcn'.s pockets." * MIST BREAK THEM UP.

Mr Tillott proceeded to dot tlie ■'"i's" iind cross the "t"s" of those who have been preaching tho gospel of high explosives, and to drive home the absolute necessity of our guns boing kept supplied with a never-failing .stream of kliclls. And ho is going to do what lie can to got those shells and other roouisitos:

'Mi rich men will play the game there won't be- any more labor troubles. I can promise you. I've promised the boys at the front to tell | people at home all the truth, and I'm ] ! going to do it. f've told the boys fit tho front the Iruth about home.. They are cheerful : they ye got their tails cocked: I hey'll go-on taking any amount of German gruel. .. . but they want everyone at home to,know and understand that this war is no joke, arid that the boys <->t the front are giving thoir lives to save those of tlie people at home. "There must be only one object at homo—the crushing defeat, of the Germans. The 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 bs content to make less ] money and to do more, must be eon- i trolled by Government and be content to be controlled. If they make no trouble,,, tlie men won't make ony. ■ They'll work. They'll listen to Bon. They know lie doesn't care a hoot in Hunlaiul for arivthing or anybody, and Lhat lie tells" them tlie sober truth. Ayi> WIPE THEM. OUT. "'T visited el-earing hospitals, and the wounds of .some of the men were pretty ghastly. And every man L spoke to said the same thing. 'Send out tbinti'.s to chuck at 'em, Ben/ they said. 'The blighters don't take ony notice of us now. We haven't had a real scrap for weeks. They have asked for gas. Ben ; lot us have it to give them. 'Struth, Ben, they don't care what they do. We must give 'em some of it back.' That is the cry from on? end to the other of the French .and British lines.

''Mind you. I've boon friendly with Germans for thirty years, and I never really knew them. They were too cunning for me. f know them now. They will stick at nothing. They don't understand common decency or ordinary manhood, and if we've got to live in the future wo must teach them their lesson.. We must break them un. We must have the nation behind us to dp it.

"There is only ono 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 the homes. I shivered at the wrecked cathedrals, but I choked and - swore at the wrecked kitchens and the pathos of the broken toys and ruin of littlo lives."

; Yon can judge the sort of gospel Mr Ben Tillett is going to-preach up and down the Old Country as the result of having "seen things for himself." Ho will do good—there can he no doubt ahout it. There are others holding more or less influential positions in the Labor world who want their views of the war a-d.irtsting far more than Mr Tiliett's did. After all, he has iiever during the war fomented labor disturbances, whereas others have deliberately- incited men employed in most :mpoi'tant war work to "down tools" tat the y^ery time their labor was 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.