NO-PREMATURE PEACE

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 265, 29 July 1918, Page 7

NO-PREMATURE PEACE

—,_ MANIFESTO BY BELGIAN WORKERS WRONGS TO BE RIGHTED Copies of" the "memorandum of peace terms" issued by the Belgian Labour Party (Parti Ouvrier Beige) havo been received iu Wellington. Tho memorandum is a strongly-worded document, insisting on the right of tho Bolgian people to demand reparation for tho wrongs tlono them by the German invaders. "As soon, as tho present war began," suns tho memorandum, "the Bolgian Labour Party proclaimed:— _ (1) That tho Socialist Democracy was ■In no way responsible for that disaster. (2) That tho Belgian proletariat would lend Ihoir aid to chock tho invasion of •their territory 'all tho more zealously bscauso they wero confident that, in defending tho neutrality and tho very ■Cvistenco of their country, they wero also serving- tho causa of democracy and political freedom in Europe'; and

(3) That the comrades who were called to tho colours 'ought to show themselves in all circumstances brotherly and loyal, nud never-to forget that they belong to fhs> Labour Internationale.'

"After three years of sorrow, innumerable and of grievoiiß sufferings, the Belgian working class can proudly declare, boforo the proletariat of> the world, that it has remained immovably faithful to tlm principles thus proclaimed at the decisive hour. Now, as on August 1, 19U, the party is conviuced that Belgium has done nothing to justify tho hoinous aggression under which she ceaselessly bleeds. Tho'Belgian Socialist workers will never regret having suffered and poured out their blood in tho defence of right; succeeding events have strengthened their opinion that, in defending tho independence of their country, they aro serving the cause of democracy and ■ political liberty in Europe. They aro not conscious of ever having forgotten for ono single day that they Twlong to tho Labour Intoruatioiiale. They havo unhappily had to bear tho most cruel disillusionment in seeing the high ideal of liberty and justice wlncn itho Socialist Internationale symbolised for them sullied and debased."

Tho memorandum recalls the "equivocal aud hesitating attitude of the Gorman section nt tho international- congresses each tiiuo thai; militarism «uuo under review," emphasises the efforts that were made by Prance, Britain, and Russia to secure a peaceful settlement of Ihe Serbian quarrel in 1911 and points out that the Socialist parties of Germany and Austria mado no protest against the war, and oven gloried in it. Tho Belgian Socialists believed at the time that tho German proletariat had boon drawn into the war unwillingly, l>ut "they soon found themselves cruelly deceived and strangely rewarded." "The Prussian hordes swept over the Innocent and too confident little country, herding men and women before them, and behaving themselves according to their supreme chief's mnndato to his troops sent against the Chinese Boxers— namely, like the Ijtuns. They respected Jio law, human or divino; they pillaged, burned, murdered. Tho ruins of Vise, Herve, Andenne, Auvelais, Monceoux, Dinant, Tamines, Louvain, Aerschot, Tennonde, and innumerable villages bear eloquent witness to tho devastation committed without tho least exouso of military necessity. In a fow days tho soldiers made moro orphans among the civilian population than tho war itself made in threo years among our soldiers' families: The German Socal Democrats remained silent before all theso namoloss hovrora; while the German Press heaped insult and calumny •upon the crushed populace, and the Gorman Government published, its lying story of francs-tireurs. Authorised representatives of the German Socialists came to look at tho work of their nation and visit their unhappy brethren. Hermann Wendel came to see that Germany had been attacked and that French soldiers were in Belgium before the German Army arrived. ... Then came Nosko to disclose with disconcerting cynicism the real opinion of the German Socialist majority: 'You should have let them through!' 'Respect for treaties, national honour—'a moro bourgeois conception!' English Socialists Criticised, "It was particularly painful to us, in these circumstances, to witness tho absurd nttitudo of certain English Socialists, who, through hatred of Imperialism, blamed their Government for 'having taken part in tho war. They could not see that England's abstention would hava Ecnled tho triumph of the worst of imperialisms and militarisms. The Belgian working class, whose hearts beat with a boundless Jopo and admiration for heroic France, will bo eternally grateful lo England for having respected treaties and saved her independence, instead of imitating certain backboneless jicutrals and playing the role of Pontius Pilate, as sho was urged by theso Socialists to do."

