The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JULY 9. LABOR AND THE PEACE TERMS.

Taranaki Daily News, 9 July 1919, Page 4

The Daily News. WEDNESDAY, JULY 9. LABOR AND THE PEACE TERMS.

The annual Labor Conference at Wellington on Friday last asserted that the peace terms do not represent the voice of the people, because Labor has had no part in making the Treaty, no Parliament has had a voice and the people have not been consulted. All we can say to this is that the governments which took part in framing the Treaty were appointed by the peoples they represent and were trusted By them to do what was right and just. If therefore, the delegates to the conference, who were appointed by their unions, take such a stand as this, they must be reminded that their manifesto is not worth the paper it is written on because the members of the various unions have not taken part in its framing. The terms of the manifesto are such as to cause a deep feeling of thankfulness that the super-wisdom of these colonial Laborites was not invoked toj make a glaring farce of one of the i greatest and most solemn tasks' that has ever been faced by i the statesmen of the world. "When Labor shows its ability' to manage its own affairs sanely and sensibly, with a i due regard to the other portion of the community, then it may hope to be heard, but sneering at the personnel of the Peace Conference as representative only of the ruling class, is nothing less than an insult to the intelligence of the community, and a serious reflection on the sanity of Labor generally. The same sneering tone is adopted in connection with the League of Nations, which is denounced as being designed for the purpose mairly of protecting the interests of Allied capitalists. It is quite evi-1 dent that those responsible for the manifesto have not taken the trouble to master the contents of the League covenants, and it is a pity they should have deliberately tried to mislead the workers. One could recommend to these men the paragraph in Mr Lloyd George's speeeh concerning the'

Labor Charter which is included in the League—a charter added to the Treaty mainly owing to the initiative of a Labor member of the House of Commons, Mr Barnes, and designed to establish a permanent means of raising the level of Labor over the whole world. Again, we are told that according to the view of this Labor Conference that the peace terms make for war and not. for peace, and that the Germans have "no hope but revenge." That, we fear, is an expression of a policy which appears to have been absorbed by the extreme section of the Labor party—"not peace, but war," hence the criticism loses all its force. Most level-headed people will, we venture to think, rather accept Mr Lloyd George's estimate of the justness of the peace terms than the frothings of the extreme Labor delegates of New Zealand. Another phrase in the manifesto states there is not a single word in the Treaty about the preservation of popular liberties, yet Sir Edward Carson (no mean authority) expressed the opinion that history would recognise that Mr Lloyd George, above all others, had preserved, not the "popular liberties," but the far greater and wider liberties of Europe. How a body of men who consider themselves intelligent can assert that the peace terms have been formulated "from the viewpoint of the international trader," passes comprehension, and emphasises the trend of a section of Labor to foster class hatred. This view is confirmed in the final paragraph of the manifesto, which declares Hint the world can never be made safe for humanity (otherwise Labor) while capitalism, with its adjuncts of Imperialism and militarism, remains. It seems impossible to conceive that any ir.an cannot understand that the war was fought by the Allies to banish militarism; that the stern but just terms imposed on Germany were designed for the same purpose so as to put an end to Germany's opportunities for mischief; and to bring about an era of peace-where-in the workers, who have "won a right to a corner of their own," would have better and more uniform labor conditions. It is worthy of note that while pity is extended by the Labor party to the Germans, yet a fear is expressed that the terms of the indemnity "will make it inevitable that the British markets will be flooded with German goods," with the accompanying danger of our own workers "standing idle and unemployed." This is a fair specimen of the intensely narrow and prejudiced views of men who take no heed of anything but their own self interests. Fortunately statesmen of exceptional ability and wide vision framed the Treaty in the interests of humanity at large. "We aye not surprised at the Labor Conference's sympathy with the Bolsheviks. It is but a sign of the times and the trend of the extremists, but we do deplore that the loyalty and patriotism of New Zealand should be dragged through the mud by such men, who, after having done their worst to prevent the liberation of the oppressed nations, now make common cause with Spartacists and Bolsheviks. At all events they have shown themselves in their true light.