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OFFICIAL VERACITY PAGE 2.

Political Notes By F. W. Jowett, M.P. I LLOYD GEORGE ANNOYED. I Mr. George was evidently in a bad tem- per when the miners' executive waited upon him with the object of informing him as to the result of the miners' ballot on the "oombing-out" pro- posal. There was a majority of 29,570 against the proposal, and this seems to have made him verv angry, for he scolded the miners without restraint as if they were a lot of school children. Witft the object, of representing the miners a-s a rabble of irresnorisible men. careless as to the safety and welfare of the nation, he adopted his usual devise of making fal se comparisons baRed on wanton misrepresentations of every- body concerned. The difficulty of dealing with the Prime Minister's attacks on those who dare to disagree with him is due to the fact that he is not sufficiently honest to in a Ice definite charges against his opponents, but proceeds always oy means of false suggestions. A TWO-FOLD SUGGESTION. I It was a two-fold misrepresentation Mr. Lloyd George made use of, to the miners disadvantage. He first misrepresented the Russian democracy whieh he accused, by inference, of having deli- berately withdrawn the Russian armies from the field and handed over their cannon to the enemy, and he- accused the minNs, again by inference, for he lacked the courage to make the accusa- 'tion bv means of a definite charge, of playing the Bolshevists' part agamst th& country. To show the cowardly way in winch this aceu- qfttion hv suggestion was accomplished, let me quoteo a passage from Mr. Lloyd George's speech. He said — "I have heard that people say we ought to ve. in. Well, I do not know that I have heard anybody say that we ought to give in, b*it people put forward proposals the effect of which would be. if you accepted them, that you would, in fact, have given in. But I have novevr heard anyone say You ought to play the Bolshevists' part.—withdraw your armies from the field, hand your cannot over to the enemv\ let him cnpturc terri tories in France Timl march to Calais atwl Boulogne, overawe Britain, and generally trample down Elurope. The two-fold suggestion contained in the above description bv Mr. Lloyd George of the situation in Russia is that the Russian Democracy had done all that he described, and that the miners intend to do the same for Cereal Britain. ANOTHER PASSAGE. I In another passage Mr. Lloyd George pressed his suggestions still further, and again associated the miners with his baseless suggestions. Speak- ing of the German offensive on the Western front, he said — Early this morning the German Armies have attacked us on a. front of 60 iiiiies- 100,0f)0 yards, that is 57 miles. They have attacked us with overwhelming forces. Where have they come from ? They have come from the country where democracy has failed to do it., duty because each group there began to decide for itself whether it would defend its native land." A BASE SLANDER. I Mr. Lloyd George knew very well when he a ddressed the miners in the terms I have stated that it was the late corrupt rulers of Russia under the Tzar and not the Russian democracy that reduwd the Russian Army to impotence and the Russian people to a condition of abject help- lessness Iw accumulated losses and famine. He is well aware that this was the cause of the Russian collapse. He knows a lso that the Allies forced Kerensky to lead Russia into an offensive against the armies of the Central Powers, and that this offensive was the immediate cause or the Russian collapse. In suggesting that the Russian democracy had acted in the way he de- scribed and is responsible for the German attack on the Western front. Mr. Lloyd George uttered a base slander against the people of Russia who have suffered in this war as no other people have suffered. It is estimated that the Russian people have lost from 2t to 3} millions in killed alone ,? ni i i l i o-ns in killed a l one in the war. He might have been expected to place the blarfie for this disastrous result on the shoulders of the Tzar and his grand Dukes, to whom it really belongs, but these reckless and corrupt "gamblers with human life he never so much as mentioned. In associating the miners with conduct of which, lie falsely suggested the Russian democracy had been guilty, and by further' suggesting that the decision of the miners had been taken with the same disregard of the national welfare as he falsely attributed to the Russian democracy, Mr. Lloyd George, again by means of cowardly suggestion, maligned and slandered the miners of Great Britain. A DEADLY PARALLEL. I Mr. Lloyd George says that the Government cannot have the decisions of the National Exe- cutive submitted to any sections of