SOCIALISM’S TASK.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1631, 31 October 1916, Page 4

SOCIALISM’S TASK.

WHEN PEACE IS DISCUSSED,

“What is the immediate task of Socialism?” M. Branting, the Swedish Deputy to The Hague Socialists’ Conference, was asked by a London interviewer. “In every country the Socialists must endeavour to obtain from their statesmen a more precise and definite statement of the national aims in the war,” he replied. “Thai matter will probably come up at the Allied Socialist Conference in September. Mr Asquith and Viscount Grey have already explained (heir aims. There is little to complain of in this respect in regard to England, despite the dissatisfaction that seems to h*c felt by a section of opinion. British statesmen seem to us to have formulated (heir purpose as distinctly as the situation permits. Erench statesmen are far from being so satisfactory in the opinion of onr ’French comrades who constantly contrasi the clear and explicit utterances of Mr Asquith and Lord Grey with those of M. Briand and particularly of President Poincare. The Gorman Chancellor, on the other hand, is vague in the extreme, and the only thing that one can deduce with any certainty from bis phrases is the intention to establish some sort of commercial domination over Belgium. This insisteneo upon a more delintc statement of lienee terms is the more necessary in view of the ignorance in which the German people has been kept.”

Asked by what means Socialism was to exercise its influence upon the peace negotiations, M. Braiding said that- according' to The Hague resolutions the peace conference must not he confined to the diplomatists and Governments, hut all the Parliaments, and therefore the Socialists, must he represented. Undoubtedly thei'e should he an international Socialist conference.