The Inside Story of a Great Crime

Maoriland Worker, Volume 13, Issue 2, 10 January 1923, Page 8

The Inside Story of a Great Crime

The Maoriland Worker is indebted for this article from the gifted pen of Stfr. E.D. Morel, M.P., who so soundly defeated Mr. Winston Churchill in Dundee, to the Scots "Forward," '2(8/10/22, whose editor was also elected to the House of Commons. In tho 'original tbe article is footnoted with a multitude of authorities, for which w r e liave no space, but which are indisputable. A foreword to the article, .worded thus, is writted by the Editor Of "Forward ": —

"The statement we publish to-day is. perhaps.-the most astounding narrative, as it is the most terrific revelation of individuals and of a system, ■which has been penned in our generatio. It will make history. It is the political burial service of Lord Grey land Mr. A.squjth. It is also a call to liabour for constructive action. When the indispensable changes in the Constitution demanded by Mr. Morel have been placed on the Statute Book, Labour will have a clear held. Until these guarantees have been, obtained Labour works under the perpetual menace of war, which can .fling down iv -a night the efforts of years." * * * .JSs iMr. Morel, who was a Liberal candidate for Birkenhead when the war broke out, prefaces his article with the following statement mad< by him as President of the Birkenhead Liberal Association on the flay war was declared: —

"For years the people of this'country have had it dinned into their ears by '.hose to whom they 'poked for guidance that the system of diplomatic 'groupings,' and Britain's-cooperat-on with one of these groups v.*as tke sure means of preserving peace. They now ■see the results. Soon these results will eat thuir way into every home. Their first effect is to shatter for a generation all tbe schemes of social betterment upon which the masses were at last beginning to build high hopes. May the realisation of the fallacies for which the workers must now pay in blood and tears, may the suffer- . jugs they must presently endure, burn , into Iliei r hearts and souls the passionate determination that, to live, democracy must rid itself of the machinery by which, in darkness and in secrecy, its destinies are made the sport of men whose actions it cannot control." And then: — Tho uselessness of discussing past events in- the light of pressing problems of actuality is often urged, not invariably with disinterestedness, always erroneously. For the past governs tut- present and the future; and the boundaries of the past are for ever ■expanding into the present and stretching outwards into the future. Past, present and future are inextricably' interwoven. They are not separate watertight compartments in tbe life either of men or of nations. To treat the past—be it a day or a year or a decade —as remote from the necessities of the present and the future, is r.o forgo the lessons of experience; it is to cast ourselves rudderless upon the waters of life. . At the present moment the nation is being rightly urged to consider the jK'-rmanenl* and terrible danger in which it finds itself through the autocratic and irresponsible control of its foreign policy. During the last few weeks it has escaped another war by a miracle. Its course In the immediate future is a narrow pathway over a yawning chasm. If it waljcs not warily, it will slip over the edge. The leaders of the Liberal Party are particularly eloquent just now in in- / sisting upon the danger. Lord Gladstone refers.almost with horror to the circumstances that the bellicose appeal to the Dominions, on September 3G last, which almost plunged us into war, was the work of " some—a few members of the Cabinet." From his denunciations one would imagine this to be a new phenomenon. The Liberal leaders are touring Scotland, and it is clear that they mean to make Foreign Policy the chief plank in their platform. The country has become alarmed by the incoherencies and dishonesties of a Prime Minister and the crude militarism of a Colonial Minister, who deal with Foreign Policy as the foothall of their ambitions, and of the vested interests which they alternately use and ar c used by.' Here the old .Liberal leaders see their chance. They hank on the shortness of the public •memory. "Choose," they say in effect, "between the adventurers who are ruining the country's prestige, on the one hand; between the inexperience of Labour, on the other; and our tried integrity and knowledge." The situation has its advantages, inasmuch as this effort to make of Foreign Policy once more the battledore and shuttlecock of political partisanship means publicity for problems of overwhelming importance to • the nation, prob- j Jems which it has suited the leaders I

