D6I3 M24 U.C.R. LIBRARY UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE A CLEAN PEACE THE WAR AIMS OF BRITISH LABOUR Complete text of the Official War Aims Memorandum of the Inter- Allied Labour and Socialist Conference, held in London, February 23, 1918 BY CHARLES A. McCURDY, M.P. NEW YORK GEORGE H. DORAN COMPANY Price, Ten Cents N24- "We have to endure with courage and patience. We have to remember that all the world's great things have been produced in the same way through the toil of noble hearts, through burning fears, and through the free sacri- fice of our blood for one another. Then, believing that that is the way by which comes the redemption of the world, through the confusion and the garments steeped in blood and the horrors and anguish of war, we shall see 'Christ's Kingdom will come at last, the Kingdom of Peace and Love.' " DR. R. F. HORTOM. PREFACE THE statement of war aims adopted by the Socialist and Labour Parties of Great Britain, France, Italy, and Bel- gium at the Inter-Allied Conference, held in London on February 23, 1918, is practically the same as that pre- viously adopted by the British Labour Party and British Trade Unionist Congress on December 28, 1917. It is therefore a statement of British origin. In its original form it received the cordial endorsement of American Labour, and in its present form it may be said to represent, with authority, the views common to organised Labour in all the Allied countries. The statement contains here and there suggestions which will be received with more sympathy in Socialist circles than elsewhere, but on the great issues of war and peace it reveals a close and welcome agreement between the pur- pose and aims of organised Labour and those of the British Government and the British people. C. A. M. A CLEAN PEACE PNIFFERENT people describe our war aims differently. - ' Some can think of nothing but Belgium with its ruined towns and villages, its looted factories from which all the machinery has been taken away into Germany, its starving people, its young men and women torn from their homes to work for their German masters. They say, what- ever else happens, Belgium must be restored before we can talk of peace ; and they are right. Others will tell you that there can be no lasting peace for Europe until the peoples of Europe are free from the domination of foreign rulers free to live their own lives, speak their own languages, and worship God in their own way. In German Poland it is a crime for little children to say their prayers in their mother tongue. Austria is made up of all sorts of peoples and nation- alities Poles, Hungarians, Czechs, Slavs, Roumanians, Italians many of whom will never be satisfied until they obtain political freedom. And everyone knows how the forcible annexation of two French provinces Alsace and Lorraine has been one of the causes which brought about the present war. The strength of Germany in this war rests on the fact that she can conscript to-day all the subject races of Europe fifty million people to fight for a cause they loathe and for masters whom they hate, against their own race and their own kith and kin. I have no doubt 2 A CLEAN PEACE that the enfranchisement of the subject peoples of Europe is one of the most important of our aims. But if I were asked what is the absolutely essential thing for which we are fighting, I could find no better answer than the statement which strikes the keynote of the official statement of the War Aims of Allied Labour : "Of all the war aims none is so important to the peoples of the world as that there should be henceforth on earth no more war." It is no use setting the peoples of Europe free if they, have nothing to hope for, but to pay taxes and work over- time, in preparation for another war. It is no use restoring Belgium if, when she is restored, she is liable to be again invaded. Her fate would be like that of the house of which St. Matthew tells when the evil spirit had gone out, he presently returned, and, finding the house swept and gar- nished, took seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and the last state of that house was worse than the first. Things are much too bad in Europe to-day to be just patched up. We must find some end to the war which will save Belgium and ourselves, once and for all, from any possibility of the same thing happening again. A New Fact. When this war began most people thought it would be over in a few months. Some terms of peace would be arranged, Belgium would be compensated, and then Europe would just settle down as before. That is the way most wars have ended, and nations have been making wars and ending wars and beginning wars again, ever since history was first written. But three years have passed and we have discovered THE WAR ATMS OF BRITISH LABOUR 3 something new about war something that makes war to- day different from any of the great wars of history, some- thing that we hope will make war impossible for the gen- erations to come after us. This new fact is the unexpected, the enormous increase in the cost of war. In times of peace, in the years before 1914, when we thought that war could never be got rid of altogether, the nations of Europe naturally made preparations every year for the possibility of war. They spent money on armies and navies as a necessary protection against a war which most of them hoped would never come. Every year they were spending nearly 400,000,000 on naval and military establishments as a sort of insurance against war. It was an enormous sum. The peoples of Europe were spending more in preparation for war than they spent on the health of the people, on sanitation, on education, on schools and universities, on insurance for workers, on medical dispensaries, old-age pensions, and on every kind of scheme for improving the housing, the conditions of labour, or the social conditions of the different peoples. Every penny of it had to be provided by the labour of the peoples of Europe, and it left many nations poor indeed. If such a sum had been applied to more useful purposes, we might have abolished all slums in Europe, doubled all the shipping of the world, built new railways round the world, shortened the hours of labour, and raised the stand- ard of life and comfort for every worker in Europe in a few years' time. From a Tin Soldier to a Tank. It was all spent in preparing for war. And the astonishing thing is that when war came in 1914 it found all of us unprepared. We know how, in Great Britain, we 4 A CLEAN PEACE had to multiply armies and armaments tenfold and