result of the loan of 40,000,000l. to be granted under the scheme. Mr. MacDonald had on various occasions shown himself alive to this danger, and before leaving London announced that a Committee would be set up to advise the Foreign Office on the subject a promise which he never fulfilled. The Executive. Committee of the Miners' Federation discussed the effect which German deliveries of coal might have on the British coal industry, but determined not to formulate any view till they should have interviewed the Prime Minister. The Owners' Association, on the other hand, while anxious as to the future of the export trade, considered that the situation had been brought about by causes independent of the Dawes scheme, and saw no reason for approaching the Government.

About this time the friction already existing between Great Britain and Egypt, so far from diminishing, became aggravated by the turn of events in the Sudan. On August 9 disorders broke out in that country, and British troops were employed to quell them. On August 15 the Egyptian Government issued a communiqué in which the British action was strongly reprehended, and at the same time presented to the British Government, through a member of the Egyptian Legation in London, a protest against the proceedings in the Sudan, with a demand for the immediate formation of an Egyptian-Sudanese Commission to examine the situation. In reply the bearer of the Note was informed that the Government fully endorsed a communication made to the Egyptian Government at Alexandria by the Acting British High Commissioner, to the effect that the British Government was responsible for the maintenance of order in the Sudan, and intended to support the Sudan Government in taking steps which it might think necessary for the preservation of public security. The Government, it was added, looked on the disturbances in the Sudan as the direct result of the exaggerated claims in respect of the Sudan advanced by the Egyptian Government, and of the attacks made on the British Administration in the Egyptian Press and Parliament. During the next fortnight there was a further exchange of Notes, which brought matters no nearer to a settlement. It was immediately afterwards stated that the proposal for personal negotiations between Mr. MacDonald and Zaglul Pasha had fallen through. Zaglul, however, instead of returning to Egypt, remained at Paris, and Mr. MacDonald, while attending the League of Nations Conference at Geneva, issued another invitation to visit him in London towards the end of the month. Zaglul this time accepted, and friction ceased for the time being.

On September 2 the Prime Minister left London for Geneva, in order to attend the meetings of the Assembly of the League of Nations as British delegate. His colleagues were Lord Parmoor and Mr. Henderson. Speaking to a Press representative before departing, he said that he felt very keenly the tremendous importance of the League, and he had really decided

to go over not for the purpose of making speeches—though he would have something to say-but to try to demonstrate by his presence how much confidence he had in the power of the League to do good work, and how anxious he was that every national delegation should be as strong and representative as possible. Questioned on the subject of disarmament, Mr. MacDonald said that all along he had worked on the principle of arbitration in the matter of disarmament against the pact of mutual assistance.

The annual Congress of the Trade Unions was held on September 1 and the succeeding days at Hull. It was presided over by Mr. A. A. Purcell, M.P., who in his opening address expressed the hope that the Labour Government, having undone the mischief caused by previous Governments, would now concentrate on the programme for which the Labour Party had been called into being. The chief work of the Congress was to adopt an "Industrial Workers' Charter" which had been drafted by the General Council,-a collection for the most part of principles which had been adopted year after year in the past by the Congress, and which were now brought into the domain of immediate practical politics. The nationalisation of mines and minerals, though included in the "charter," was moved separately by the Secretary of the Miners' Federation. Much of the time and energy of the Congress was taken up with the question of securing co-operation between British and Russian trade unionists. At the second day's sitting Mr. Pollitt, the leader of the Communist section in the Congress, stigmatised as "weak-kneed" the action of the British delegation to the Vienna International Trades Union Congress in June in voting against the admission of Russian trade unionists, and called on the Congress to urge the new General Council to use its influence. with the Amsterdam International in order that at a coming conference all organisations affiliated to Amsterdam could meet all organisations affiliated to Moscow with a view to bringing about the unity of the international trade union movement. The President said he would like the Congress itself to decide on this point, and after an animated discussion the Congress turned down the proposal by deciding to proceed to the next business. An attempt to bring in a motion to the same effect the next day as an emergency resolution, though countenanced by the Standing Orders Committee, was decisively defeated by the Congress. On the other hand, and as if to leave the door still open for closer co-operation with Russia, the Congress, on the fourth day, gave a warm welcome to five Russian trade unionists who were in England in connection with the AngloSoviet Conference, and listened with marked attention to an address from their leader, Mr. Tomsky, who in a speech of studied moderation and considerable power said that while the Russians could not give up the ideas for which they had lived and fought and shed their blood, they could unite with the

workers of the whole world in a struggle against exploitation. Mr. Tomsky's speech produced an immediate effect. Acting on a suggestion which he had thrown out, the General Council submitted to the Congress a request for authorisation "to take such steps as will bring together the different elements of the Labour movement in Europe in an effort to establish that solidarity which will make for world peace;" and this was granted by the Congress without discussion.

CHAPTER IV.

THE FALL OF THE LABOUR GOVERNMENT.