the commu- nity. however important. And yet, the most disastrously important decision ever taken so far as the British people are concerned—the decision to link up the fate of the British people wit.h the late Tzar's autocratic government and with France—was taken by a small group of indi- vidual Ministers and was carefully concealed from Parliament and the British people, and the result of this decision is that millions of British men have been forced from their homes and sent into foreign lands to kill or be killed "for reasons which are to them unknown. PROPERTY AND LIFE. I It is only Mr. Lloyd George's colossal impu- dence that enables him to appeal' serious when i he is pretending that there is any comparison between the right of the State to control pro- (which, by the way, it the sort of control which the Government fails to exercise effective- ly) and the right of the State to control men's lives. No Government has the right to compel a man to go out and kill or be killed in a cause the justice of which he disputes or denies. His life and his conscience are his own. Property is different. A man's material possessions can- not be sa.id to be his own in the same sense. Material wealth derives its value from the needs and contributions of the community, and if Mr. Llovd George had, in fact, compelled the land- lords to cut up their land as he professes that he has done, he, or to speak more correctly if less egotistically, the Government, would have done nothing more than it is entitled to do. A FICTION. I But what does Mr. Lloyd George mean when he speaks of compelling landlords to cut up thfir land P The Government has not compelled the owners of private parks to cut their parklands up and grow food on them. The Government has "bribed the landlords by guaranteeing high prices for corn for a series of years itith the object of inducing landlords and farmers to cultivate their land. But it is doubtful whether the pro- duction of corn has been increased by this policy. One thing, however, is not in doubt, and tha.t is the enormous increase in the selling price of cultivable land due to the- policy of guaranteeing the price of corn. A. LONG, LONG WAY. I The Government has a long way to go before it can lie said that property has been controlled to the same extent as life has been controlled. The men who are now back on the Somme know this, and such of them as live to return will pro- bably make the (Government understand the position later on. THE SOMME OFFENSIVE. I Yes, back at the Somme. If only the Govern- ment could lie forced to tell the people the num- ber of ¡lives lost from the commencement of the Somme offensive in 1916 to the day on which the armies returned there, what a. revelation it would be! And just before the Somme offensive Mr. Lloyd George met an offer to negotiate for peace with contempt, said the enemy was squealing for peace," and with vainglorious boasting about the knock-out blow" which he intended to deliver. A "TIMES" ACCUSATION. I The Times," owned by Lord Northcliffe, the person to whom the Government has entrusted the duty of conducting British propaganda, in enemy oountries, gave prominent publicity a short time ago to a number of outrageous charges against the engineers employed at Woolwich Arsenal. On the authority of a member of the New South Wales Parliament, who alleged that he had received his information from a young Anstrahan engineer who had h?en previously em- ployed at the Woolwich Arsenal, the engineers at the Arsena l were charged with spending their time in smoking and drinking tea, and system- atically idling their time away under every pos- sible excuse, although in some cases their wages were being credited to them at the rate of from £12 to £18 per week, and, in one case, even at the rate of £ 28 to R30 per we-ek. PROVED BASELESS." I The charges referred to have led to an investi- gation, and they are, of course, found to be un- true. When the result of the investigation was communicated to the House of Commons, Mr. Fringle asked whether the attention of the Public Prosecutor had been called to the facts of the ease with a view to a. prosecution being in- stituted against the Times for prejudicing the production of munitions, but Mr. Kellaway, who replied for the Ministry of Munitions, ex- pressed the opinion that the publication of the unfounded statements had done no harm, and a prosecution was, therefore, unnecessary. The point to be specially noted in regard to the mat- ter is. that Lord Northcliffe, who so readily gives currency to unfounded charges against the workers whilst, on the other hand, he refuses publicity to important communications such as the Lansdowne letter, has been specially selected to present the case for the Allies in enemy countries.