twenty- fold when war actually came. The 400,000,00x5 a year which Europe was spending was not enough, not half enough, not anything like enough, for the purpose for which it was spent. If, when this war is over, we have to reckon with the possibility of another war, Europe must spend, not a paltry 400,000,000 a year in preparation, but a sum that would be nearer 4,000,000,000. War has grown in stature from a child to a giant, from a tin soldier to a tank. We cannot afford to keep him any longer. We have got to fight this war through until we get complete security against any future wars. Unless we do that we can look forward to working overtime all our lives to pay the cost of this war and the next. It is best to look the facts in the face, size up the job, and make up our minds to go on quietly until we are through with it. At present the German military rulers who planned this war, who have made war their trade and the conquest of their neighbours their state policy for half a century, are still firmly in power. They are not willing to talk of any peace that would disarm them, that would destroy the great military forces on which the German Empire has been built up, on which the House of Hohenzollern rests. But until they are disarmed their neighbours cannot dis- arm, and an armed peace would mean bankruptcy for half the nations of Europe in a few years' time. Autocracies Must Go. The War Aims Memorandum of Allied Labour goes boldly to the root of the evil. It relies, as the means neces- sary to prevent war, upon the formation of a League of Nations, based on THE WAR AIMS OF BRITISH LABOUR 5 "The complete democratisation of all countries, the removal of all the arbitrary Powers who, until now, have assumed the right of choosing between peace and war; the mainte- nance or creation of legislatures elected by and on behalf of the sovereign right of the people, the suppression of secret diplomacy to be replaced by the conduct of foreign policy under the control of popular legislatures." These words have only one meaning. Autocracies must go; Hohenzollerns and Hapsburgs, with their sultans and satraps, must be removed, or no longer be entrusted with the keys of life and death, the power to send to the slaughter millions of the human race. Never again must it be in the power of one man to speak a word that will condemn an innocent people to death or plunge a world into war. Any peace by agreement which left the Hohenzollerns dictators of Central Europe would be a humbug and a sham. Hohenzollernism must go ! Disarmament. And not only must the coming peace free all nations, the Germans as well as ourselves, from the dangers of a despotic system of government, it must give us visible and tangible proofs of security for the future. Europe must be drastically disarmed. Disarmament is the test and touchstone of an honest peace. When anyone proposes terms of peace, the simple way of seeing whether the terms are worth considering is to ask these questions: "Would the peace proposed enable us to disarm? Would it disarm Germany?" No other kind of peace is worth talking about. We want peace for our children as well as for ourselves, and 6 A CLEAN PEACE no peace would be any good to them that left Europe full of armies and arsenals heaped with stores of high ex- plosives, one huge powder magazine. Sooner or later some idiot would strike a match, and the whole business of war would start all over again. The Inter-Allied statement goes with clear common sense straight to the heart of the matter. There must be no more of these gigantic armies and armaments. So long as the great machines of war are kept always ready for use by any people or ruler on any sudden impulse or provocation, there can never be a safe and secure peace. The system of conscription which places huge armies always at the disposal of warlike rulers and peoples must go. "The League of Nations, in order to prepare for the con- certed abolition of compulsory military service in all coun- tries, must first take steps for the prohibition of fresh arma- ments on land and sea, and for the common limitation of the existing armaments by which all the peoples are burdened." The essential war aim of the peoples in all countries is the same not conquest or glory, but security and with- out a drastic disarmament of Europe, no real security is possible. Justice. And Allied Labour recognises clearly that something more than disarmament is necessary for Europe if we are to have a clean Peace that will not leave the embers of war still smouldering. The Coming Peace must also be based on a policy of justice. We cannot build a new and better Europe on a rotten THE WAR AIMS OF BRITISH LABOUR 7 foundation of ancient wrongs. There are crimes that must be atoned for, oppressed races that must be freed, home- less and ruined peoples that must be saved and restored. The Inter-Allied Conference has in its memorandum dealt at great length with many of the problems that will arise economic problems, colonial questions, schemes for re- instating industry and for reconstruction after the war. It would, of course, be impossible for us all to be agreed on all points, when we come to consider these large and difficult problems. There is room for differences of opin- ion. But the Conference has laid down certain main prin- ciples with which no one will quarrel. The Allied Socialists are not hypnotised by the Brest- Litovsk formula of "Peace without annexations or indemni- ties." They frankly disclaim any war of conquest, whether what is sought to be acquired by force is territory or wealth. But they recognise that without some annexations and without some indemnities, there can be no just and lasting peace. There must be annexations, if they are necessary to set free a tortured and oppressed people, as in the case of Armenia. "Whatever may be proposed with regard to Armenia, Meso- potamia, and Arabia, they cannot be restored to the tyranny of the Sultan and his Pashas." There must be indemnities, and heavy indemnities, where a whole people have been robbed, looted, and pillaged, ruined, and made homeless. "The Conference emphatically insists that a foremost con- dition of peace must be the reparation by the German Gov- ernment, under the direction of an International Commis- sion, of the wrong admittedly done to Belgium, and pay- 8 A CLEAN PEACE ment by the Government for all the damage that has re- sulted from this wrong." And Armenia and Belgium are not the only countries that have to be considered. "The Conference declares its warmest sympathy with the people of Italian blood