WITH the close of the London Conference political activity was suspended for a time to allow of the customary summer vacation. This year, however, the lull was much shorter than usual. The Irish situation was viewed with grave anxiety in England, and early in the recess its possible developments were being eagerly canvassed by politicians and in the Press. At the beginning of September a body of some twenty members of the House of Commons, drawn from all three parties, toured the boundary district, and on September 16 addressed a letter to the Press stating their unanimous opinion that a satisfactory settlement could best be arrived at by direct mutual agreement between the parties in Ireland, and that the negotiations should if possible be entered into before any Boundary Commission was set up. This was but one of a number of well-meant unofficial efforts to bring about a better state of feeling between the two sections of the Irish people. The Unionist leaders during the same period conferred earnestly on the best course to adopt in the emergency, and Mr. Baldwin himself visited Ireland to see Sir James Craig, the Ulster Premier. On September 9 Lord Balfour communicated to the Press a confidential letter which Lord Birkenhead, then a member of the Government, had written to him on March 3, 1922, when the Irish Treaty was under consideration, assuring him that there was no danger of a Boundary Commission making drastic alterations in the existing border between Northern and Southern Ireland. Lord Balfour added that the letter effectually allayed his doubts as to whether the Treaty had inadvertently done an injustice to Northern Ireland in respect of the boundary, thus conveying a hint to the Government there not to oppose the Commission.

The Irish question did not stand alone in keeping political interest alive during the vacation. The Russian Treaty engaged the public attention almost equally, and long before Parliament was due to meet began to be exploited by both sides for electioneering purposes. The Labour Party represented it as the sovereign cure for unemployment; the opponents of Labour saw in it a proof that Mr. MacDonald had been "captured by

the extremists." This cry was used with telling effect by Mr. MacDonald's opponents to counteract the prestige which he had won by his successful conduct of the London Conference and his general handling of the reparations problem. The "extremists were certain members of the Labour Party who were known to be partial to the Russian Soviet régime, and to the economic doctrines of Karl Marx. They were charged with having unduly influenced Mr. MacDonald not only in the matter of the Russian Treaty, but also in another matter which, though of far less intrinsic importance, was pressed into equal prominence by those who wished to discredit the Premier and his administration.

The Director of Public Prosecutions had in July called the attention of the Attorney-General to an article in the Workers' Weekly, a journal which described itself as the "official organ of the Communist Party of Great Britain," exhorting soldiers, sailors, and airmen to refuse to turn their guns on their fellowworkers either in a military war or a class war. The editor in charge, R. J. Campbell, was brought to trial under the Incitement to Mutiny Act on August 5, when the preliminary hearing was taken. The next day questions were asked on the matter and protests raised against the prosecution by certain Labour members in the House of Commons. At the second hearing of the case, on August 12, counsel for the prosecution, to the general surprise, stated that no evidence would be offered against the defendant because "it had been represented that the object of the article in question was not to seduce men in the fighting forces from their allegiance, but that it was comment on armed military force being used by the State for the suppression of industrial disputes." No hint was given as to who had made this representation, but in a statement issued from the offices of the Workers' Weekly it was asserted that the editor's defence was not that suggested by the prosecution, but "justification," and that the withdrawal of the charge was made on the sole responsibility of the Labour Government under severe pressure from Labour members of Parliament, an assertion to which no official denial was forthcoming. A Unionist member of Parliament, Sir K. Wood, at once announced publicly his intention of raising the question when Parliament met, and this count was added to that of the Russian Treaty in the indictment against Mr. MacDonald of "extremism."

Thus before September was half through, it was evident that the Government would have to fight for its life as soon as Parliament reassembled, and this made all parties anxious to see the question of the Irish Boundary Commission settled as soon as possible. Any hopes which had been entertained that Ulster might after all be induced to modify its attitude were disappointed. Lord Balfour's letter was coldly received in Belfast, and had no effect on public opinion there. Shortly after its publication Sir James Craig stayed at Cleeve-on-Thames

for a few days on his return from the Continent, and there saw most of the members of his Cabinet; and on September 16 he issued from there a statement which showed him to be still uncompromisingly hostile to the idea of a Boundary Commission. The Government therefore saw itself compelled to resort to special legislation in order to secure the establishment of that body; and so, in accordance with the resolution passed by the House of Commons just before rising, the Speaker, on September 19, summoned Parliament to meet on September 30, instead of October 28, as originally intended.

1

Although feeling in England was still running high on the Irish question and sympathies were sharply divided, a strong and successful effort was made on both sides to keep the matter out of the arena of partisan conflict, and to make the preservation of peace in Ireland the first consideration. But the Russian Treaty was already being canvassed as an election issue, and a vigorous campaign was being conducted in the country for and against it for the express purpose of catching votes. Three views with regard to it found vigorous expression in the Press and on the platform. The Conservative Party as a body was for its rejection, not on the ground that it was in itself a bad Treaty, but that the Soviet Government was not a fit body with which to enter into an agreement of any kind. The Labour Party as a body warmly supported the Treaty as the first step towards the procuring for Russia of a loan which would enable her to become a large purchaser of British goods. Of the Liberal Party, some members inclined to the Conservative view, others to the Labour view, but the majority, while desiring an agreement with Russia, objected to the clause in the proposed Treaty respecting a loan as meaningless and misleading, and awaited further explanations when Parliament met.

Mr. Lloyd George was for a time the protagonist of the opposition to the Treaty, and he spared no effort to crystallise the opinion of his party against it. Addressing a largely attended Liberal meeting at Penmaenmawr on September 10, he defied the Government to proceed with its ratification. At a time of unexampled commercial depression like the present, he said, when they needed all their surplus cash to finance their own. trade and develop their own resources, it was an act of criminal recklessness to guarantee huge sums of money to be spent in another country by a Government whose principles were predatory and destructive of all legitimate enterprise. He knew that in voting against the guarantee they should be challenging the Government on a major issue which was an integral part of their programme. The challenge, however, was theirs, deliberately thrown on the floor of the House of Commons; and if the Liberal Party were to shirk the challenge, it would forfeit the confidence and respect of the nation. In regard to the Irish

1 For text of Russian Treaty, v. under Public Documents, in Part II.

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