Miners and Comb-Out. I. IV mass meeting of the Dowlais miners on Sunday passed a resolution condemning the ac- tion of the conference of M.F.G.B. delegates at Westminster in deciding the issue on the comb- out by the application of the two-thirds ma- jority rule, which is in operation on the question balloted upon," and calling upon the South Wales Miners' Federation to convene within the week a special conference to consider the present situation and to decide what action is to be taken.

Corporation Masons' Wages. I Merthyr Corporation deferred for a month pending enquiries as to the attitude of other county boroughs consideration of a circular letter from the Operative Bricklayers' Society, containing n, request that the Council should agree to the mattr of a Rat-rate of 1/6 per hour for. wages for the municipal, masons being refem?ed to the Committee on Production. It was reported that the 1 Jd. per hour advance ?awarded by the Committee on Production to the bricklaying trade in December was already being paid by the Corporation.

Brithish Labour and The International. AN INTERESTING PIECE OF CONTEM- PORARY HISTORY. FROM THE N.A;C. IMPORT TO CONFER- ENCE. A CHANGE OF PACE; THEN USURPATION. The review of matters appertaining to our movement nationally contained in the N.A.C. Report to be submitted TO the Leicester Con- j ference this Easter is a record of work calcu- I lated to cheer us in these days when the imme- diate present contains obstacles on all hands; and the future is apt to induce pessimistic thought. Twelve months ago the future was no worse than it is now, the obstacles we had then to overcome were just as formidable as those which cast a shadow on the present, and we may well take heart from the facts pointed out by the N.A.C. in the opening passages of their re- port, when they remind us that the affiliation fees show an increase of over 40 per eent. above the sum received during the previous year, and that since this increase has accrued during the last six months it must indicate a numerical membership increase of over 50 per cent. on the beginning of the year. From this the N.A.C. bids us take heart of grace; for they say All the other evidences point to an extraordinary growth of interest in and support of our move- ment, and we are confident that the I.L.P. has entered upon a period of prosperity which will soon place it in a position of proud pre-eminence among the Socialist Parties of the world. The unflinching adherence to principle which the Party has maintained during the war has at- tracted to its ranks many well-known men and women who will be able to render great service. The N.A.C. desire to place on record their sin- cere appreciation of the untiring and devoted work of the rank and file of the Party during the year, which has been so abundantly fruitful of results. THE CHANGE OF HEART. I But even more cheering than the mere record of the numerical recruitment of our ranks is the roseate picture that the N.A.C. are able to pre- sent of the changed heart towards the pacifist movement that the stead:«4-3s«roh of the pMit. twelve months has witnessed. Influential pro- tagonists of the Last Man School," we are re- minded, have seen the error of their ways, and to-day fight by the side of those who strive for a just peace, based on reason. Apart from the regeneration of the financier, the out-ofoffice politician, the journalist and the parson, the same volte face is to be seen in the Labour Party, which from a declaration on the part of its majority representation in favour of The Knock-Out Blow" twelve months ago, to-day stands for a diplomatic peace. Thus it is not now left as it was twelve short months ago for the N.A.C. and a few kindred spirited bodies to stand as the sole representatives of Britain for a sane finish. Of course, the coming of the ma- jority section of the Labour Party to a larger view and a better appreciation of things as they are, has not meant any slackening of effort on the part of the I.L.P. in the direction of peace by negotiation, and to-day, as in the days of its vilification, the I.L.P. is foremost in the fight, disseminating a major share in the propaganda on behalf of Reason. LABOUR PARTY & THE INTERNATIONAL. I In this connection nothing makes so sail read- ing as those pages in the Report devoted to the International. Sad because the whole record ex- hibits the Labour Party and Tradef, Union or- ganisations of this country in a distinctly lurid light..From the beginning of the war the N.A.C. urged on by its constituent districts, has striven for a meeting of the International Social- ist Bureau, but our efforts as a minority section had been frustrated by a majority of the British section of the Bureau working hand in hand