OUR BRITISH LETTER

Maoriland Worker, Volume 13, Issue 30, 25 July 1923, Page 16

OUR BRITISH LETTER

S«tst l»y Evelyn • Sharp,, for the .Foreign Eelif.oi* of ihe "l>aily H«rai«?," Xontton. MAY 30, 1923. " The agitation carried on all oyer the country by every kind of Labour organisation, added to the expressed opposition of many Liberals, may. be said to have v been instrumental in holding the hand of the Government with regard to Russia until Parliament reassembled this week. The remarkably conciliator}' note handed Lord Curzon by Mr. Krassin has, indeed, made it almost impossible for our Foreign Office to persist in its arrogant attitude towards the Soviet Government. In the words' of the "Daily Herald" editorial", which exactly expresses the position: "The sanity and self-restraint of the Russian document introduce a new note into diplomatic intercourse. . . . The Soviet Government, simply because it. is a Socialist Government, has-—to-the chagrin of the war party here — chosen to ignore the challenge. . . . It has declared that the peace of Europe is .more important than 'national dignity,' and all the meaningless phrases for which the old diplomacy was at all times ready to send men in millions to the slaughter. . . . If every Government had that same spirit which has inspired Moscow in these days, then there would be no more war."

[ As a result of the Russian Note, so I disconcerting in its wisdom to the | conventional diplomat, the reply of j the British Foreign Office, now practically ready, is believed to take the more conciliatory form of a "memorandum," and to be framed in such a way as to Justify the statement that all the points of dispute are settled in it except the crucial, though vague one of "propaganda." If the British reply'maintains its high-handed attitude in regard to this point, the ciisrs is not yet over; hut every sensible person must hope that it will yield to the demands of I abour and accede to the Russian proposal to' submit this vexed question to a conference. It is certainly indisputable, that until Lord Curzon consents to negotiate with the Soviet Republic as a great Power and to discuss the whole Asiatic question in a statesmanlike manner, these crises must be of continual j recurrence. \

DESPERATION IN THE RUHR.

While M. Pomcare makes.* every opportunity of demonstrating his unalterable hostility to Germany, and the German Government prepares a new Note for the pleasure of the Allies the German people themselves, whe starve through the Ruhr occupatior while diplomats squabble, have broken out int n active revolt in Gelsenklrehen and elsewhere. An before the capitalist newspapers have attempted to explain the riots as Communist uprisings, but. as before, there seems no real proof of this. On the contrary, the creation in one instance of a labour militia formed from all sections of the workers, including both Catholics and Communists, in order to prevent plundering, shows that the revolt has no political basis, but is evidence of the inability of the people to suffer indefinitely from high prices and wages too low to make the purchase of life's necessaries any longer possible. What I saw -myself when in Germany last February bears out this explanation of the industrial unrest in the Ruhr; my only wonder is that revolution has not occurred long ago as a reply of the oppressed workers to French tyranny and to the manipulation of the mark, causing hnpossibly high cost of living, in ths interests of the big German industrialists. LABOUR'S HOPES IN EUROPE. There are signs that the long domination of the capitalist class, strengthened by the war, is at last about to be thrown off by the workers of Europe. In France, the refusal of the Senate to use its legal powers to try' 34 Communists accused of treason against the State (which produced the impulsive resignation of the Premier, since withdrawn) may be compared with the late refusal of the' British House of Lords to uphold our; Government's misuse of its power in; deporting British subjects to Ireland without trial. In Italy, the tide is ■ slowly turning -against Fascism, especially in the South. The first so-. 1

•rious effective attack upon Mussolini's dictatorship was made two days ago in the Italian Chamber", where loud cheers followed a Sicilian, deputy's vigorous speech in defence of liberty; it is known, further, that dissensions are now occurring in Fascist ranks themselves, which ' may mean the beginning of the end of this abominable dictatorship that seems to have so much charm for the middle classes in other countries. . The new Labour International, which has risen from the ashes of both the Second and the Vienna Inlernationals Which it now replaces, $eenis to hold out some hope, not