|

|

|

The essence of the claim of Labor is that no peace | arrangement entered into by rival groups of Imperialists | can be other than a temporary bargain in which - | whoever is advantaged - democracy | will lose. In Europe the congresses are saying that if | a sound peace by negotiation is ever to be realised, it | must emanate from somewhere outside of the present | junkers, the autocrats and the habitues of Foreign | Offices. Neither Von Hertling nor Arthur Balfour can | make the world safe for democracy. Their whole | conception of the future is a democracy which would be | unsafe for the world. Their philosophy of government is | out of communion with the aspirations, hopes, fears and | struggles of humanity. Whatever be their professions | respecting the international polity of Europe they stand | at home for the social dominion which postulates the | rule of privilege in the everyday life of the world. It | seems a platitude to say that in order to arrive at a | democratic peace we must have democratic Governments in | power, supported by the mass of the people and dealing | with governments of a similar composition, but there is | no other basis upon which the peace of the world can be | stably founded. Each belligerent has its populations | grouped in such wise that no matter how successful the | armies of the nation may be, victory means less than | nothing to the mass of its citizens. All the resultant | annexations and trade preferences do not make the poor | less poor or diminish by a fraction their subjection to | land and capital. It is because of this that the people | everywhere are against the expansion-projects of the | governments. All they seek is to put out of regarding | for what they are viz: the instrument of | imperialism.

|

It is this willingness in every country to defend the | Fatherland which has given each group of rulers the | means to carry on the war. And having the means to war | they war for purposes which are theirs. In no way can | their projects be regarded as the purposes of the | populations as a whole. The proof of this is to be | found in the conditions associated with each declaration | of war aims. Von Hertling does what Lloyd-George does. | Each considers it in keeping with the principles of | democracy to announce to Parliament what the Cabinet has | decided on. That is the end of it. Whatever discussion | ensues is either a fool-endorsement of everything that | has been propounded or is publicly paraded as enemy | propaganda. Thus the inner council of a few men run the | war in each country. Even in Australia the same | bureaucratic authority is being exercised. When in New | York Mr Hughes made a speech which purports to state | Australia's attitude towards the Pacific Ocean. For our | own part we are to a great extent in agreement with what | the Prime Minister stood for. Our point is that he | spoke without first having ascertained what it is the | public of this country believe in. Parliament has not | yet elaborated any policy in respect to war aims, let | alone formulated a basis of peace. Whatever be the | destiny of the Marshall and other pacific islands, it is | not making the world safe for democracy for democracy to | be silenced regarding its opinion on the subject. This | is the crux of the issue between the diplomats and the | people. The former having decided on an objective find | political mouthpieces whose voice is accepted as the | fiat of the nation instead of being regarded for what | is, viz: the instrument of imperialism.

|

To end this state of affairs is now the urgent | pre-requisite to any clearing up of the whole war problem. | When we are told that what is wanted is a clean peace, | we want to know whether our own hands, or the hands of | our diplomatic and other rulers are clean, or whether | they are tied by secret treaties and agreements. No | answer can be made to this question until the whole | caste of secret intrigues has been banished from the | government of each country. They made the hostile | coalitions out of which war became an automatic | inevitability, and they are now responsible for the | points of conflict which keep it going. The latest | declarations of Von Hertling and Czernin on the one side | and Wilson and Lloyd-George on the other are only | irreconcilable in respect to those questions which a | democracy would not permit stand in the way for a single | hour. Once the discussion between the belligerent | diplomats is extended beyond broad and general | principles conflict is certain. Five out of the | fourteen of President Wilson's peace terms deal with | general principles, and of these five, four were | unequivocally accepted early in the year for Czernin and | Hertling with scarcely any reservation. Of the other | points dealing with territorial readjustment, a good | deal was also accepted by both the spokesmen of the | Central Powers. It seems clear that if only the | belligerents would drop from their stated war purposes | the projects which amount to the annexation of | territories, no insuperable bar blocks the way to the | war's cessation. To the eternal reputation of Woodrow | Wilson he has stood steadfast to this dictum. He has | not entered into entanglements with regard to the | Trentino and Turkey, nor does he contemplate any | adherence to the 1916 programme of economic isolation | being imposed on any of the parties to the war. In his | own words a general peace |

|

It is a vital element to the accurate interpretation | of the Labor attitude towards the war to realise that it | can only end in a people's peace if it is being fought | as a people's war. In that sense it must be a war not | between nations, but between systems and classes; the | dividing line is not geographical boundaries but class | interests and in the final struggle the division will | not be national but social. It is for this reason that | Labor works might and main to bring the peoples of the | belligerents together. Here is the inspiration of the | Stockholm Conference and of the Wilson discrimination | between the junker rulers of Germany and the | machine-dominated population subject to Kaiserdom. Its | vast importance is revealed by the sullen complaints of | Von Hertling (January 24, 1918) that Wilson's reply to | the Pope's note | In this matter | Lloyd-George did an invaluable service for the German | Government by preventing the open meeting at Stockholm. | Each revelation of the diplomatic authority ruling | Britain consolidates the German war machine, just as | each manifestation of the same rule in Berlin confirms | that located in Downing Street. It is the dunghill from | which is bred the gospel of the bitter-end and victory | by might of armed superiority. Labor seeks a peace by | negotiation because it rejects the policy of the Hun | everywhere. It regards it as the antithesis of all that | is requisite to the foundation of the new order. To | overcome the causes of the war is the only basis upon | which the peace of the world can be maintained. And | there can be no peace in the to-morrow if there is | carried over to the peace era the machinery and the | projects which are the technique of international | conflicts.

|

|