'of both the old political parties, acting in avowed or unavowed combination, to surround during the past 15 years with an impenetrable veil of secrecy. But it has also a serious danger, aad those of us who have been struggling for & decade and more to rouse the Democracy to the appalling consequences of this very secrecy, are bound to expose at once the hollowness of the pretensions which thai Liberal leaders are now putting forward, and the well-nigh incredible audacity of their manoeuvre. It is true that the Coalition Govern- ' raent's Foreign Policy has been characterised by dishonesty, by moral cowardice, by monumental ignorance and incompetence. But the legacy which it inherited was handed down to it by the Liberal Government —by the very men who to-day are posing- as the j only possible substitutes for those whom they desire to supplant in executive power in the State. The na- : tion's account against Mr. Lloyd George is heavy enough in all conscience. But its account against Lord Grey and Mr Asqutth is incomparablyheavier, and the tim-3 has come to cast up that, account and demand a reckoning; The substitution of effective Democratc Control of Foreign Policy, exercised through Parliament, for the existing unfettered control by the Executive, is the most vital of all national issues, tbe most urgently needed of all constitutional changes FOR THE CONDUCT OF THE NATION'S EXTERNAL AFFAIRS 13 THE BRANCH OF NATIONAL GOVERNMENT WHICH. IN THE LONG LAST, REGULATES EVERY PULSATION OF THE NATIONAL LIFE, AND IS THE DETERMINING FACTOR IN THE DESTINY OF THE NATION, AND OF THE INDIVIDUALS COMPOSING IT. All the lamentable social consequences of an unrestricted and highly centralised Capitalistic system of society are aggravated a thousand-fold by an undemocratic and irresponsible Foreign Policy. AUTOCRATIC CONTROL OF FOREIGN POLICY IS THE INNER CITADEL OF THE CAPITALISTIC SYSTEM OF SOCIETY, BECAUSE IT HOLDS THE KEYS TO PEACE AND WAR, AND THOSE WHO HOLD THE KEYS TO PEACE AND WAR HOLD THE DEMOCRACY BA r THE THROAT. Tho constitutional change which will Democratise this branch of National Government is ultimately assured. But th_ time needed to secure it (and time in this matter is of enormous consequence) will be long or shorty in accordance with public conviction of its urgency. If the. Liberal leaders are able to persuade the Democracy that they represent the forces of respectability and sanity in its Foreign Policy as contrasted with the. influences of disastrous innovation and spasmodic impulse incarnated in their former colleagues, they may well succeed in obscuring the true-issue and the veritable need of the country, WHICH IS TO SWEEP AWAY THE WHOLE SYSTEM. AND WITH IT THE MEN WHO, IN BOTH POLITICAL CAMPS, HAVE BETRAYED. FLOUTED, AND INFLIC-kED INNUMERABLE ILLS UPON THE PEOPLE. That is the danger. It can be conjured only—it seems to me —by a national comprehension, which shall not be merely passive, but galvanic, of the proceedings by which the nation became between the years 11)06 and 1011 in tbe meshes of the Continental militarism ttiat continues to impede and stifle tiie struggle for real political and economic freedom. With the permission of the Editor of the "Forward," I propose to set forth here some of the more salient and still largely unapprehended facts to which public attention should be urgently directed at - this moment, if the long course of duplicity practised, upon the nation by the public men who are once more inviting public confidence, is to be appreciated in its full significance. I begin the story at a point where a direct and simple fact is projected upon the public screen, a fact which needs no argument to clarify, a fact which everyone can verify for himself—-THE DELIBERATE MUTILATION, FOR HIS OWN ENDS, OF A PUBLIC DOCUMENT BY LORD GREY, ON AUGUST 3, 1914. It will be found ,as the narrative proceeds, that this act is the pivot upon which all turns: just as it .was the culmination of everything that preceded it. TJ. Eight years and a fraction more have passed over our heads since the Liberal Government, returned to power on .the Gladstonian battlecry; "Peace, Retrenchment, and Reform!" plunged us into the greatest war 6f all time as the outcome of Lord Grey's famous speech in the Mouse of Com-, mons, on August 3rd, 1914: That

