Feb. 10.
The lengthy declaration issued by the British Labour Party onthe subject of the war contains little with which there will be any disagreement on the part of members of the Allied nations not subscribing to Labour's general policy. The Party calls for a just peace with Germany, without humiliation oF revenge, condemns Russia's attack upon Fin Jand, condemns the Soviel~German Pact, urges equal opportunity in regard to access to raw materials in colonies for all peaceful peoples, independence for Czechoslovakia and Poland, and a plebiscite for Austria, With the requirement "that the victorious Allies shall impose a just peace upon Germany without either humiliation or revenge there will be general _sgreement. While there is an_ increasing tendency "no longer to regard. Herr Hitler and his fellow malefactors as the sole enemy of the Allies, and to pin upon the German people themselves some degree of responsibility for what ix happening, it is no part of the desires of the Allied nations to seek either revenge or the humiliation of Germany, A just peace is essential if Europe some decades later is not to be again plunged into war, but it will have to be a peace in which the greatest clement of justice will be to ensure that Germany, no matter by whom she may happen to be led, shall not again destroy small neighbouring nations, whose right to exist ence is every bit as clear as is that of the German people themselves. If this is to be the case then there may be some difficulty in. meeting the Labour requirement that there must be a reconciliation between the French desire for security, and the German claim to equality, Rather should it be that the peace and security of the whole of Europe shall be guaranteed quite apart from any question of Germany's equality with other nations. The verdict of justice must be that Germany as at present governed, is vastly superior to the rest of Europe in wickedness, and utterly inferior in international morals, and until the former can be levelled down, and the latter levelled up, the only real concept of justice which can be approved is one which will deprive the Reich of any possibility of again inflicting such evil upon Europe.
There is much to be said for the often-re~ peated contention that, if the French had been permitted to dictate the last peace, there would have been no war now, The belief is that the French would have proached the whole qtiestion in the spirit of realism in which they are so neb, and would not have allowed their judgment' as to what was necessary for their safety to be obscured by all the fine phrases with which European statesmen were beniied twenty-one yeart ago. Thus while it must be admitted that it is imperatively necessary that, in whatever peace is reached after this present war, Germany shall receive justice, it is just as im= portant that the Allies shall see that their own case is also adequately taken into con sideration, Justice by all means, but let it be a justice which applies to everyone, and not merely the tempering of the wind' to 3 Germany shorn in defeat, With the Labour desire that French security shall be consolidated by a brotherly understanding between Great Britain and France for all time there will be the greatest sympathy. The his tory of the past seven years has clearly shown that an Anglo-German understanding, with Germany in its present state of mind is not to be thought of, nor can it be believed that a midship, such' as Great Britain and France already consecrated in blood, and the struggles of a precarious peace, could lightly be abandoned for what even in the future may prove to be nothing but a very risky. experiment, The Labour declaration follows the same lines as other people who take pat cries for statements of truth, on the subject of equal access to the raw material markets in the colonies. Germany has at all times had the same access to such materials ax any other nation, but the fact is that through her own fault she has been without the money to pay for stich goods. The prices of raw materials have in no way been subject
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.