LABOUR AND TURK SCARE.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 12, Issue 301, 6 December 1922, Page 6

LABOUR AND TURK SCARE.

In the midst of the opinions, and fluctuating political conditions of the past week, the firm attitude of organised Labour stands out in 'refreshing' relief. While others wavered over their views of the foreign situation and wondered what our' agile Prime.Minister would do..next, the political and industrial leaders of .organised Labour told him politely "but decisively what be was to do next. ' At a full meeting of the Joint Council (representing the General Council Of the Trades Union Congress, -tha Parliamentary Labour Party, and the - Executive Committee of the Labour 3?arty) an uncompromising resolution passed, the. salient feature of ILwhich was a call for ".the immediate ff Resignation- of the Government and the * ©lection of a new Parliament as being |$Lthe only step that can now be taken to a fresh and rigorous reconsideration of our position, not only in | the Near East, but In all the pressing " r Some and foreign problems -which the Government of our country must '. face." k U,OYI) .(ilSOitGß'd UXPOPULABITY. ; i The rest-of the resolution sets forth the conviction of Labour that there is not the least .-justification for war in "wrder to settle a Near .East situation that can be settled by peaceable agreement, and voices a very general distrust of the new diplomacy initiated toy Mr. Lloyd George, by which disturbing an'tl bellicose reports are cireiiioted indirectly from Downing ' Street without consultation with the .Foreign Office. There is no doubt that the present isolation of the Prime Slinisler in British politics, whether Jemporary or net, arid whether affectfed or'not by a curious letter to the from Mi-. Bonar Law, which '-.May or -may not have been intended Sn support of him, may be traced less, to the actual errors of- the Government's foreign policy than to i,he widespread feeling that, to* quote the 3Labour manifesto again, "a Govern- , sient so divided within itself and so discredited abroad can do nothing but t fearm to bur national interests, and is , mow unfit to represent the country in imy important -international conference." WOIIKEKS AWAICK. ! But it does not follow that the Government Will accept, this estimate of its incapacity and imtfustworthinsss. . As in Die first few years of this cental IT, the Balfour Ministry refused io yecognise 'the same thing; and clung • to office until forced to so to a country that rejected it by enormous majorities, so the Lloyd George, Coalition seems to-day determined to remain m power at all costs. At the end of Mna week, the Prime Minister is to address Liberals at Manchester and Mr. Austen Chamberlain is to address Conservatives • at Birmingham, pre- j Slim ably in support of the Government's foreign policy.- Jt is a typically Moyd Georgian effort to. regain the ground he has lost in tho'public es- . teem; but I tbink. it -will not throw tfust in the awakened eyes of the mass «f the workers. rOUEiON AFFAIRS. i In the Near East, the military eon- ! ierence continues at rviudaiiia, and day | hy day East and West argue over lit— j lie points tbat sometimes conceal real |" eHiferences and sometimes merely III lustrate the Turk's delight in conver- [ sation that means delay. Tho most |. serious element in the,situation is ..he | continued ' determination to exclude j; /Russia from the proposed political 1 conference at Scutari or elsewhere. j This is having repercussions On our I otherwise improving commercial rela- [ tions with Uie Soviet Government. Tbe, j* KrassiTi-Urquhavt trading agreement. I •whereby the company that held 35 per cent, of the wbole of British claims on Russia was io regain a leasehold for f>9 years of its original ,' jFaines and properties there, has now t)een refused ratification by the ■; Soviet -Government solely because of the new situation, which the Russians believe to have been created by the ' decision of the Allies to discuss the | vital matter of the Straits without. '; consultation wil'ii them. Even if they exaggerate the connection between commercial and political interests " thus assumed, no one can deny thatthey are justified in rewriting the_'ex,i elusion of Russia from the approach- 1 ' sJ ibag delii/eratioiis. which can iudeed be !' of no lu?th;.g - r-fiect unless Russia's" point of view is safeguarded. OPINION IX FRAME. in Paris, ~ a . notable.decline'in Mr. I Lloyd George's popularity ts noticeI able, especially among those Socialit Ist circles, where jt was believed, at if the time of th.> Genoa Conference, 1 that the British Premier stood for the J mortification of their own Premier's

bellicose policy.- ■In ;Paris also is to , be seen/ in ttfe resignation of . M. Louis Buhois, president of the Reparations Commission, his inability to accept any longer his Government's untenable view that Germany could pay reparations when her richest provinces had been taken from her.. The new president, M. Barthou, finds himself faced with an impossible situation, in which the whole reparations structure is tottering, the mark is again sliding down sensationally, and unless an indefinite moratorium is granted when the present one comes to an end on December 31, even payment in kind will no longer be forthcoming. Mr. McKenna's speech to American bankers merely reiterated what all Labour economists have said In this country for two years or more, but it has the additional merit of being acclaimed as something new, and perhaps its first fruits may be seen in to-day's Washington rumour- that the-U.S. Administration means to consent to be represented at a London conference to" deal with the whole question of. war debts and* European finance. .. HOME AFFAIRS. It is more than probable that Mr. Lloyd George, following his own precedent, has not been averse to switching the limelight on to the Near East in order to distract attention, from the confusion in liome affairs. But Labour,, suffering directly from that confusion, is not distracted by so much as a hair's breadth from the failure of the Government even to face the industrial position. Our two biggest industries, agriculture and mines, are being ruined by the state of semi-starvation that is produced by low wages and by unemployment. In agriculture, although the distress is so great that, in Norfolk, to givo only one instance, ths Poor Law authorities have had to supplement the low wages of the agricultural labourers in order to .save' the""r families from hunger, the ■ Government has adopted "a policy of x>rocrastination that merely puts off the crisis and will aggravate it when it come?: THE'jtolXG 1S1)I;ST.BY. In the mining industry, that crisis is rapidly approaching. I have writ--ten before of the terrible conditions prevailing in t>ll tlio mine fields except one, owlng.,partly to low wages, partly .to unemployment and short time. Last week the Miners' Executive approached the owners with de-' finite proposals for increasing the lowest wages now given to a rate i equal hi purchasing power to prej war rales. A strong argument in .the favour of this reasonable request is [o be found in the fact that the cose of coal, sold to the consumer for 12/-----to 57/-, costs , ;it the pit' head only 16/*!.—a proof that high wages have notfun-s to do with high price's, as capitalist organs are fond of insinuating. But the owners, refused to consider the men's proposals, and they proceeded therefore to demand an interview of tlie Prime Minister, which svill probably take place early next week. Meanwhile, a certain section of the press talk of the high wages ! earned .by miners during the war, with no reference to the enormous profits made by the owners during the same period, nor to the fact that ■men who go down into tlie-pits daily, taking their lives in their liands, ought; to have high wages. f.Ni'KMPLOVMEXT. The latest official figures record i 1,325..500 registered unemployed at j the Employment .Exchange of Great Britain "on October 2, being 8,888 more than in the -previous week, though' 494,933 less than last January. But the. present ■ -figures : '-cire notby any means inclusive of all who are unemployed,-whereas in. January the policy of Vi\q five weeks' "gap" in payment of unemployed benefit had not. been adopted, and it is on the'pay- , ment of the dole that the figures are usually based. Iv any case, even if some of the unemployed have recently been absorbed, the" improvement, is neither large nor permanent.