An Englishman’s Home.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLII, Issue 16, 21 April 1909, Page 9

An Englishman’s Home.

SOCIALIST VIEW OF THE PATBIOTIG PLAY. Robert Blatehford, the well-known Socialist leader and editor of the “Clarion,” in writing of “The Englishman's Home,” the patriotic play which we are to hear shortly, says:— The object of the play is quite evident: if is a pamphlet intended to help conscription. All through we are taught that our territorial forces are useless; that the men are undisciplined and untrained. and their officers noodles. The moral is: "Form a huge army of regular soldiers, or you will come to grief.” Now. I think our youth should all be trained to arms. I have said so before. But I do not believe that conscription is necessary. And I devoutly hope and trust that the British people will not l>e cajoled into the belief that it is necessary.

\\ e could form a citizen army in this country without conscription that would la* quite capable of defeating any invader who could land upon our shores. And whether we form such an army or not, 1 hope the British people will set their faces resolutely against conscription. No democrat should listen for one moment to any plan for converting the manhood of the nation into a conscript army, to be owned-and ruled and officered by the governing class. If we are to have an army, let it be a democratic army. If we cannot have a real democratic army, let the lord, and the millionaire, and their sons defeud their land and property themselves. The rich are asking the poor to defend the property of the rich. The rich, on their side, will not guarantee that the poor shall have work and health and comfort, nor that their children shall have food and clothing and attention. But they want the poor to defend their homes and wealth and families. It is a cool request, and I trust the poor w ill be wise enough to treat it with the contempt it deserves. At present the nation is being farmed in the interests of the classes. The masses are servants and inferiors. The Government, the law, the Church, the commerce, the manufacturers, the Press, the land, the capital, the houses, the machinery, the shipping, the railways, are all in the hands of the classes. The classes get the wealth, the honour, the pleasure, the leisure, and the education. So far as the masses are concerned, the country would not be worth defending were it not for the hope that in process of time the masses may emancipate themselves and come into their own. Plainly, I advise the masses to defend the country—not because it is worth defending now, but because they may make it worth defending in the future. If I were a British workman, with no more property, no more wages, no more leisure, no more respect, and no more prospect than 90 per cent, of British workmen have to*day, I would (supposing I were not a Socialist) see King, Lords, and Commons pounding hemp in foreign prisons before I would go within ten miles of an invader’s rille. If I were not a Socialist. I say: for, being a Socialist, I hold that the hope of winning a better life for our children or our children’s children is a hope worth fighting for. But to accept conscription is to destroy that hope, and to bind oneself to tight for the interests of the selfish rich, and against the liberty of the working classes. Listen! “We are in danger. We must have men,” the rich are crying. A ery well; but when the poor cry. “We are all hungry, we must have work; our children are starving: w<‘ must have food,” what do the rich say? lhey say, “It is not the province of Government to find work or food for the people: that is Socialism.” Let the poor answer, then. “It is not our business to find soldiers; go and defend your country yourselves; you own it.” The rich say. “If you want food, earn it.” Let the poor answer, “If you want security, pay for it.” WTien the country is our country, we shall be quite willing to defend it. While it is yom- country, yon may defend it yourselves.

Now, tile position is quite clear. The classes say the country is in danger. But they will not have a democratic army because they cannot trust the people. Neither will the people have a class-own-■ed army, for they ea-miot trust the classes. * * • * The’play ’“An Englishman's Home" has caused some stir in London, where it has been enormously boomed by the conscripfionists. But theexeitement will soon die out in London, and it is very unlikely that amongst the great mass of the working classes this play will arouse any excitement at all. I cannot imagine the mon of Scotland and the North and Midlands losing their heads over a melodrama. In any case a great revolution in national sentiment is not to be brought about by a play. The masses have not yet bee nedueated up to Socialism; but they are not to be gulled into conscription.

Ts the nation in danger? A great and scattered Empire without adequate means of defence is alirayn in danger. I do not believe that the most powerful navy can ever be a sure safeguard. This is the most military period in the

history of the world. Never have there been such hordes of soldiers in Europe. An dthis country. which has more wealth and more possessions to defend than any other two Powers, is less prepared than any other European Power for war.

It the masses have anything to fight for and it they are allowed to tight as free men, defending their own, and not as conscripts defending the wealth of others, then a citizen army in Britain would make for security at home, and would be a powerful factor for European peace. But conscription! A military tyranny controlled by the landlord and the capitalist. and officered by their sons! [do not think that idea will commend itself to the working classes of this nation. Danger! Yes. the bulk of our workers are always in danger—danger of hunger, of accident, of illness, of unemployment. of the workhouse. Let the classes ensure the masses against danger of that kind, and then the masses may consider more seriously the foreign menace to the wealth and liberty of the classes. “An Englishman’s Home.'' Millions of Englishmen have no homes. A few days since, in London, a little child, refused a meal at a County Council school, went away and died of starvation and cold. “An Englishman’s Home.” 1 don't think.