The press TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1918. Labour and the War.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16146, 26 February 1918, Page 6

The press TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1918. Labour and the War.

It is an important and significant fact that The inter-Allied Socialist Conferenco has agreed upon a statement of war aims substantially in agreement ■with the war aims of the British Labour Party. The Germans calculatod, at the beginning of the -war, that the Labour and Socialist elements in the Entente countries would grove a source of weakness to those countries; and when it began to become clear that the war would bo long and would develop into a contest in moral endurance, they were confident that the Labour-Socialists in France and Britain would force tho Entente to agree to an inconclusive peace. These anticipations are so far from being fulfilled, that Labour-Socialism in France, Britain, and Amorica has bocome resolutely determined that Prussian militarism must be destroyed. "We will not negotiate," Mr Samuel Gompers said at that final gathering of tho Socialists which is reported today, "we will not negotiate with tho "olive branch while the enemy holds "the sword." "The great lesson," M. Vandervelde said last week, "is

" that democracy "would commit an irretrievable mistake by throwing " away its arms before imperialism is "defeated." At the opening meeting of the Allied Labour Congress at Clcrmont-Ferriuid, on December 23rd, Mr W. A. Applcton, speaking in the nanso of 1,£00.0Q0 British trade unionists, said"Germany bears the ve- " sponaibiiity for the beginning of, and ' "the prolongation of the war. The " democracy of the Allied nations, con- " scions of liberty, must unite in an " effort to crush, not Germany, but "militarism, -which holds in thraldom "German democracy. They must " continue the struggle until their "security presents an assured future." [ The first clause of the British Labour

"Memorandum on "War Aims," which was adopted at the ISational Conference of tho Labour and Socialist organisations in London on December 23th last, stated that "the British " Labour movement sees no reason to "depart from tho declaration nnani- " mously agreed to at the Conference "of tho Socialist and Labour Parties "of tho Allied nations on lebruary "1-ith, ]!)15and this declaration contained tho expression of an inflexible resolve to figbt until victory was ! achieved. I "We liavo emphasised these ovidences of tho soundness of British LabcurSocialism on the main issue, bccausc thov are really more important than , I tho details of the Labour-Socialist war j ! aims, some of which arc mistaken, and ' some Utopian and impracticable. What tho Labour-Socialists aim at i 3 a clean sweep of what they regard as tho causes of war, and tho erection of I some "super-national authority, | which will guarantee the maintonance ' of a settlement based upon reparation, restoration, freedom for nationalism, and the denial of all "imperialistic" designs on the part of Germany or any other of the belligerents. While many of the Labour and Socialist ! loaders believe that such a poace could be arranged by negotiation now, others have no such confidence, in view of the character and conduct of tho present German Government, which has within the past few woeks, in its dealings with Russia, shown that it cannot he mado to fit into any plan of co-opcra-tion for the peace and safety of the world. But all are agreed that unless militarism receives its death-blow in this war their hones of a peaceful and freo growth of democracy must perish. The staunchness of British labour, so long the prey of dangerous theories, so often blind to Labour's and the nation's interosts, is one of tho most impressive things in the war. The "Cologne Gazette" was wiser than it knew, and wiso too late, when it recently complained that "the Englishman remains an Englishman " whether ho is lord or trade union " workman." j