with the Executive of the Labour Party. So late as January last year at Manchester, the Report reminds us, the I.L.P. sought t8 secure (support for a resolution calling upon the Labour Party to press for a meeting of the Bureau with a view to the speedy reconstruction of the In- ternational, and the calling of the International Socialist Congress simulta-neously with the Peace Congress. The amendment to that reso- lution was a declaration that the fight must go on to a finish, and limiting the simultaneous Congress to Allied Socialists and trades union- ists. Many of us forget that this happened only fourteen months ago in talking of these things to-day. Many more forget, or never knew, that it was the L??ur Party Executive which broke dmvn the' Allied Socialist Conference that the French sections endeavoured to secure, and to which in the first instance the Labour Party had appointed delegates; again, in May. 1917, the International Socialist Bureau invitation to bel- ligerent democracies to meet art Stockholm in consultation was not accepted owing to the act of our British Labour Party. True this was fol- lowed by the proposal to hold a. consultative con- ference of Allied parties, and was produced by the Labour Party, but this was scotched by the invitation issued by the Russian democracy working with the Dutch-Scandinavian Commit- tee to hold the International Conference at Stockholm, an Invitation that was played with until it became useless, and which in the end was only accepted by the British Section con- ditional upon the decisions being consultative and not mandatory. But by far the more serious aspect of the August 10th Special Labour Conference that de- ,4 the. way in wbieb that cided upon this course is the way in which that Conference. and, in particular, the Miners Fed- eration by the unscrupulous use of its block vote, proceeded to shoulder the Socialist and minority sections out of the International, for it was the Miners who moved the addition to the Execu- tive's resolution of a Party representation of 24, divided into 8 Executive, 8 Parliamentary Com- mittee of the Trades Union Congress, and 8 Special Conference representatives, the adden drnn That no further additions shall be per-I mitted from a.ny affiliated or unaffiliated body In this country." MEANING OF THE AMENDMENT. I The N.A.C. very correctly pointed out that I the Executive resolution on representation itself violated the spirit and letter of the Russian in- vitation, and proceed to say: The addition made to the second resolution by the acceptance of the amendment of the Miners' Federation raised a matter of very serious importance, and which has had far-reaching importance, and which has had far-reaching consequences. It will be noted that the resolution as recommended by the Executive of the Labour Party proposed to give direct representation to the Parliamen- tary Committee of the Trade Union Congress, but as this Trade Union representation was to be a part of and not an addition to the repre- sentation to which the Labour Party would be entitled no objection was taken in this course. But the addition to the resolution made at the instance of the Miners' Federation confined representation exclusively to the British Labour Party, and denied the right of the Independent Labour Party and other Socialist sections in Great Britain to their constitutional representa- tion at an 'International Conference. At the adjourned Labour Conference, eleven days later, this resolution, as amended by the Miners' Fed- e.ration. was reaffirmed by 2,124,000 votes to 175,000. It is only fair to say that the Execu- tive of the Labour Party were not responsible for this decision of the Conference by which the Socialist, sections were deprived of their distinct representation. A DIGNIFIED PROTEST. I Immediately after this decision the N.A.C. sent out the celebrated circular signed by Philip Snowden, as Chairman of the I.L.P., denying the right of the Labour Party to adopt this at- titude, and indication our refusal to accept any such decision as binding, and appointing Messrs. Anderson, Glasier, Jowett and Macdonald as our representatives. Stockholm, unfortunately, never materialised, and so the issue was not forced then, but an Inter-Allied Conference, summoned by the British Section, was held in London in August last, for the purpose of se- curing a common statement of war aims—a pros- pect that was defeated by the differences amongst the French sections—but a very im- portant resolution, dealing with the point raised by the Miners' Federation amendment and La- bour Party resolution, was passed as subjoined: The Conference welcomes the invitation to the Stockholm Conference issued by the Soviet in aoeord with the Dutch Scandinavian