and speech who have been left out- side the boundaries .... assigned to the Kingdom of Italy, and supports their claim to be united with those of their own race and tongue." The Conference suggests that the peace of the world requires that the Dardanelles should be permanently and effectively neutralised and opened under the control of a League of Nations freely to all nations. It is not forget- ful of the just claims of Poland or of Alsace and Lorraine. The war aims of Allied Labour do not stop at a mere negative statement or phrase. "Peace without annexa- tions or punitive indemnities" is not enough. A peace, on that basis alone, would leave Armenia in the hands of its butchers, leave the autocracies of Central Europe in unfettered control of armies and armaments, and leave the rest of Europe without a shadow of security against future wars. A Grand Assize. Allied Labour demands a peace wholly different from that. No settlement can be lasting that does not give men and women security for life and honour, and a decent peace must recognise some difference between right and wrong. An important item of the memorandum puts forward the demands of the Conference for the recognition of the claims of Justice as an essential term of peace. It calls for a Grand 9 Assize to investigate "accusations so freely made on all sides" : "The Conference will not be satisfied unless a full and free judicial investigation is made into . . . acts of cruelty, oppression, violence, and theft against individual victims for which no justification can be found in the ordinary usages of war. It draws attention particularly to the loss of life and property of merchant seamen and other non-combat- ants, including women and children, resulting from this inhuman and ruthless conduct. It should be part of the conditions of peace that there should be forthwith set up a Court of Claims and Accusations, which should investigate all such allegations as may be brought before it, summon the accused person or Government to answer the complaint, pronounce judgment and award compensation or damages, payable by the individual or Government condemned, to the persons who had suffered wrong or to their dependants." There must not only be compensation for property de- stroyed. The wage-earners and peasants must be restored to their lost homes and their lost employment. A Clean Peace. If the German rulers imagined that they could humbug the British as they humbugged the Bolsheviks, if they thought that their success in deceiving the inexperienced democracy of Russia by peace phrases and formulas could be repeated by any pacifist propaganda among the workers of Great Britain or Western Europe, the manifesto of the Inter-Allied Conference of London must be a disappoint- ment to them. The memorandum of war aims issued by the Conference speaks the language neither of Pacifism nor of Bolshevism, but of resolute common sense. It is in striking agreement with the authoritative statement of 10 A CLEAN PEACE the Prime Minister of British war aims made on January 5 1 9*7- It echoes the declaration of war aims made by Presi- dent Wilson on January n. It reveals the essential unity of purpose that now animates the Governments and the peo- ples of Western Europe. We desire neither to destroy Germany nor to diminish her boundaries, nor to cripple her trade. We seek neither territory nor any spoils of war. We aim at nothing which we cannot state openly before all men. All the war aims of all our peoples can be summed up in two words: We are fighting for a Clean Peace. In a few years the story o the Great War will be as a tale that is told. Over the shell-scarred fields of battle will again be growing corn and fresh flowers. The ruined villages of Belgium will have been re-built. The dead, dismembered orchards of France will bloom again. Another generation than ours will read of the rape of Belgium, of the first tide of invasion that carried the Ger- mans to the very gates of Paris, and of the saving miracle of the Marne. But they will never realise, as we have realised, the agony it meant for the bewildered peoples on whom the storm first broke. Please God, they will never know all the intolerable cruelties that we have known, or be called on to bear the sacrifices that we have made. And there will come a time when all the sufferings and the pain will be forgotten as though they had never been. But the Peace that we shall presently make will not so soon be forgotten. It will shape the destinies of our race, THE WAR AIMS OF BRITISH LABOUR 11 fashion the daily lives of our peoples, as a living, potent force for centuries to come. Upon the terms of that Peace hangs the future of Europe and the world. To prolong the war for one unnecessary hour would be treason to those who to-day are fighting and dying that Europe may be free; but to accept an unreal Peace, an armed Peace, a Peace that would leave wrongs unremedied, old sores unhealed; that would leave Prussian militarism neither defeated nor disarmed, would be a still greater treason to our children. "A victory for German Imperialism would be the defeat and the destruction of democracy and liberty in Europe." WAR AIMS MEMORANDUM. ADOPTED BY THE INTER-ALLIED LABOUR AND SOCIALIST CONFERENCE, HELD IN LONDON, AT THE CENTRAL HALL, WESTMINSTER, ON FEBRUARY 23, 1918. THE WAR. I. The Inter-Allied Conference declares that whatever may have been the causes of the outbreak of war, it is clear that the peoples of Europe, who are necessarily the chief suf- ferers from its horrors, had themselves no hand in it. Their common interest is now so to conduct the terrible struggle in which they find themselves engaged as to bring it, as soon as may be possible, to an issue in a secure and lasting peace for the world. The Conference sees no reason to depart from the following declaration unanimously agreed to at the Conference of the Socialist and Labour Parties of the Allied nations on February 14, 1915: "This Conference cannot ignore the profound general causes of the European conflict, itself a monstrous product of the antagonisms which tear asunder capitalist society and of the policy of Colonial dependencies and aggressive Imperialism, against which International Socialism has never ceased to fight, 12 A CLEAN PEACE and in which every Government has its share of responsibility. "The invasion of Belgium and France by the German armies threatens the very existence of independent nationalities, and strikes a blow at all faith in treaties. In these circumstances a victory for German Imperialism would be the defeat and the