PLEDGE FROM LABOUR.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16019, 10 September 1915, Page 8

PLEDGE FROM LABOUR.

PART IN THE WAR. NO PEACE WITH KAISER. BLASPHEMOUS - LEADER. London, September 8. The Trade Union Congress, sitting at Bristol, by 600 votes to 7, pledged itself to assist the Government to its utmost in the prosecution of the war. Mr. Sexton, in moving the resolution, instanced, amid cheers, the fact that two anti-militarists, Mr. J. Ward, M.P., who was now a colonel, and Mr. O'Connor, of Keswick, now a lieutenant, were fighting against Prussia's diabolical plot for world domination. If only a tithe of the reported atrocities were true, they justified the loathing felt against Germany. This was a war of defence and not aggression. "Do you want an Aerschot at Bristol, or a Louvain at Oxford asked the speaker. "' We are up against the most brutal system, led by one of the most blasphemous and most hypocritical leaders that ever disgraced civilisation!" Mr. Havelock Wilson seconded the resolution. Mr. Ben Tillett created an uproar by denouncing some of the extremists as being among Germany's friends. He concluded by appealing for a unanimous vote, with a view to heartening the workers in the trenches. A delegate dramatically interrupted the proceedings by calling attention to the rumour that Lord Crewe, Lord Selborne, and a Cabinet- Committee favoured the 'introduction into. Great Britain of the quota system of raising troops in force in South Africa. The president refused to ' allow discussion on the subject, inasmuch as the congress had already debated i the question of conscription. Mr. J. Hodge, M.P. for the Gorton division of Lancashire, made a spirited speech on the need for the factories supporting the army. "We must not make peace with the Kaiser, but insist on a general election in Germany, at which the peace terms could be ratified by the people," said Mr. Hodge.

Mr. John Ward, Labour member for Stoke-on-Trent, who is referred to above worked as a navvy on the Manchester. Ship Canal. He was a member of the Social Democratic Federation, and founded the Navvies' Union in 1889. He served in the Sudan in 1885, and was subsequently a member of the London Territorial Forces "Association. *