speech was directed to .securing a quasi-unanimous . endorsement from the House for the policy he, and certain of his colleagues, had long pursued in secret: it laboured ably and successfully to convey the impression that certain incidents then revealed for the first time, Ui-s House was free fro make the most momenjV* ous decision in onr history. Lord Grey deceived the House. He deceived it so deliberately that not only' were essential facts .pertaining to those incidents % withheld from the House. by him, BUT THAT A DOCUMENT OF SUPREME IMPORTANCE TO AN ADEQUATE COMPREHENSION OF -THOSE INCIDENTS WAS COMMUNICATED BY HIM TO THE HOUSE IN A MUTILATED FORM. That document was the letter Lord Grey wrote M. Cambon, tbe French Ambassador, on November 22nd, 11*12, and of which, until that moment, the. country had no knowledge. My charge against Lord Grey is that he mutilated that letter, in order to serve the purpose he had in view, | omitting therefrom us concluding .sentence, which was the key sentence to the document. A further charge, incidental to the former, is that -11 telling the House that he had received ! a letter "in similar terms" from Air. j Cambon to Lord Grey was untrue. The letter from M. Cambon to Lord Grey was. indeed, drawn up in "simi--1 lar terms" to the letter from Lord Grey to M. Cambon, Both closed with the sentence which 'Lord Grey suppressed when he communicated the - -1 otter to the House. This is a charge of extraordinary gravity to bring against a public man. especially against a public man who;- during fateful years, held the destinies of millions of his countrymen in the hollow of his hand. It is with no light heart that I bring it. The mutilation can host be appreciated by placing the mutilated text and the full text in parallel columns: The Conclusion oif The letter as it, the drey-Cam- in rack, coji. foon letter as eluded,. read to the "I agree that if I Mouse. either -Govern--"I agree that if ment had grave either Govern- reason to expect | ment had grave an unprovoked at-re-ason to expect tack hy a third lan uuprovo.ked at- Power, or some- | tack by a third thing that. threatPower, or some- encel the general thing that threat- peace, it should e-rted the general immediately dispeace, it should cuss with the immediately elis- other whether cuss with the both Governother whether ment? should act both Govern- together to prements should act vent aggression together to pre- and to preserve vent aggression peace, and, if so, and to preserve what measures peace, and, if so, they would be what measures prepared to take S they would be in common. ii" | prepared to take tlK*si> measures iv common." involved action, i ihe -plans of the i-W'iiera! , ►Staffs would at once he taken into consideration, and the tJoveroments won 3d then decide what effect should be given to tl&eim," M. Viviani the French Premier and Foreign Minister, not having the {same object as Lord Grey to hide the truth, read out the ihII text to the French Chamber the next day. It was no doubt in view of Viviani having done so that it was deemed advisable to add the omitted sentence to the letter, when the text was subsequently issued in the British YVhite Book. By that time Lord Grey's object had been attained. 111. • So much for the .fact of the mutilation. Recent disclosures of diplomatic documents now make the purpos* of the- mutilation only too clear. The omission of the'last sentence was necessary to the successful presentation of I*ord Grey's case. France had to be represented as the .object of a sudden and "unprovoked attack," as a victim of "aggression," The existence ot secret military and written naval Convention!* with France, which .wtere I'Jie basis of. the diplomatic policy to which the country had heeir secretly committed, liad to he concealed from the country. The suppressed sentence in the Cambon letter indicated . the existence of matured "plans" for Angl vFrenclr co-opera-tion in war, so completo as to become iitimediately operative' in the event of the "unprovoked attack"— ih other words, It Indicated i*e existence of written mllitoiy: and naval Contention,?. But the revelation of their existence ran counter to the whole*-trend'