destruction of democracy and liberty in Europe. The Social- ists of Great Britain, Belgium, France, and Russia do not pur- sue the political and economic crushing of Germany ; they are not at war with the peoples of Germany and Austria, but only with the Governments of those countries by which they are oppressed. They demand that Belgium shall be liberated and compensated. They desire that the question of Poland shall be settled in accordance with the wishes of the Polish people, either in the sense of autonomy in the midst of another State, or in that of complete independence. They wish that through- out all Europe, from Alsace-Lorraine to the Balkans, those populations that have been annexed by force shall receive the right freely to dispose of themselves. "While inflexibly resolved to fight until victory is achieved to accomplish this task of liberation, the Socialists are none the less resolved to resist any attempt to transform this defen- sive war into a war of conquest, which would only prepare fresh conflicts, create new grievances, and subject various peo- ples more than ever to the double plague of armaments and war. "Satisfied that they are remaining true to the principles of the International, the members of the Conference express the hope that the working classes of all the different countries will before long find themselves united again in their struggle against militarism and capitalist Imperialism. The victory of the Allied Powers must be a victory for popular liberty, for unity, independence, and autonomy of the nations in the peace- ful federation of the United States of Europe and the world." MAKING THE WORLD SAFE FOR BEMOCRACY. II. Whatever may have been the objects for which the war was begun, the fundamental purpose of the Inter-Allied Conference in supporting the continuance of the struggle is that the world may henceforth be made safe for democracy. Of all the conditions of peace none is so important to the THE WAR AIMS OF BRITISH LABOUR 13 peoples of the world as that there should be henceforth on earth no more war. Whoever triumphs, the peoples will have lost unless an inter- national system is established which will prevent war. What would it mean to declare the right of peoples to self-deter- mination if this right were left at the mercy of new violations, and were not protected by a super-national authority? That authority can be no other than the League of Nations, in which not only all the present belligerents, but every other inde- pendent >tate, should be pressed to join. The constitution of such a League of Nations implies the immediate establishment of an International High Court, not only, for the settlement of all disputes between States that are of justiciable nature, but also for prompt and effective media- tion between States in other issues that vitally interest the power or honour of such States. It is also under the control of the League of Nations that the consultation of peoples for purposes of self-determination must be organised. This pop- ular right can be vindicated only by popular vote. The League of Nations shall establish the procedure of international juris- diction, fix the methods which will maintain the freedom and security of the election, restore the political rights of indi- viduals which violence and conquest may have injured, repress any attempt to use pressure or corruption, and prevent any subsequent reprisals. It will be also necessary to form an International Legislature, in which the representatives of every civilised State would have their allotted share, and ener- getically to push forward, step by step, the development of international legislation agreed to by, and definitely binding upon, the several States. By a solemn agreement all the States and peoples consulted shall pledge themselves to submit every issue between two or more of them for settlement as aforesaid. Refusal to accept arbitration or to submit to the settlement will imply deliberate aggression, and all the nations will necessarily have to make common cause, by using any and every means at their dis- posal, either economical or military, against any State or States refusing to submit to the arbitration award, or attempting to break the worlcPs covenant of peace. But the sincere acceptance of the rules and decisiens of the 14 A CLEAN PEACE super-national authority implies the complete democratisation of all countries ; the removal of all the arbitrary powers who, until now, have assumed the right of choosing between peace and war; the maintenance or creation of legislatures elected by and on behalf of the sovereign right of the people; the suppression of secret diplomacy, to be replaced by the conduct of foreign policy under the control of popular legislatures, and the publication of all treaties, which must never be in contra- vention of the stipulation of the League of Nations, with the absolute responsibility of the Government, and more partic- ularly of the Foreign Minister of each country to its Legis- lature. Only such a policy will enforce the frank abandonment of every form of Imperialism. When based on universal democ- racy, in a world in which effective international guarantees against aggression have been secured, the League of Nations will achieve the complete suppression of force as the means of settling international differences. The League of Nations, in order to prepare for the con- certed abolition of compulsory military service in all countries, must first take steps for the prohibition of fresh armaments on land and sea, and for the common limitation of the existing armaments by which all the peoples are burdened; as well as the control of war manufactures and the enforcement of such agreements as may be agreed to thereupon. The States must undertake such manufactures themselves, so as entirely to abolish profit-making armament firms, whose pecuniary inter- est lies always in the war scares and progressive competition in the preparation for war. The nations, being armed solely for self-defence and for such action as the League of Nations may ask them to take in defence of international right, will be left free, under inter- national control either to create a voluntarily recruited force or to organise the nation for defence without professional armies for long terms of military service. To give effect to the above principles, the Inter-Allied Con- ference declares that the rules upon which the League of Nations will be founded must be included in the Treaty of Peace, and will henceforward become the basis of the settle- ment of differences. In