HUGHES'S IMPERIALISM

NZ Truth, Issue 569, 13 May 1916, Page 8

HUGHES'S IMPERIALISM

Can "Little Billee" Bamboozle "Tbeßoyi"?

(From Sydney "Truth.")

It seems possible — and, indeed, quite probable — that the Labor organisations will allow themselves to be so bamboozled by the fuss that is made about "Little Billie" Hughes 1 s peregrinations and perorations m Europe thsat theywill imagine him to be quite the personification of' proper proletarian patriotism that he ought to be, and that the penny plutish papers have been persistently parading him as* before the public eye. That there is a, tendency m that direction may be seen by the result o£ the vote at the very remarkable j^abor Conference m Sydney, for the election of members of the Australian Executive of the Labor Party. This Conference was captured by "Industrialists," with a kind of "coup de main" arising out of the sudden organisation into a solid body of tli© delegates from affiliated trade unions, represented at the Labor Conference, as distinct from the branches of the Labor League that were represented at that gathering. "' ■: ■ .' . • ■ ■' '•' ■■"■■..'■•' ■''•.. This organisation within an organisation determined to clear ,out "the old gang" of professional politicians who had fastened themselves Ld^such a way upon the -New South wales Labor League as partly to paralyse Its energies, and to insist that Liberals should no longer masquerade as Labor is ts; but that, both m legislation and administration, the Labor members should be compelled to carry out the objects for which the Labor Party was founded more than a quarter of a century ago. Besides nominating candidates for the State Labor League Executive and Presidency, the new organisation ran candidates for the ; Australian Executive having control over the Labor Leagues - throughout - Australia; and the candidates selected were : Mr. T. D. Mutch and — Mr. W. M. Hughes. , The triumphing Industrialists elected their two candidates, Mr. Hugbea receiving too votes of 161 delegates, and Mr. Mutch of 80 delegates. Tho big vote for Mr. Hughes was partly the result of his having been persistently press-puffed of late, and partly the result of his having been — probably by a quite narrow majorityselected by the Industrialists as one of the candidates for whom they bound themselves to vote solidly. In the main, the election of Mr. Hughes (which was also largely m response to an urgent cablegram from London m which he stated that it was 'Very important" that ho should be elected to the Federal Executive of the Labor Lea gue) was tho result of puffing and praising by the plutish penny press, m particular by the prints owned \>y the British Tory Peer, Lord Northcllffe, whose agents In Australia have been very active" In booming "little Billie." • •. ■ ■ • ■ ■■ It is necessary and imperative, however, that the workers should beware of accepting "Little Billie" at the valuation put upon him by ''the Tory press of Britain. There has never 'been an occasion m human history where' a spokesman of tho workers has been uniformly spoken well of by the enemies of the people, on which that Spokesman has not been either treacherous to the people, or" treading the path of treachery. What has Hughes been doing since his arrival m Europe? He has been acting as the fugleman of tho very sections of British BOClety that would dragoon the workers, and make of them merely reglmentallsed slaves like the conscripts of Prussia. • • "...•. In spite of tho fact that Britain is so fortunately situated that she does not need, for the defence of her .shores, the\ conscription that Is necessary ia France, for the defence of that country by the citizens of France, there has been, ever since this war began, a horrid howl, not for the citizen militia for the defence of Britain that was favored by the late Lord Roberts, and by some English Social Democrats, but for a regular conscript army, into which the workers may be pressganged and packed off to some distant foreign shore, there to kill, or be killed, m a quarrel concerning tho origin of which thoy know nothing 1 , and with which they might have little sympathy. This sort of* thing would suit the professional military man, who might get promotion thereby; It would suit the Tory, aristocratic landlord, who believes that, ultimately, Conscrlptionists would give him Protection for the products of. his land (even if that Protection half-starved the dwellers In the 'towns); it also would suit many employers, who fear that their careers of ruthless sweating and prodigious profit-making would bo Interrupted by strikes; but it would not suit the workers. It would not suit them, because the regimentolised British conscripts might, at any time, be placed under military law, and ordered to do under that law what they would never dream of doing under ordinary circumstances; and because the conscripts might even bo ordered, m certain circumstances, to shoot down the workers during labor troubles. I

