PROPOSED IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13337, 1 February 1909, Page 7

PROPOSED IMPERIAL CONFERENCE.

VICTORY FOR THE SOCIALISTS

LONDON, January 30. At Mr Keir Hardies instance, it was resolved that t-ho Executive shouW usk tho Labour ami Socialist organisations of the Empire- whether tlwy were in favour of an All-British Labour Conference in. 1010 to consider matters of common interest to the working clas«=o? in aLI parts. Tho Executive was asked to make arrangements if the replies were in tho affirmative. Mr Hardie dwelt on the siiccoss of Labour in politics in the Commonwealth, and ad-died: "Now that Labour has come into its own, it appears to us dcidrabie to got into closer relationship with our comrades throughout the Empire in all matters appertaining to tho welfare of the people."

A resolution to prevent members or candidates of tho Labour Party appearing on the same platform as members of the Capitalist parties was negatiretl' by a large majority. It led to stormy altercations between Mr Ben Tillett and' Mr Quelch. on the one hand and Mr Ramsay Mac Donald, Mr Shackleton, and Mr Henderson on the other. The conference, by a small majority, resolved in favour of the Socialisation of the means of production and distribution, and complete emancipation of Labour from the domination of Capitalism and Landlordism. The conference resolved, by a large majority, in favour of tho abolition of the half-time system-, by which children go to school for part of the day and' to work for another part; and in. favour of the raising of the school age to 16, and secular education. The conference rejected , by a large majority a resohitioni in favour of the State maintenance of school children, but agreed on the necessity of medical inspection and compulsory feeding of school children. The next conference is to be held at Newport, Monmouthshire.

It was anticipated that there -would be disputes at the conference between the extreme Socialists of the Social Democratic Federation like Mr Quelcb, and the more moderate Labour M.P.'s. The division 'between these two bodies has been widening of late, and a proposal was , to have been made at the conference to remove all Labour M.P.'s from the executive of the Labour Party, and to prevent them holding any official position. The "Pall Mall Gazette" says:—"The birth of the Anti-Socialist Union is late, though its purely _ negative propaganda must dk> something to_ counteract the extension of the Socialist movement before another General Election takes place. It starts operations as an opposing force at a time -when the Socialists and the Labour ■ parties are themselves in a state of inward turmoil, -where the bonds of unity, which seemed , very tight on the occasion of the victory a.t the 1906 polls, have been loosened. Perhaps the work of the Union will be all the more effective on that account. To the ordinary publio the Socialist movement is a tinitedi force; those who have closely studied- its phases know that details which have recently come to the surface have existed for some time. The differences of opinion were too strong to be smothered; in the interests of unity; in some cases the grievances are fundamental and nvust inevitably have been made public. Socialists are becoming uneasy at the growing amount of dissension in their ovrxt ranks ; eacbr ■week sees some new question of policy brought forward contributing to the disintegration which is rapidly setting in."