that spirit the Conference expresses THE WAR AIMS OF BRITISH LABOUR 15 its agreement with the propositions put forward by President Wilson in his last message : (1) That each part of the final settlement must be based upon the essential justice of that particular case and upon such adjustments as are most likely to bring a peace that will be permanent. (2) That peoples and provinces are not to be bartered about from sovereignty to sovereignty as if they were mere chattels or pawns in a game, even the great game now for ever discredited of the balance of power ; but that (3) Every territorial settlement involved in this war must be made in the interest and for the benefit of the populations concerned, and not as a part of any mere adjustment or com- promise of claims amongst rival States. (4) That all well-defined national aspirations shall be ac- corded the utmost satisfaction that can be accorded them without introducing new or perpetuating old elements of dis- cord and antagonism that would be likely in time to break the peace of Europe, and consequently of the world. TERRITORIAL QUESTIONS. III. The Inter-Allied Conference considers that the proc- lamation of principles of international law accepted by all nations, and the substitution of a regular procedure for the forceful acts by which States calling themselves sovereign have hitherto adjusted their differences in short, the estab- lishment of a League of Nations give an entirely new aspect to territorial problems. The old diplomacy and the yearnings after domination by States, or even by peoples, which during the whole of the I9th century have taken advantage of and corrupted the aspirations of nationalities, have brought Europe to a condition of an- archy and disorder which have led inevitably to the present catastrophe. The Conference declares it to be the duty of the Labour and Socialist Movement to suppress without hesitation the Im- perialist designs in the various States which have led one Gov- ernment after another to seek, by the triumph of military force, to acquire either new territories or economic advantage. The establishment of a system of international law, and the 16 A CLEAN PEACE guarantees afforded by a League of Nations, ought to remove the last excuse for those strategic protections which nations have hitherto felt bound to require. It is the supreme principle of the right of each people to determine its own destiny that must now decide what steps should be taken by way of restitution or reparation, and what- ever territorial readjustments may be found to be necessary at the close of the present war. The Conference accordingly emphasises the importance to the Labour and Socialist Movement of a clear and exact defi- nition of what is meant by the right of each people to deter- mine its own destiny. Neither destiny of race nor identity of language can be regarded as affording more than a presump- tion in favour of federation or unification. During the I9th century theories of this kind have so often served as a cloak for aggression that the International cannot but seek to pre- vent any recurrence of such an evil. Any adjustments of boundaries that become necessary must be based exclusively upon the desire of the people concerned. It is true that it is impossible for the necessary consultation of the desires of the people concerned to be made in any fixed and invariable way for all the cases in which it is required, and that the problems of nationality and territory are not the same for the inhabitants of all countries. Nevertheless, what is necessary in all cases is that the procedure to be adopted should be decided, not by one of the parties to the dispute, but by the super-national authority. Upon the basis of the general principles herein formulated, the Conference proposes the following solutions of particular problems : r (a) BELGIUM. The Conference emphatically insists that a foremost con- dition of peace must be the reparation by the German Govern- ment, under the direction of an International Commission, of the wrong admittedly done to Belgium ; payment by that Gov- ernment for all the damage that has resulted from this wrong ; and the restoration of Belgium as an independent sovereign State, leaving to the decision of the Belgian people the deter- mination of their own future policy in all respects. THE WAR AIMS OF BRITISH LABOUR IT () ALSACE AND LORRAINE. The Conference declares that the problem of Alsace and Lorraine is not one of territorial adjustment, but one of right, and thus an international problem the solution of which is indispensable if peace is to be either just or lasting. The Treaty of Frankfort at one and the same time mutilated France and violated the right of the inhabitants of Alsace and Lorraine to dispose of their own destinies, a right which they have repeatedly claimed. The new Treaty of Peace, in recognising that Germany, by her declaration of war of 1914, has herself broken the Treaty of Frankfort, will make null and void the gains of a brutal conquest and of the violence committed against the people. France, having secured this recognition, can properly agree to a fresh consultation of the population of Alsace and Lor- raine as to its own desires. The Treaty of Peace will bear the signatures of every nation in the world. It will be guaranteed by the League of Nations. To this League of Nations France is prepared to remit, with the freedom and sincerity of a popular vote of which the details can be subsequently settled, the organisation of such a consultation as shall settle for ever, as a matter of right, the future destiny of Alsace and Lorraine, and as shall finally remove from the common life of all Europe a quarrel which has imposed so heavy a burden upon it. (c) THE BALKANS. The Conference lays down the principle that all the viola- tions and perversions of the rights of the people which have taken place, or are still taking place, in the Balkans must be made the subject of redress or reparation. Serbia, Montenegro, Rumania, Albania, and all the terri- tories occupied by military force should be evacuated by the hostile forces. Wherever any population of the same race and tongue demands to be united this must be done. Each such people must be accorded full liberty to settle its own destiny, without regard to the Imperialist pretensions of Austria, Hun- gary, Turkey, or other State. 