r of Lord Grey's .speech, and went far beyond the opening sentences of the letter itself, with its reference to occasional ("from time to time") "consultation." Moreover, in • his speech •in the House, Lord Grey had spoken, not of "plans," but merely of "conversations," casual exchange of opinion, as it were. And even in aiJuding to military and naval "plans" (necessarily embodied in written Conventions) as "conversations," he had alluded to them not in a current but in a past tense. He had portrayed them as the outcome of anterior emergency conditions, ceasing witii the cessation of .the causes which had given rise to them. He had studied to convey th e impression that these socalled "conversations" were confined to two occasions (iv 1906 and 1911), and were so remote from any character of permanence that the Cabinet had .not been informed of them at the time.' To all this the last sentence of tne letter —with its' revelation of cut-ami-dried "plans," and its necessary aud inferential implication of prolonged and exhaustive preparation necessarily committed to paper—was an obv#. ous-contradiction. So the House was left in ignorance of it. just a3 the House — h'ee to 'li'<*i<i*>!—was left iaignorance of the fact that at 11 o'c'.oc.i that morning, hours, therefore, before the speech had been delivered, in pursuance of this long-matured and secret military Convention, this " contract," as Lord Haldane was subsequently to describe it. the whole of ■ihe Expeditionary Force had Imvu mobilised; IV. And now lc-t us note the chief milestones along the hidden road, v, r iu<liu„, in and out of th e jungle of official falsehoods, which the people of this country were trod blindfolded for eight, years, the road which was conducting them, in company with France and Imperial Russia, to. "contingent common action against Germany," and so to Armageddon—and to what has followed Armageddon. . . First, the original clandestine sU-o, ia January, 1906, by the sanction and upon the initial responsibility of Lord Grey and Lord Haldane (Minu,ter of War), towards that collaboration between tbe two staffs, which was thenceforth to be continuous, and was to INVOLVE THE COMPLETE REORGANISATION OF THE BRITISH ARMY FOR THE EXPRESS PURPOSE OF PARTICIPATING IN A CONTINENTAL WAR, the while Liberal Ministers (those who knew the facts and those who did not) iri the years that followed would be stump-' ing the country from one end to the other denouncing the very notion of Britain participating in such a war. Mo ephemerel decision this, responding to temporary exigencies—our minds should grasp that truth vivid-ly-—but the initiation of a definite policy, imagined and executed by a handful of men, which --et iv con,ss-?k*i-i'(i and thenceforth unarrestable motion tbe vast war mechanism of three g-'&ttt countries, two of them already so united; a pTiicy" which directed our own war : kicliauism to the considered ■formation of an army for Continental war hi c:;.riunctio.u with the French and tli.: -■ .is.-ian.s: a policy which imparted to the professional interests of the "Fk-hM'ig Services" and tlieir extensive- ".unification's in the social, industrial, journalistic, and financial world. tk._- power to form' "atmosphere" and fy influence events occultly, with t'V,'.* in {reusing effect in the years to iV.l•>-••.'. That was the first milestone. Within five year-- --.f setting it up, "BY THE END OF 1k 10," the detailed "plans," the existence of which Lord Grey was so anxious to conceal from the House in August, 1914, had been "worked out." Lord Haldane had solved his "problem" of-how to mobilise and concentrate "at a place of assembly to be opposite the Belgian frontier," "which had been settled between the Staffs of France aud Britain," a force of KiO.OOo men to operate with the French Armies," with the assistance of Russian pressure in the East. (Note that the co-operation of the Armies of the Tsar was part of the "problem," an integral part of the "plans" from the very baginning, i.e.. FROM 1906, and ask yourselves what the progressive forces in the country would have said had they known of it, and how long the Government would have lasted had these "plans" been disclosed!) British and French staff officers had thoroughly, reconnoir t red-the ground up-in which the Allied Armies were to fight in Belgium and in France: Sir Henry Wilson had been all over it on his bicycle. So comprehensive had the "plans" become hy that time that, at the first conference of the French and Russian Headquarters! Staffs, held' subsequent to their, completion—-at Krasnoe-Selo, in Aug-

