LABOUR'S WAR AIMS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 16146, 26 February 1918, Page 7

LABOUR'S WAR AIMS.

INTER-ALLIED CONFERENCE., COMPLETE AGREEMENT REACHED. (By Cable.—Preßg Association.—Copyright.) (Australian and X.Z. Cable Association.) LONDON, February £4. The Inter-Allied Socialist Conference has ended. It readied complete agreement on the matter of war aims. Tho Conference is taking steps to notify its decisions to tho Socialist parties in the Central Empires. It is also sending a delegation to confer with President Wilson and Mr Samuel Gompers

, I (president of the American Federation I of Labour). j At a farewell luncheon, Mr Arthur i 1 Henderson, who resicmo'd. oMiressod gratllicaflon tlint the 'Conference had substantially accepted tho war aims ot IV." it is u Labour. a.s outlined in the mr.nii iestn of December litlt. lie said:— Tbe Conference has deckel for tho absolute freedom and integrity of I>e!I gium. Serbia. Rcumania, and Monte- • negro, and that every territorial chanco s-hall based on justice and right, making tor the permanence of th-> > world's po.nco. Tbe>.? are" onr irre- ; ducible minima. When tliev hare h-.-n . secured wo shall uo-ire to heli-'n tho t';i]lest intercourse amonest all nations. V\'o repudiate every attenmt to institute an 1 economic boycott o r the commercial and i fcnanciai isolatron of Gorman v. Tho conflict can only bo enti-d in tlmx» v.avs namely, by militarism, exhaustion. or conciliation. Wo are convinced that- nil tho belligerents; must eventually rc-ort to conciliation. Nothing is further from tho truth than tho i n *'egat.ion that Labour is only concerned in holding o\it the oliro Branch to the enemy. "\\ o wil] not negotiate with o olr.'o branch while the hand of the enemy holds tho sword. Both sides must b<? prepared to abandon militarism before a settlement is possible." FUTURE OF COLONIAL POSSESSIONS. (Reuter's Telegramo.) (Received February 2otli, 11.10 p.m.) LONDON, February 24. The inter-Alliod Socialist conference decisions included the following claus© regarding colonies: —That the return of the colonies to their pre-war possessors, or such eschango and compensations which might bo effected, should not impedo tho making of peace. Those colonies that have been taken by conquest from, any belligerent must bo made tho subject of special consideration at tho peace conference, in which all communities in their neighbourhood will be entitled to tako part, by a clause in tho treaty of peace. They must secure economic equality in such territories for tho people of all nations and thoreby guarantee that none shall be shut out from legitimate access to raw materials and prevented from disposing of their own products, or bo deprived of their proper share of economic development.