18 A CLEAN PEACE Accepting this principle, the Conference proposes that the whole problem of the administrative re-organisation of the Balkan peoples should be dealt with by a special conference of their representatives, or in case of disagreement by an authoritative international commission on the basis of (a) the concession within each independent sovereignty of local auton- omy and security for the development of its particular civilisa- tion of every racial minority; (&) the universal guarantee of freedom of religion and political equality for all races; (c) a Customs and Postal Union embracing the whole of the Balkan States, with free access for each to its natural seaport; (J) the entry of all the Balkan States into a Federation for the concerted arrangement by mutual agreement among themselves of all matters of common interest. '(rf) ITALY. The Conference declares its warmest sympathy with the people of Italian blood and speech who have been left outside the boundaries that have, as a result of the diplomatic agree- ments of the past, and for strategic reasons, been assigned to the Kingdom of Italy, and supports their claim to be united with those of their own race and tongue. It realises that arrangements may be necessary for securing the legitimate interests of the people of Italy in the adjacent seas, but it condemns the aims of conquest of Italian Imperialism, and believes that all legitimate needs can be safeguarded, without precluding a like recognition of the needs of others or annexa- tion of other people's territories. Regarding the Italian population dispersed on the Eastern shores of the Adriatic, the relations betwep- taly and the Yugo-Slav populations must be based on principles of equity and conciliation, so as to prevent any cause of future quarrel. If there are found to be groups of Slavonian race within the newly-defined Kingdom of Italy, or groups of Italian race in Slavonian territory, mutual guarantees must be given for the assurance to all of them, on one side or the other, of full lib- erty of local self-government and of the natural development of their several activities. THE WAR AIMS OF BRITISH LABOUR 19 (e) POLAND AND THE BALTIC PROVINCES. In accordance with the right of every people to determine its own destinies, Poland must be re-constituted in unity and independence with free access to the sea. The Conference declares further that any annexation by Germany, whether open or disguised, of Livonia, Courland, or Lithuania, would be a flagrant and wholly inadmissible viola- tion of international law. \(f) THE JEWS AND PALESTINE. The Conference demands for the Jews in all countries the same elementary rights of freedom of religion, education, residence, and trade and equal citizenship; that ought to be extended to all the inhabitants of every nation. It further expresses the opinion that Palestine should be set free from the harsh and oppressive government of the Turk, -'- 1 order that this country may form a Free State, under interne. : onal guarantee, to which such of the Jewish people as desire to do so may return and work out theit own salvation free from interference by those of alien rac6 Cr religion. (g) THE PROBLEM OF TBS TURKISH EMPIRE. The Conference condemns the handing back to the system- atically cruel domination of the Turkish Government any sub- ject people. Thus, whatever may be proposed with regard to Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Arabia, they cannot be restored to the tyranny of the Sultan and his Pashas. The Conference condemns the imperialist aims of Governments and capitalists who would make of these and other territories now dominated by the Turkish hordes merely instruments either of exploita- tion or militarism. If the peoples of these territories do not feel themselves able to settle their own destinies, the Confer- ence insists that, conformably with the policy of "no annexa- tions," they should be placed for administration in the hands of a Commission acting under the Super-National Authority or League of Nations. It is further suggested that the peace of the world requires that the Dardanelles should be perma- nently and effectively neutralised and opened like all the main lines of marine communication, under the control of the 20 A CLEAN PEACE League of Nations, freely to all nations, without hindrance or Customs duties. (h) AUSTRIA-HUNGARY. The Conference does not propose as a war aim dismember- ment of Austria-Hungary or its deprivation of economic access to the sea. On the other hand, the Conference cannot admit that the claims to independence made by the Czecho-Slovaks and the Yugo-Slavs must be regarded merely as questions for internal decision. National independence ought to be ac- corded, according to rules to be laid down by the League of Nations, to such peoples as demand it, and these communities ought to have the opportunity of determining their own group- ings and federations according to their affinities and interests. If they think fit they are free to substitute a free federation of Danubian States for the Austro-Hungarian Empire. (i) THE COLONIES AND DEPENDENCIES. The International has always condemned the Colonial policy of capitalist Governments. Without ceasing to condemn it, the Inter-Allied Conference nevertheless recognises the exist- ence of a state of things which it is obliged to take into account. The Conference considers that the treaty of peace ought to secure to the natives in all colonies and dependencies effective protection against the excesses of capitalist colonialism. The Conference demands the concession of administrative auton- omy for all groups of people that attain a certain degree of civilisation, and for all the others a progressive participation in local government. The Conference is of opinion that the return of the colonies to those who possessed them before the war, or the exchanges or compensations which might be effected, ought not to be an obstacle to the making of peace. Those colonies that have been taken by conquest from any belligerent must be made the subject of special consideration at the Peace Conference, as to which the communities in their neighbourhood will be entitled to take part. But the clause in the treaty of peace on this point must secure economic equality in such territories for the peoples of all nations, and THE WAR AIMS OF BRITISH LABOUR 21 thereby guarantee that none are shut out from legitimate access to raw materials ; prevented from disposing of their own products, or deprived of their proper share of economic development. As regards more especially the colonies of all the belligerents in Tropical- Africa, from sea to sea, including the whole of the region north of the Zambesi and south of the Sahara, the Con- ference condemns any