Tho manifesto shows that the German Majority Socialists have consistently supported tho militaristic rulers of Germany, that they voted for the unrestricted submarine policy, and that they stand yet for it policy that. spells oppression to other peoples. "Tho Belgian working classes have learned to know what feelings must animato a people which has been unwillingly subjected to foreign rule. They often think of tho sufferings

of Alsace-Lorraine, of tho tons of thousands of Poles who have teen hanged in Galicia sinco tho war began, of tho numberless brutalities to which the Italians of tho Trcntino have been exposed, and of all tho sorrows which Austrian domination has inflicted on Iho Czechs, Serbs, Croats, and Slovaks. They consider that no sacrifice would bo too heavy which would assuro a free and independent life to those oppressed nations; and this is why they do not deny a prematura peaco, which would re-establish the status (juo anto bellum. Now it is this status quo that tho German Socialist majority wants and tho Austrian Socialist majority, too. ' By what right and in virtuo of what principles do theso professed Socialists eontinuo to sacrifice the liberty of so many peoples to the interests and ambitions of their autocrats ?

Indemnities. "In regard to the proper indemnities duo to uilferent countries, the uernian Socialist majority preserve the sanio liostilo allituae. Bolgiuiu, Serbia, the wasted provinces ot Franco, will liiuo to heal tneir own wounds in the way laid down in the tieniian interpretations of tho iormula: 'INO indemnities. \vhatr Take the caso of Belgium. It would mean that Germany. would with impunity havo raised heavy war contributions of"hundreds of millions ot iranos from the provinces and towns,, imposed endless fined on trining-aoiuetimos the most ridiculous-pretests .on individual towns and villages; carried oil our machinery and raw materials; systematically destroyed our lactones; seized all kinds of manufactured goods at ruinous prices; torn up thousands of kilometres of our railway lines; wound up, in order to make a. shameful profit, the busmess;s of all thoso who refused to worK for tho enemy; destroyed and burned whole towns and villages without tho slightest military reason;. massacred in heaps thousands of defenceless inhabitants; deported workmen wholesale to die of hunger, of cold and of ill-treat-ment; behaved in a word so that tfiero no longer exists a Belgian family wHicn has not to weep its dead, its rums, its physical and moral downfall. ' ,! 4nd the responsible authors of all theso ills, according to tho German' Socialist majority, after having taken everything, stolen everything, destroyed everything in their work of domination, are now, after missing their stroko, to havo the right to withdraw scot-ireo and disown tho solemn promise rando by tho Chancellor on August i, 1914, and endorsed unanimously on December 2, 1911, by the Socialist Party. And doubtless wo shall be asked further to pledge ourselves to let them immediately resume the old business relations and flood the world freely with their own productions, w'hilo for 'long months, perhaps years, the Belgian working classes and those of Northern FTanco must spend their etrength in. reconstructing their factories before the country can sell a ton of merchandise. Ah, well, if necessary, if it be iniposaiblo for us to recover uudor theso conditions, they, will givo via charity, but-drawn for tho most part from our Allies' pockets. Tho Belgian labour Party will not accept alms of this kind for i'ta country; it will not become a race of beggaTS; it' wants only its rights, and it will have them. All Peace Agitation Dangerous.

"The Belgian Eabour Party considers all agitation in favour of a prematuro peaco to be dangerous. It has said so already in its note of December 12, 10111, It must repeat this with tho emphasis justified by later events. It has followed anxiously, and sometimes with irrepressible indignation, tho propaganda of the Russian Maxinalists, blinded by narrow theories anil led astray by tho chaos .irouud them—one know 6 now with what melancholy results. Was thero ever so ead a sight as this employment of the purest doctrines of Socialism to serve, in tho long run, the purpose of tho King of Prussia? "With griof wo have seen comrades, experienced Socialists in France, Italy, and England, lend themselves to these peace manoeuvres. We cannot comprehend their blindness and infatuation in imagining that they can deliver Europe from tho nightmare of war by treating with tho autocratic and military powers, and that a real and sincore recognition of the rights of nationalities can bo obtained from those powers. We deny the right of neutrals to stir up feelings of piety and humanity at the risk of seeing tlm'most sacred rights trampled under foot. But we also think wo have_ tho right ourselves to say to the pacifists of Franco and Italy, Russia and England: Tour sufferines are nothing beside ours. Your populations work and fight for themselves; they aro better nourished, better clad, bettor wanned than ours; they still have moral gratifications of inestimable value. Our Belgian population, on the "contrary,_ has languished for three years in gaol; it is short of food, clothing and fuel; it has not the comfort of a friendly Press, not visits nor letters from its fmhting men. Tot—question these people, and they will tell vou thev desire no limping tip!"-?. Thny object to any agitation which would result in breeding illusion and doubt, weari-w-t or discouragement among heir comrades nt the front who are enrrving out that hard but noble task—the liberation of humanity from the burdens of tho past." .