Committee, and supports particularly the provision that Minorities as well as Majorities ought to be re- presented in order that the Congress may be fully representative, and therefore be in a posi- tion to judge the problems of the war from every point of view." ENTER THE T.U. CONGRESS. I As we have said, the. Stockholm Conference j had been receding from us just here, but now l up comes the Parliamentafry Committee- of the Trade Union Congress, an organisation without standing or claim on the field of International politics. But the Intel-national was apparently regarded as a Tom Tiddlers ground, and so the Blackpool Conference put up its resolution re- commending its Parliamentary Committee to assist in arranging a meeting of the Interna- tional Labour and Socialist Congress, with a proviso expressing the opinion that voting should be nationality, and that > the minorities should be suborned to the majority vote in each nation. Immediately following this resolution's í passage at the Trades Union Congress, the Exe- cutive of the Labour Party met and agreed to take joint action with the Parliamentary Com- mittee of the Tirades Union Congress to secure first a national, second an inter-allied, and ulti- mately an inbernational agreement. From now onward the British section of the International was ignored, despite the fact that Mr. A. Hen- derson was its Secretary. In January last the N.A.C. learned that it was intended to call the adjourned Inter-Allied Conference, but usurpers of authority—the Parliamentary Committee of the Trades Union Congress and the Labour Party- took it upon themselves to decide that Socialist Societies should not be represented, al though one would imagine that the Socialist Societies attached to the British section had an equal right to be represented at a Socialist Con- ference with the Labour Party, and a greater right than the Trades Union Congress, which has no standing in International affairs. Accord- ingly the N.A.C. forwarded a letter of protest against this arbitrary change in the basis of re- presentation. A letter which was dignified, cour- teous, yet insistent, and from which we take the two middle clauses: "To a closer working alliance between the Labour Party and the Trades Congress we have naturally no objection at all, but grave questions of policy will arise if the intention is to set up in this country a new International authority, and to exclude the direct affiliation and participation of British Socialist organisations in the work of the Social- ist International. In view of the history and growth of the International it is difficult for us to believe, de- spite any evidence to the contrary, that such an untenable claim could be contemplated in any quarter. With that larger issue we shall be ready to deal, if necessary, at the proper time. Meantime, we claim that any change in the basis of representation at the forthcoming Inter- Allied Conference can only properly be made by the Conference itself, and after those whom it is proposed to exclude have been heard." I INTERNATIONAL AID INVOKED. In the subsequent preliminary meetings with the Allied Socialist representation in Paris it is true that J. R. Macdonald was present, but it was as Treasurer of the Labour Party, and not as an I.L.P. representative. The I.L.P. had joo representative there, nor were we represented at the Inter-Allied Conference which opened in London on .February 20th. A letter was sent to the Secreta-rv of the Commission of the Inter- Allied Conference enclosing a copy of the letter sent to Mr. Henderson and the Labour Party, and pointing out the unrepresentative character of the British representation, by reason of the exclusion of the Socialists, and further declaring that if the Inter-Allied Conference was followed by an International Conference we should insist on our right of representation there-a step which we hoped would have the a,pproral and support of the Continental comrades Repre- sentations have also been made to M. Camille Huysman, as Secretary of the International Bureau, and to the Socialist Parties in Allied countries, and the N.A.C. believes that their support will be forthcoming when the desmand of the I.L.P. for the exercise of its rights is put forward. The story is not a nice one, but there is no blame attached to the I.L.P. for that, and when the report which we have just glanced at above comes before Conference next week for full con- sideration there should be some straight talk and certainly the whole party will stand solidly behind the N.A.C. in the steps it has taken to secure to Socialism in Great Britain its right of representation at Conferences of its irtteriiitional followers.

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