imperialist idea which would make these countries the booty of one or several nations, exploit them for the profit of the capitalist, or use them for the promotion of the militarist aims of the Governments. With respect to these colonies, the Conference declares in favour of a system of control, established by international agreement under the League of Nations and maintained by its guarantee, which, whilst respecting national sovereignty, would be alike inspired by broad conceptions of economic freedom and concerned to safeguard the rights of the natives under the best conditions possible for them, and in particu- lar: (1) It would take account in each locality of the wishes of the people, expressed in the form which is possible to them. (2) The interests of the native tribes as regards the owner- ship of the soil would be maintained. (3) The whole of the revenues would be devoted to the well-being and development of the colonies themselves. ECONOMIC RELATIONS. IV. The Inter-Allied Conference declares against all the projects now being prepared by Imperialists and capitalists, not in any one country only, but in most countries, for an economic war, after peace has been secured, either against one or other foreign nation or against all foreign nations ; as such an economic war, if begun by any country, would in- evitably lead to reprisals, to. which each nation in turn might in self-defence be driven. The main lines of marine com- munication should be open without hindrance to vessels of all nations under the protection of the League of Nations. The Conference realises that all attempts at economic aggression, whether by protective tariffs, capitalist trusts or monopolies, inevitably result in the spoliation of the working classes of the 22 A CLEAN PEACE several countries for the profit of the capitalists ; and the work- ing class see in the alliance between the Military Imperialists and the Ffscal Protectionists in any country whatsoever not only a serious danger to the prosperity of the masses of the people, but also a grave menace to peace. On the other hand, the right of each nation to the defence of its own economic interests, and, in face of the world-shortage hereinafter men- tioned, to the conservation for its own people of a sufficiency of its own supplies of foodstuffs and raw materials, cannot be denied. The Conference accordingly urges upon the Labour and Socialist Parties of all countries the importance of insist- ing, in the attitude of the Government towards commercial enterprise along with the necessary control of supplies for its own people, on the principle of the open door, and without hostile discrimination against foreign countries. But it urges equally the importance, not merely of conservation, but also of the utmost possible development, by appropriate Govern- ment action, of the resources of every country for the benefit not only of its own people, but also of the world, and the need for an international agreement for the enforcement in all coun- tries of the legislation on factory conditions, a maximum eight- hour day, the prevention of "sweating" and unhealthy trades necessary to protect the workers against exploitation and op- pression, and the prohibition of night work by women and children. THE PROBLEMS OF PEACE. V. To make the world safe for democracy involves much more than the prevention of war, either military or economic. It will be a device of the capitalist interests to pretend that the Treaty of Peace need concern itself only with the cessation of the struggles of the armed forces and with any necessary ter- ritorial readjustments. The Inter- Allied Conference insists that, in view of the probable world-wide shortage, after the war, of exportable foodstuffs and raw materials and of mer- chant shipping, it is imperative, in order to prevent the most serious hardships and even possible famine, in one country or another, that systematic arrangements should be made on an international basis for the allocation and conveyance of the available exportable surpluses of these commodities to the dif- THE WAR AIMS OF BRITISH LABOUR 23 ferent countries, in proportion, not to their purchasing powers, but to their several pressing needs ; and that, within each coun- try, the Government must for some time maintain its control of the most indispensable commodities, in order to secure their appropriation, not in a competitive market mainly to the richer classes in proportion to their means, but, systematically, to meet the most urgent needs of the whole community on the principle of "no cake for anyone until all have bread." Moreover, it cannot but be anticipated that, in all countries, the dislocation of industry attendant on peace, the instant dis- charge of millions of munition makers and workers in war trades, the demobilisation of millions of soldiers, the scarcity of industrial capital, the shortage of raw materials, and the insecurity of commercial enterprise these will, unless prompt and energetic action be taken by the several Governments, plunge a large part of the wage-earning population into all the miseries of unemployment more or less prolonged. In view of the fact that widespread unemployment in any country, like a famine, is an injury not to that country alone, but impoverishes also the rest of the world, the Conference holds that it is the duty of every Government to take immediate action, not merely to relieve the unemployed, when unemployment has set in, but actually, so far as may be practicable, to prevent the occur- rence of unemployment. It therefore urges upon the Labour Parties of every country the necessity of their pressing upon their Governments the preparation of plans for the execution of all the innumerable public works (such as the making and repairing of roads, railways, and waterways, the erection of schools and public buildings, the provision of working-class dwellings, and the reclamation and afforestation of land) that will be required in the near future, not for the sake of finding measures of relief for the unemployed, but with a view to these works being undertaken at such a rate in each locality as will suffice, together with the various capitalist enterprises that may be in progress, to maintain at a fairly uniform level year by year, and throughout each year, the aggregate demand for labour; and thus prevent there being any unemployed. It is now known that in this way it is quite possible for any Govern- ment to prevent, if it chooses, the occurrence of any wide- spread or prolonged involuntary unemployment; which, if it 24> A CLEAN