j The company that "Llttlo Blllee" baa been keeping m London — and that Una bo boomed and buttered him with pralee, and so persistently and prominently puffed him In its pelf-pursufng press—is not only menacingly Militaristic and plutocratically Protectionist; but It le also Insistently Imperialistic. Imiporlallsm bus never beon advantageous to the poor, the obßcure, the tolling and iho lowly. There Is not an Instance m history whero the development of Imi perluilsm liuh not meant the beginning 'of sorrows for tb'o men of toll Imperialism la usually advantageous to a ruling class, a military ca«te. or an oligarchic aristocracy; but for the man who has nothing to sell but his laborpower, Imperialism la opprcvislon ami misery. Moreover, it Is also centralisation. The most highly organised Kmplre, that of Home, plun tiered the provinces for the benefit of the soldlera and usurers In the capital, while It filled tho cltl'.'S with paupers whose pauporlam had been produced by usury; and who were maintained with doICR of corn from tho public granaries. Tho rulers of all Empires strive to reduce lholr subJccLs to the levul of thos« of ; ancient pagan rioiae. • • • i Tho evil t«rfec.la of oven such Jmporiallam as wo have In existence m what Is call«d tho Hrltlsh Kmplro may i Ik> Illustrated by a rocent episode, most | intimately arrscting Australia. Th* [British Government appealed to AnnI trallft to Increase itn wlu-at crop, m or- ! der that Britain might b«? supplied with wheat In abundant. Th« appeal wnn promptly responded to, and tho n«?n«o» being alrto a good one, tho wheat crop m New Stout h Wnlea Increaned to 65.. 000.000 busholft. What, however, bus happened to ihla wheat? Well, tho Writlah Oovernment han mndft no effort to nupply «hlp/t to entry It or to compel ahlpownern to do their duly In convoy. int; whcui from New South Wnl« % # poru* to Brimin, mid \hn conw*qu"ncc 1« thftt ; hundred** of ctiounamlß of Uh^h of wheat nra rotllne at th«s f/dlway Htadontt of ; New South Wftl«w. becauae the Imperial Government will not compel mblpownem to do their duty, tuid rtnde that it cnum-n le*» tinploA*ftntn<^« to kpi it» wheat from Arirentlnn, tbo United Stateu. and ! other countrlee that are neutral. Thi* vu one or Uia mattcni that "1-lHlo

Ollloo" was to have «t»cn to In London (although It ought to have been attended to by Andy Fisher) : but nothing ecemtf to uavu been dono, ' • * • Wo see, therefore, how much there really i» m tho "blood In thicker than water" &ontlment when tho Orltißh Government J« u*»Hed to b«>»tlr Itself In | did of those who havo given th<*ir »om< j to ftjjht DriluSn's battles m n foreign j land, If things have proved ih<smfl«l\'«« !»o unsatiKfitctory with tin? prenem j |oo»o connection, what rc.tsan havo we j to bellevo that they would be any br>tler if we had tho h!ah!y-oontraJi»tnl Kmplro desired by the Imperial Fedcrutionlsts? Wlutt would Pownlng-otreot csnts about the welfare of the people In far-away Auatralin? In the days before [ tho achievement of r«>«pan»U>W« governi ment by the Australian colonlen, thy j connection tviWf<«n ittituin And Au»---i trrtUa witß much closer ihan it i» now. j und (he nejjlwt nnti Hl.itMUjiont by j Hrltuln to whfcJj AuatrttHiiUN w«»r« nubJiHited In tho««» d«yn wna ncnndnloiw and Hhockins, Imparlnl Kodertxlon would give us n wor*tf'done of th<» »»?««? nort of thing; and if "Llttlo IJIJke" helped to bring it about fuiur» g^ne-rs- i tlo.'ia would curiif* ih«» namt» of '"Little 1 ilHlco"— comtireh«>n«ivo!j t 1 pruptrly and I Juatly,