THE RED TERROR

Maoriland Worker, Volume 13, Issue 1, 3 January 1923, Page 2

THE RED TERROR

By J. Ramsay Macdonald

This artice-was written by feamsay. MacDonalii for th 3 Scots "Forward," about a month -before the British general elections. It shows that ex 7 actly the same tactics were employed against Labour there.,as in New Zealand. The cry of "extremist".'startled the land.

Our newspaper contents bills in London are back to murders, prizefights and the turf, so we are having a holiday fling between the fear of war and the stunts of a General Election. Unfortunately, I must write this only partly enlightened. Mr. Austen Chamberlain has spoken, but Mr. Lloyd George is -only, yet in the eating stage of his speech, and 1 must journey to Bradford, where writing will be impossible. But Mr. Chamberlain is good enough to be* going on with. He has brought out the stage properties which the Coalition are to use for their Maskeleyne and Cook's election performance. There are to be lions and tigers, daggers and turnip lanterns, and, above all, Moscow ftasts over which poor Mr. Clyries has perforce to preside because his masters are to order it so. The stalls are to be elevated and the pit horrified, and both I c straightway to become aware of thiAr duty to their nation and mankind, and vote Coalition. That is the Chamberlain idea.

Four years ago the electorates wtre worked up into an ecstatic frenzy by a vision of a new Earth with the Kaiser hanging over its gateway' like the victims.of the '4j> over Carlisle, with chests laden with gald from Germany coming as the spoils of Mexico and Peru came to Spain, and with 500,000 new houses and endless acres ef small holdings each with a happy hero and a large family attached. As the children of Israel gathered under Joshua to cross the Jordan and possess the land flowing with milk and honey, so gathered our people under its new Joshua. But that cock will light no longer. The milk in the land trickles from the Board.-; of Guardians and' the honey is squeezed from Labour Exchanges. So the strolling" playactors of Downing Street have to rearrange tfieir stage. (Who can write in anything but mixed metaphor in trying to do justice to these ceniuses of many parts?)

It is now to be slow music of the "Hush! Hush! Hush! Here Comes the Bogey Man" type, heavy thundery clouds at the back of the stage, shaded lights tinted with red, and Guy Fawkes , Day as the time of the play. The electors-that voted ecstatically in 1918 are to vote in terror in 1022. Ido not think that that cock will light either. If it does, we had better confess that a belief in democracy, electorates, Parliaments is altogether misplaced. Mr. Chamberlain, driven from his defences on political ground, has taken refuge in undisguised class interest, and has told Labour that bscause it is Labour" it must never govern. If that is not playmg into the hands of "Extremists" I know not what is.

Mr. • Chamberlain has said in his blundering plain way what a" great many people are really thinking, that there is something in"Nature that forbids Labour to rule, that hobnails and fustians clothe its mind as well as its body. To them, we are really a mob. Circumstances have compelled them to be a little polite.in their language, but liave not influenced their thoughts.

When, they tell, us that they fear "Extremists/ they do- riot know exactly what they niean, though/they" do mean something that is -really."true and important to them. They are disturbed, and t o use-'ijf the world "Extremists" expresses their disturbancie* without being in any way a description of anyone or anything. It is worth while trying to understand the psychology of those who regard Mr. Chamberlain's attack on.Latoour as either 4rue or wise.

In our own Scottish theological language, this fear of Extremism is really a sense of sin. "Oh, sinner that I was," one racked in soul- lias written, "the singing of birds gave mc no joy. They were to mc the voices of the angels that would sodri join in my ' judgment." Let us put ourselves in their places. If we had stolen whole countries from the people and the Church, had used Parliament for our own private gains and to legalise our thefts; if we bad watered capital so that the toll paid by production was excessive, and if we were the favoured ones in a society which gave its rewards without reference to ability or usefulness-"-we should feel very uncomfortable instinctively if any interests but our own appeared to be approaching the seat of power. Laboui* is judgment'to the consciences of so many people. It is a moral terror which they try to believe is a.political terror. They feel it to l;e much too absurd to condemn all Labour as rascals individually. "They have to be discreet both to their own, intelligence (which is not always so timorous as their conscience—because they b-elieve they will not get what in abstract justice they may .deserve) and to public opinion, so they do not con-demn-Labour tn bloc, but they invent the Extremists who, behind the scenes, anonymously, the hidden hand, must, of course, control Labour and reduce its accredited' leaders to mere puppets, ■

Upon a psychology of this kind, Mr. Chamberlain is to play. He hopes to stampede it, the logic being: ''Better stick to the fools you know something; about, than- fly to others of wlicm you are suspicious." Or, it might be put thus: "We are bad, but cannot you imagine: Livhour, being worse?" We a.re to have a capital levy so as to ease the burdens of .taxation -on industry and prevent the mass of our people being crushed down into the quicksands of poverty. But Mr. Chamberlain knows that if .. you propose to touch property for whatever good reason property shrieks and -feels no more security. That being so, it was a waste of energy and a blunder for him to accuse Labour of wishing to repudiate the National Debt. Hero Mr. Chamberlain's psychology failed him. He must not ■ make ■ .definite charges, because they can be disproved or effectively defended. A Birmingham elector can well charge Mr. Chamberlain now v. iU> telling lies (if he cares to put it. tliat way), and ho can easily prove ihrit statement, H is a great mistake tor Mr. Chamberlain to arm his shadows of the night and the evil conscii nee with lethal weapons of argument. They cannot wield such weapons. Their arms are terrors,' pijejudces, repulsions, the spirits that make the troubled conscience moan and sweat in its sleep.

I When one lias examined the psyiehology of Mr. Chamberlain's speech there is very .little .left —perhaps one thins , . He puts all the parties in the i same cauldron. Ho is loyal to the Premier because h"2 has agreed with the Premier., Tory rtid Coalition Liberal leaders share a common responsibility.. Nor is that all. Mr.'Chamberlain tells the IYee Lliterals quit: plainly (and*l'am sure that Mr. Lloyd 'George will take the same line) that they are as much to blame as the Government. Lord Grey's feeble diplomacy helped the 'warmongers (I Hi might that such views were treason 'and heresy), .'Mr." Asquiih'e treaties •and commitments have'made all the trouble in the Near East. Let them say so, let the people believe so, but what is the conclusion? Certainly not. to vote Coalition, but to 'vote against the whole lot of the .old governing parties who," by falling foul of each other, are exposing - their common' responsibility for the humiliation and distress of their country. From Mr. Chamberlain's speech one would think , that the only thins in which we should take an interest is, whether the .pot.'or the kettle is tlie blacker. Wi 1 are "not really interested in Mr. Chamberlain's troubles. He conveniently forgets to tell us about oil and. finance as the mahis'p.rliiigs of our policy in Russia and the Near Efast, about how the Government lias"made our"unemployment Crisis, and so on. All we beg of him and his•„chief is t,p give us ftn ©lection, and* we shall raise" the is■nea.. ,/ ■ ":' '■- ' , ""■" ■ •'.""