A CONTEMPTIBLE MANIFESTO

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 241, 5 July 1919, Page 6

A CONTEMPTIBLE MANIFESTO

The Labour Party manifesto dealing with the peace terms imposed on .Germany is "what might be ex peeled of its authors. Most of the more prominent of the leaders of the, party went ns far us they could or dared in hampering their country's war effort—notably in opposing the. orderly call on its manhood, which was the only democratic method of : upholding a just cause an'd.keeping faith with our soldiers in the field. What they have to- say about tlw peace terms is strictly in keeping with this record arid shows throughout, an utter disregard for truth and justiceThe character of tho manifesto is most conspicuously apparent in its 'treatment, at times'in its evasion, of tho broad issues of peace It contains not one word in condemnation, or even in recognition, of Germany's crime' in ' spreading death and devastation-oyer Europe and vast areas furthov. ariell '. It passes over the fact that,Gem:any to-day is ruled, without an approach to effective public protest, by parties which weivj in high favour, though not.in office, when Prussian militarism was. at the. height of its ~power and was doing its. worst. _ In n manifesto which fills considerably more than a eolumn of newspaper space, the men. who profess to speak for the New Zealand Labour Party have not found room.for one word of congratulation or brotherly sympathy for tho various small nations which were brutallv oppressed and maltreated by the Hun, the Hapsburg, and the Turk, ittid are now redeemed. -These men render lip service to the prineipl<*.of national selfdetermination, but they record their "unqualified condemnation" of a Treaty which is above all things an act of liberation. On the other hand, ;ill possible sympathy for Germany is implied in the assertion that the Treaty imposes a peace of vengeance. What Germany is actually called upon to do is to make partial reparation .-. for the havoc she has wrought and to liberate people whom she held in submission only by brute force. This, according to the Labour Party manifesto, is venegeance. Obviously, therefore, its authors consider that Germany-ought to be required to pay little or nothing in the way of reparation. They are careful, however, to avoid the point that if Germany were treated thus tenderly' the foulest wrong would be done- to Belgium, France, • Serbia, and all other countries in which the German armies .spread devastation and destruction. What those who talk about, a peace of vengeance are really advocating is that Germany's, victims, toppling on the verge of ruin, shouid bo left without remedy or relief, while Germany herself is left in the unrestricted enjoyment of relative prosperity. A more shameful travesty justice could not be conceived.' What the manifesto has Lo say about llussia is of a pieee with the rest. A measure of doubt admittedly exists as to the ability of leaders like, Kor.oitAK and Deniken lo reconstruct Russia on right lines. 'But there is no doubt at all about the Uolslieviki. They have been proved beyond question a gang of bloodthirsty murderers and terrorists, sworn enemies to every principle of democracy, wlui have inflicted horrors on Russia for which a parallel must be sought, if at all, in the deeds of the barbarian conquerors. Nevertheless it is for the Bolsheviki alone, so far as Russia is concerned, that the spokesme® of the New Zca-

land Labour Party profess any sympathy. Their policy for Hussia is that "the Jlolshoviki should bo left unimpeded to complete _ what they have begun. Contemptible in_ all other respects, the manifesto is of great value as a further revelation of the sympathies and outlook of those by whom it was composed.