By E D. MOREL, M.X

list, 1911—General Dubaii, the French Chief of Staff, was able to assure his Russian colleagues that the French Army would "take the offensive against Germany, with the Help oi! the British Army on its left flank, 5 ' oa the tenth day after mobilising. Ia December of that year (15)11) Lord French with his staff visited the French Headquarters. Thus was the second milestone silently erected while the British people went about _ their daily business, In blissful ignorance of everything but the fact that they were in the proud position of enjoying a democratic Constitution, audi unlike their benighted Continental neighbours, were the masters and not" the servants of their rulers. V. Meantime, Mr. .Churchill Und hor.n speaking to the late Mr. Wilfred Scawen Blunt" of the "coming war •with Germany" (October, 1910), coinciding with Lord Haldane's compleJ tion of the "plans," and Lord Fisher, ! after vain effort's to ensure the. j "Ccpenliagening" of the German Fleet I (i.e.. a sudden attack upon Germany lin time of peace! hart "most gladly j complied" with the request of Mr. i Churchill (who had been sent to the j Admiralty-—Autumn. 1911—"with the j express duty" l>:id upon him.by. Mr. j Asquith" to put the fleet in a state. ;of instant and constant readiness for I war".) '"to help him to proceed with j the great task that had previously I occupied Lord Fisher FOR SIX. I YEAR as First Sen Lord. NAMELY.. ■ THE PREPARATION FOR A GER- ' [MAN WAR." Ine"'dent-illy we are* ' now ab's to observe, by gathering together sundry separate threads, a curious concurrence of views b;- I - cwt-eu rue various partners, as to the moment when this war was to break ■out. Lord Fisher was privately (aa far back as 1905!) predicting "its certainty" in August. 11)14." The Serbian "Charge cV Affairs," : n Loudon. Dr. Gruitsch, in a despatch t G his Government, reported (September. 1911). that he had been informed "from a very trustworthy" sourcw that, in course of conversation M. Cambon—-in conjunction with whom the initial steps for Franco-Br'tish. co-operation iv war had been taken by Lords Grey and Haldane. in January. 190(5—hvul stated that the Morocco trouble would not end in war. but that "France together with her ALLIES, is of opinion that the war. even at the cost of a greater sacrifice, must be postponed to a later time, i.e., 1914.-15. The necessity for this postponement is requ'red less by-FRANCE'S MATERIAL PREPAREDNESS FOR WAR. WHICH IS EXCELLENT, th>n by the organisation of the high command, which is not yet finished. The delay js wanted also by Russia." Miss M. E. Durham was told (October 1912). by tbe Russian Military Instructor lv Montenegro, attached - t 0 the Russian- *- Legation. "In two ye:-;rs from ne*w we shall be absolutely ready for our great war." General Gilinsky. Cbief or" the Russian Staff, confided i;-. Ids French Colleague* (August, 1911), at the - Krasnpe-Selo Conference that ■*Russ:,a does not appear to be in a eond'tion to sustain •> war against Germany, WITH THE CERTAINTY OP SUCCESS. FOR TWO YEARS AT LEAST." While the Utiles in the'chain were thus being forged, behind the backs of a deluded British public, Mr; Acquit h Was blandly informing tho House of Commons that: "There 's n O . secret arrangement of any' sort closed, and fully disclosed, to vh» or kind which' has not been , disclosed, and fully disclosed to the public. ..." (November. 1911). And again (December. 1911): "There are. no secret engagements with any foreign Government that entail upon us any obligation to render military or naval assistance to any other Power." THAT LAST PRONOUNCEMENT, IT WILL BE OBSERVED". WAS -MADE A YEAR AFTER THE COMPLETION OF LORD HALDANE'S "PLANS"* TO MOBILISE AND CONCENTRATE A FORCE OF '.i 60,000 BRITISH TROOPS. AT AN AGREED-UPON SPOT OPPOSITE THE . BELGIAN FRONTIER; FOUR MONTHS AFTER THE FRENCH CHIEF OF STAFF . HAD TOLD HIS RUSSIAN COLLEAGUE THE CIRCUMSTANCES UNDER WHICH THE FRENCH ARMIES WOULD TAKE THE OFFENSIVE AGAINST ' GERMAN?, THANKS TO THE ASSURANCE OF HAVING THE BRITISH ARMY ON : THEIR LEFT FLANK; and two yeiar» 'and eight months before Lord Crejr rose in his seat in the House of ComJmons, aware that the Expeditionary JForce had been mobilised some lumre f)ef<*re; and deliberately mutilate** *. jpubltc document in order the onfrg \ thoroughly to convince Hie* House that wra were under -to «•