THE WORLD PEACE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIV, Issue 10289, 26 May 1919, Page 8

THE WORLD PEACE

1 "LABOUR'S" ATTITUDE AN OPEN LETTER TO REAL LABOUR, (By J. T. M. Hornsby, M.P.) What is Labour's attitude towards the Peace celebrations? The Unions wish to know immediately.—H. Hunter (Christchurch), secretary of the United Federation o£ Labour, to T. Bloodworth (Auckland), the president. Wo can take no part in the celebration in honour of an event which makes the workers of one nation the slaves of the capitalists of another, and does not extend to all nations the right of self-government; and we oppose all wasteful expenditure on such celebrations.—T. Bloodworth. With the last clause in Mr Bloodworth's ukase almost everyone (alt sensible people, at any rate) will be found in complete accord. That much money will be expended causelessly during the Peace celebrations may be taken for granted, and it is matter for regret that this should be so; hay, even reprobation. But better a thousand times that money should be squandered by the thoughtless than that an appreciable number of people in the ranks of Labour should subscribe to the unwarrantable and utterly false statements made by Mr Bloodworth. No man, unless it be that he "wants discourse of reason," can justify such a charge as that levelled at the PeaceTreaty which we all hope to see signed and kept. I invite the real Labour men of New Zealand —not the minority who arrogate to themselves the;'right to speak for Labour, but the men who live by Labour, whether of hand or brain —to think over this matter. I ask you to realise that here, again, you are lace to face with men in the Labour movement who all through the war were not only personally disloyal to but actively antagonistic to the efforts put forth to help win the war by Britain's children in these distant portions of Empire. By speech upon the platform, by published propaganda, and by other and- far more insidious means, the class for whom Mr BloodWorth speaks did all in its power to prevent men from joining the colours, as well as to encourage the cunning shirkers and those who were openly disloyal. Even when the need foi- help to the Motherland became clamant, the Federation of Labour champions referred to the,men who heard and heeded the call of duty as "fools who were going out to be killed to uphold the capitalistic class." It was nothing to the Federation of Labour champions that in Belgium, in Northern France, in Serbia, In Ronmania, in Poland, in Armenia, the foulest, most fiendish, even unspeakably horrible crimes were being committed by the hordes of Prussia, Aus-tro-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria. It was nothing to the people who follow the lead of your Bloodworths that from out the ranks of the Interna--tionale in Belgium there came the cry that the proletariat had been betrayed and the'lnternationale wronged beyond the bounds of forgiveness by its whilom comrades- in the countries of Central Europe. It was to the New Zealand Federation of Labour that the sanctity of womanhood had been wiped out in a welter of bestiality; that every known and unknown atrocity that could be had been perpetrated against girlhood and womanhood by. the worse than beasts for whom Mr Bloodworth constitutes himself the champion to-day. All these things—and many mors of which I may not speak in a public journal—were known to those who are now protesting that the decision arrived at by the Allied Powers makes the workers of one nation the slaves of the capitalists of another. ■

Never once-—and' I aak you, the real Labour men of this country to especially note th2s—-did the leaders of the Federation of Labour denounce the crimes •which have made the German name hated and loathed. Never once was a word of pity or sympathy spoken when the Lusitania was torpedoed and inhuman monsters -wearing the uniform of the German Navy were known to have jeered and laughed as mothers with their babes .clinging to them were seen to float awhile and then go. down to death in the pitiless sea. Never once was a word of protest spoken by the New Zealand Federation of Labour when Nurse Cavell was brutally mur. dered, nor when hospital ships were sunk without warning. But when that splendid sailorman, Havelock Wilson, declared a boycott of German sailors and lengthened the period or embargo for every additional unarmed merchantman sunk without warning by the U-boat pirates, one of the leaders of the New Zealand Federation of Labour said Havelock Wilson "ought to be ashamed of himself!"

I ask you, the real Labour men, to first of all think of the things "I have written down here for your consideration, and then to ask yourselves the question: "What to-rday would have been our own fate and that of our . wives and children,., had the • Allies failed?" It is no excuse for any man to say he does not know, because the cold, calculated, deoision of those who firsts made war and planned the subjugation of -a world has been published far and wide. Neither 1 age nor sex would havo been spared—a damnable Hate was to be

wreaked in a rengeancs the mere contemplation of which' makes even strong men blanch. But Mr Bloodworth issues his ukase and forbids you to rejoice over the coming of Peace—a Peace which marks our salvation from the oncoming of a hordo in comparison with whose conduct the North American Indian on the warpath was gentle and merciful. There is no escape from this position. Loss of the war by the Allies would have meant world domination by Germany, and her declared intentions are in evidence —official, written evidence •a?, that.

