AN ABORTIVE PEACE CONGRESS

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2664, 8 January 1916, Page 12

AN ABORTIVE PEACE CONGRESS

r THREE ENGLISH WORTHIES. j The Berno correspondent of tho Lon--1 dou "Morniug Post," writing under date November 11, says: I am in a position to state that this International Congress.for studying the ) basiß of a permanent peace, which t should have met at Berne from Decem- - her 14 to December IS next, has been i postponod sine dio. In other words it , will probably never take place. It was i being arranged by the Anti-War League • of Holland, by the Swiss Committee > for_ Studying a, Durable Peace, by the I Union of Domocratio Control, and by [ tlie Swiss Group of tiie Inter-l'arlia-l mentary "Union. Many well-known per- ■ sons in Switzerland and some few out--1 side had agreed to act upon the com- ! mittees, and certain prominent persons : in France and England were mentioned i as likely delegates, but when the Execu- ■ tive Committee met privately last Saturday it was found that not a single i leading Frenchman would consent to • have anything to do with any congress i which proposed to talk about peaco. i Only one well-known Socialist and ' Pacifist was mentioned as coming from I Italy, and wlion the English names were inade known—Mr. Ramsay Macdonald, Mr. Norman Angell," and Professor Lowes Dickinson, of Cambridge—tho , Kxceutive gave vent to uncontrolled merriment, and it 'was . unanimously agreed that the congress could never lie really international or carry weight if such men represented England. Moreover, it was considered that it ivoiild be non-neutral to liavo thjir. at a congress in Switzerland, as thev have been attacking their own Government, ami it was further pointed out that they had never protested against tliu violation of Belgian neutrality. I understand that Germany was'to have Jmd no lower than ten delegates present, and Auatria-Hunmy fiva, J