The Daily News. FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 1917. PERNICIOUS SOCIALISM.

Taranaki Daily News, 8 June 1917, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 1917. PERNICIOUS SOCIALISM.

The National Labor and Socialist Convention at Leeds may be.regarded as a purely Socialistic gathering, for the reason that by agreement between the three chief Socialist organisations,, the Labor party became, in 1914, politically the central Socialist body for Great Moreover, the Labor party has been pledged to Socialism as its ultirn- ".'." :■::". nr.ee 190 S. It must not, however, bo assumed that the thousand delegates assembled at Leeds represent the unanimous feeling of the Labor party. They may represent) the extremists, but certainly not the moderates or saner portion of the party, and this is perfectly evident by the execrable T>ad taste displayed at the opening of the Leeds Convention by singing the "Red Flag" to a German tune. Such an unpardonable affront to the generality of the workers in the Motherland is likely to be strongly resented, but even that pales into insignificance by the subsequent action of Mr Snowden who did his best to brand the convention as being absolutely pro-German. That lie was obsessed by the action of t'ie AYorkers' and Soldiers' Delegates in Russia was beyond question, for his object was to force the conference to affirm precisely similar aims as those l promulgated by the Russian extremists tvflo arc doing their best to play into Germany's hands In his advocacy of peace without an : noxations- or indemnities he discarded the last vestige of decency that he might have ever possessed, for he indignantly denounced What he described as the "dastardly proposal to tear four hundred thousand square miles of Africa from Germany, and turning the Turks out of Europe." It is to the credit of the Convention that there was to be found one delegate with sufficient courage and manliness to move the deletion of the \yords 1 "no annexation or indemnities," though after an angry demonstration the amendment was ruled out, and the motion carried. An instant's calm reflection over such a statement as that of Snowden's with regard to Africa and Turkey cannot fail to demonstrate that such beings—we cannot call them men—as Snowden are ready and eager to sacrifice the Empire if only they can be in the limelight. Such shallow mental powers as they possess have been warped and become attenuated by passion for declamation. They care not who links, so long as they are afloat, and are totally lacking in, every human appendage except brazen effrontery. By their actions they are assenting' to the Hun nontontion that it is tho British who caused the war and made Germany fight for the liberty of herself and the smaller nations. How otherwise could it be a "dastardly proposal" to drive the Germans out of Africa or to turn the Turks out oi Europe? If they are practical in their sympathy with German military despotism and are' content that the Huns shall commit unheard of atrocities

on innocent women mid children with impunity why do they not go to tiermany nnd have a, taste of military autocratic rule ? Or ifl they are so gently disposed towards the unspeakable Turks, why not cast in their lot with the Armenians and.learn what it is to be massacred? They know full well that Germany is lighting for a continuance of despotic power, and yet these advocates of universal 'brotherhood consider it "dastardly" to curb that power by reducing the territory over which it nows sway. They have lost all sense of right and wrong, and, carried away by the successes of the Russian revolution, they have become intoxicated with the desire for power as much as even the German Emperor. The chairman of the Convention, in his opening remarks, said they had come to talk reason and not treason, but this did not suit some of the delegates, one of whom openly corrected the chairman's contention, and the cabled report of the meeting shows that treason was far more in evidence than reason, otherwise Snowden's motion for establishing councils of workers and soldiers in every town and country district would not have been carried, for the trend of such councils, as exemplified in Russia, is to flout authority and promote chaos. So healthy-minded person can fail to feel that the action of the Leeds' delegates was other than revolutionary from start to finish. Much as we all prize liberty of speech, there is a line beyond which it is dangerous to go. Snowden and others crossed that line, and for the well-being of Britain and the Empira these pernicious agitator- should be kept in solitude till {he war is over.