1 will not waste words in inviting Mr Bloodworth to justify his assertion that the Peace terms. enslave. the workers of any nation. The worst part of his reEly is that he knows his statement to e incapable of proof; and it is unfortunate, to say the least, that there are men. who are ignorant for the most part of any of the many provisions of the Peace Treaty who accept suoh assertions as are ejected by people of the Bloodworth typo. If only these deluded ones would make inquiry, read for an, hour or so occasionally, or even give the facts a moment's thought, they would turn away from the Federation and all its works with a feeling of deep disgust. It is wickedly false ; of course, to say that any one provision of the Peaco Treaty enslaved anyone. It is true to say that its provisions make the world free, eeoure the rights of small nations, and even open the door for Germany to eventually enter in with others to the membership jof the League of Nations; when, that ib to say, she has to some extent at least purged herself of her sins of bloody crime. But Mr Bloodworth objects to this period of probation. Indeed, he would at once open the door to Germanywithout question and without punishment. He would liberate all the German , prisoners without exacting any punishment for' the foul crimes committed against British prisoners in Germany, even on our own New Zealand boys. Mr Bloodworth would pardon the shirkers and deserters who are even now hiding from justice, and he Would open the prison doors and permit those who are serving sentences for desertion and for shirking their duty to go free and at once enjoy the same privileges of citizenship as are the possession of the men who fought for a world's, freedom.

Workers, real .workers of New Zealand, will you ask yourselves this question': "What sort of country would this be if it were even to, come under the rule of men of the Bloodworth typeP" Whafa would be the standard of citizenffhipP What right* Jwould tie individual possesss, and what the reward of the man who would seek to uphold the canons of Justice and Right? In what relation are nations to stand to one another if any of their number may wantonly make war upon a neighbouring nation, and sot at naught every law, both human and divine, in pursuit of an objective of obliteration? I ask this,- because'.Mr Bloodworth implies that these things do not signify. A nation having plunged a world into a welter ; <3f blood and agony with set purpose to defeat arid enslave.every and all of the peoples upon whom it: intended to work its devilish will but does nob succeed, and in the end is itself defeated, must not be punished 1 So Mr Bloodworth declares. • There is to be jno .excullpatiotni, ; no reparation. Are you listening ye workers? To those of you whose sons ; went to the war, even to those of you whose' soris.gaye up their .lives, this precious ukase of "tine federation of Labour comes forbidding you '■ to' join in the celebration, of their victory. Do you know how I would, if I Were asked to carve out of stone a fitting memorial to the men who lie sleeping m far-away countries—do you know how I would chisel itP Thus: "They died for the freedom of men And the honour of women."

But- Mr Bloodworth says that, our sons died 'ti} 'uphold : wptlg-d6iiig,' aid to bring 'about the 'enslavement of the workers of one nation by the workers of another I He tells you, too, that be will. not allow you to rejoice over the coming of Peace to all men. Wjhen Peace Day arrives and tbe men, women, and children of our common country offer up thanksgiving and thou break forth into joy ior victory gained and blessings bestowed, you, who are in the ranks-of Labour air* to stand' aside'/and scowl upon every expression of pleasure, turn your backs upon every token of rejoicing. And -why? Because the Allied nations have dared to oxacb from a blood-guilty nation the expiation in some small degree of its offences against God and Humanity. It may be that some of the men in the ranka of Labour—l trust .they may be few—will subscribe to such a wretched doctrine. Surely, there are few men with good, red blood in their veins who can have any sympathy with a cause that makes for "bated breath and whispering humbleness" when it comes to dealing with those who so foully wronged the nations they trampled underfoot f The trampling ig over; the "bully of Europe" is a quaking coward, hiding from justice. France, splendid France, is free, but does not even seek to move towards that revenge she might have taken for all that she has suffered. No. Instead, she and her Allies stand for Right, and for the right of all people to live their lives and work out their destinies without having the ('mailed fist" shaken in their faces, and without the terror of threatened invasion for ever before their eyes.