MINERS ON WAR

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 75, 19 September 1911, Page 3

MINERS ON WAR

MINERS ON" WAR. OUTSPOKEN GERMAN DELEGATE. At the International Miners' Congress in London at the end of July, Mr. Thomas Burt, M.P., moved a resolution on universal peace which expressed the Congress's opinion that all disputes among3t nations should be settled by conciliation or arbitration. One and all, he said, they hated war and militarism, not only beeause.of the horrors and inhumanity which were associated with it, not only because of the heavy and intolerable burdens that it threw upon the peoples of the world, but also because of the barriers it raised in the way of the great social reforms they wanted for th« peoples of the world. WHO DECIDES? Herr Hue, a member of the German > Reichstag, speaking in support of the j resolution, said that some days before I an eminent British statesman made a] speech at the Mansion House. He was I not willing to criticise the words of Mr. Lloyd-George, neither was he going to say that nations might not come into the position where an appeal to arms could be the only solution. He desired to ask who was it that decided when the honor the nation was at stake? Was it the who declared when the vital interest of ; the nation as at stake? Was it the great, mass of the British, German, or Krciwh people? No. it was the governing class. It was the diplomats who decided when the vital interests of a nation were at stake, and the people who had to pay. (Cheers.) When they asked for money for social legislation in the German Reichstag the Government said they could not afford it; they had to spend so much on armaments. In the last twenty years Germany had increased its debt by 250 millions by its expenditure on armaments. These debts pressed down upon the standard of living. These debts taxed 1 the food of the poorest of thek people.

TMK "CAINS" OF WAR. And even to the victorioKs nation, what were the victories of war? Look fit Japan, After the victory of the war with Russia the cost of living in Japan went up, and the people were worse ofl' than before the war. Look at the Transvaal war; England was victorious, but the eoal export duty was put on to find additional money for the war, and the wall's of miners went down to the tune of 150 million marks. That showed how the British miner suffered directly for the victories of war. The British' Empire had won many victories, and if they went through London, the centre of it's Empire, they would see great wealth piled up. But they would also see more misery than perhaps iinywhere in the world. The Oerman delegates who had walked through the streets of London had seen riches piled up everywhere, but they had also seen the most pitiable sights, the greatest misery they had ever seen. That showed that the victories of war did not lead to the prosperity of the people. If the diplomats who always began these quarrels could be banished for a time, they might find nations settling their differences quietly by means of arbitration and conciliation. He hoped the time would come when that International Congress, not only by words but by deeds, would show its detestation of war.

M. Qucntin (France) said the Agadir incident threatened the peace of the world, und it was evident that by now the Treaty of Algociras had been torn into shreds. That International Congress ought to prepare itself to prevent war by considering the stoppage of the production of coal when a war broke out. The resolution was carried.