The Taranaki Herald. DAILY EVENING SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 1920. THE COUNCIL OF ACTION.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 16822, 21 August 1920, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. DAILY EVENING SATURDAY, AUGUST 21, 1920. THE COUNCIL OF ACTION.

The British Trades Unions have developed a new form of political activity by the establishment of the so-called Council of Action and have sent a cablegram on the subject to the New Zealand Labour Party. This cablegram may be considered as giving an accurate view of the Labour position. It begins by bailing with satisfaction the declaration by the Russian Government in favour of complete Polish independence and pledges the labour movement to resist every military and naval effort against the Soviet Government. The whole position is given away in the first half of the above sentence. Lenin says, or is supposed to have said, that he proposes to recognise complete Polish independence, although at the same moment his forces are ravaging Poland and endeavouring to secure possession of the (Polish capital. The Germans in 1914, when they were, driving back the armies of Prance and Britain and daily coming nearer to Paris, might similarly have stated that they meant to maintain the absolute freedom of Prance, but who would have believed them? The British Labourites, however, are readv to swallow without the slightest critical examination any statement made by a foreigner, simply because he is a foreigner and therefore must be more truthful than a Briton. It is a curious attitude of which we can find examples in New Zealand. One would expect some attempt to justify this implicit belief in the word of Lenin, but nothing of the sort is made and the Labourites accept his dictum as final. The order therefore goes forth that no support shall be given to Poland, the existence and freedom of which Britain has already guaranteed, and no military or naval action of any sort shall be taken against Soviet Russia. There is no way of retreat left if Lenin’s interpretation of his promise, should turn out to be unsatisfactory or if the complete independence promised to Poland should turn out to be complete subjection to the Soviet form of government. The. threat which accompanies this instruction to the British Government is that there shall be a general strike or whatever other means of penalising the public can bo devised in order to bring overwhelming pressure on

the constituted authorities. The exact wording of'the threat is that “the conference authorised the Council of Action to call for any and every form of withdrawal of labour when circumstances may require it to give effect to this policy” and every trade union official is called on to carry out instructions. The whole document is practically a. rebellion against the existing Government and the replacement or attempted replacement, of the British Parliament as supreme authority in the Empire by an irresponsible body of men who claim to speak on behalf of the people, or rather of the portion of the people they are supposed to represent. The leaders of the ISew Zealand Labour Party, Comrades P. Eraser, E.li. Cooke, il. Aryton and H. Holland, have sent a cablegram in reply congratulating the British Labourites on their glorious achievement towards internationalisation and peace and assuring them of the unanimous support of Now Zealand Labour. There is no evidence that these four gentlemen have consulted the workers of the Dominion before committing them to approval of_ the course of action followed by the extremists of Britain,'but one no longer expects any such free consultation of their followers by the Labour leaders —they dictate the policy and that is the end of the matter. Fortunately the people of the Dominion do not take Hr. Holland and his friends too seriously, but there is no doubt that his ambition is to play the part of Lenin on a small scale. Mr. Tom Bhaw, a Labour member of the British Parliament, who recently visited Russia as a member of the Labour delegation, gave an interesting description of Lenin. “He seems,” he said, “a very determined man, who knows exactly what he means, and he is extremely doctrinaire. He regards his opinions as though they were proved facts. He is not only blinded by the strength with which he holds his own views, but he is also incredibly misinformed.” This is the opinion' of a friendly critic and shows how dangerous ignorance and fanaticism can be when given a favourable opportunity for action.