PEACE is now in any country allowed to occur, is as much the result of Government neglect as is any epidemic disease. RESTORATION OF THE DEVASTATED AREAS AND REPARATION OF WRONGDOING. VI. The Inter-Allied Conference holds that one of the most imperative duties of all countries immediately peace is declared will be the restoration, so far as may be possible, of the homes, farms, factories, public buildings, and means of communication wherever destroyed by war operations; that the restoration should not be limited to compensation for pub- lic buildings, capitalist undertakings, and material property proved to be destroyed or damaged, but should be extended to setting up the wage-earners and peasants themselves in homes and employment ; and that to ensure the full and impar- tial application of these principles the assessment and distribu- tion of the compensation, so far as the cost is contributed by any International fund, should be made under the direction of an International Commission. The Conference will not be satisfied unless there is a full and free judicial investigation into the accusations made on all sides that particular Governments have ordered, and par- ticular officers have exercised, acts of cruelty, oppression, vio- lence, and theft against individual victims, for which no justi- fication can be found in the ordinary usages of war. It draws attention, in particular, to the loss of life and property of merchant seamen and other non-combatants (including women and children) resulting from this inhuman and ruthless con- duct. It should be part of the conditions of peace that there should be forthwith set up a Court of Claims and Accusations, which should investigate all such allegations as may be brought before it, summon the accused person or Government to answer the complaint, pronounce judgment and award compensation or damages, payable by the individual or Government con- demned to the persons who had suffered wrong, or to their dependants. The several Governments must be responsible, financially and otherwise, for the presentation of the cases of their respective nationals to such a Court of Claims and Accu- sations, and for the payment of the compensation awarded. THE WAR AIMS OF BRITISH LABOUR 25 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE. VII. The Inter-Allied Conference is ef opinion that an In- ternational Conference of Labour and Socialist organisations, held under proper conditions, would at this stage render use- ful service to world democracy by assisting to remove mis- understandings, as well as tne obstacles which stand in the way of world peace. Awaiting the resumption of the normal activities of the International Socialist Bureau, we consider that an Interna- tional Conference, held during the period of hostilities, should be organised by a committee whose impartiality cannot be questioned. It should be held in a neutral country, under such conditions as would inspire confidence; and the Conference should be fully representative of all the Labour and Socialist movement in all the belligerent countries accepting the condi- tions under which the Conference is convoked. As an essential condition to an International Conference, the Commission is of opinion that the organisers of the Conference should satisfy themselves that all the organisations to be repre- sented put in precise form, by a public declaration, their peace terms in conformity with the principles "No annexations or punitive indemnities, and the right of all peoples to self-deter- mination," and that they are working with all their power to obtain from their Governments the necessary guarantees to apply these principles honestly and unreservedly to all ques- tions to be dealt with at any official peace conference. In view of the vital differences between the Allied countries and the Central Powers, the Commission is of opinion that it is highly advisable that the Conference should be used to provide an opportunity for the delegates from the respective countries now in a state of war to make a full and frank state- ment of their present position and future intentions, and to endeavour by mutual agreement to arrange a programme of action for a speedy and democratic peace. The Conference is of opinion that the working classes, hav- ing made such sacrifices during the war, are entitled to take part in securing a democratic world peace, and that M. Albert Thomas (France), M. Emile Vandervelde (Belgium), and Mr. Arthur Henderson (Great Britain) be appointed as a 26 A CLEAN PEACE Commission to secure from all the Governments a promise that at least one representative of Labour and Socialism will be included in the official representation at any Government Con- ference, and to organise a Labour and Socialist representation to sit concurrently with the official Conference; further, that no country be entitled to more than four representatives at such conference. The Conference regrets the absence of representatives of American Labour and Socialism from the Inter-Allied Con- ference, and urges the importance of securing their approval of the decisions reached. With this object in view, the Con- ference agrees that a deputation, consisting of one representa- tive from France, Belgium, Italy, and Great Britain, together with Camille Huysmans (secretary of the International So- cialist Bureau), proceed to the United States at once, in order to confer with representatives of the American democracy on the whole situation of the war. The Conference resolves to transmit to the Socialists of the Central Empires and of the nations allied with them the mem- orandum in which the Conference has defined the conditions of peace, conformably with the principles of Socialist and international justice. The Conference is convinced that these conditions will commend themselves on reflection to the mind of every Socialist, and the Conference asks for the answer of the Socialists of the Central Empires, in the hope that these will join without delay in a joint effort of the International, which has now become more than ever the best and most certain instrument of democracy and peace. Important Books of the Day THE CRIME By a German . Author of "I Accuse!" An arraignment in even more cogent form than "I Accuse!" of the rulers and governments of Germany and Austria. Two vols. 8vo. Vol. I. Net, $2.50 THE GREAT CRIME AND ITS MORAL By J. Selden Willmore A volume which is an invaluable library. An illuminating summary of the immense documentary literature of the war. 8vo. 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