File No. 763.72/10266
The Chargé in Great Britain ( Laughlin) to the Secretary of State
[Received June 6, 10.06 a.m.]
10448.
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I sent a member of the Embassy staff a few days ago to Mr. Arthur Henderson to inquire whether any progress was being made towards arrangements for the international conference proposed at the Labor and Socialist meeting held in London last February and whether any reply had been received from the Socialists of the Central Powers to war aims memorandum adopted at that meeting. I think it well to give his answer in full.
He said that no reply had as yet been received except from the Bulgarian Socialists of which he had the text from a Bulgarian newspaper which he had just received. With regard to the German and Austrian Socialists, he said the position was obscure. They were reported not to have received any one of the copies officially transmitted through neutral countries and apparently do not trust to the accuracy of the copy printed in full in the Times of February 25. Their attitude of doubt as to the accuracy of the Times copy was due to the fact that the British Government censorship, like the German, does not show, by gaps or blanks, any indication of its handiwork, and Mr. Huysmans declared that this scepticism as to the correctness of matter printed in British newspapers existed not only in Germany but in neutral countries as well.
According to present arrangements Mr. Branting from Stockholm and Mr. Troelstra from Rotterdam will, it is hoped, be also present at the annual British Labor Conference to be held on the 27th instant. This will afford an opportunity for the committee of three to discuss the possibility of holding the international conference and for the second committee to consider questions connected with the granting of facilities for this conference by the various Entente Governments. After the meeting in London on the 27th instant, it is proposed to visit Paris and discuss these questions further with the French Socialists. Henderson does not anticipate that any obstacles will prevent the meeting of these committees and feels confident that the resolute opposition to any international conference expressed by the American Labor delegates who visited London [Page 251] last month will not have any effect in preventing the conference from taking place, provided a satisfactory attitude is displayed by the Socialists of the Central Powers. Henderson expressed his hearty approval of the definition of victory given by General Smuts in his Glasgow speech on May 17 and of the attitude towards “peace by negotiation” of the Irish Nationalists as expressed in Mr. Devlin’s recent speech.
The fact that the American Federation of [Labor] agrees with the British and Allied Socialists in the view that a labor conference should be held concurrently with the peace conference, in whatever place that peace conference may hold sessions, is regarded by Henderson as a valuable indication of agreement between American labor and that of the [Allies. He repeated] what he has several times told me as to his earnest hope that President Wilson will have the preponderant voice in the peace conference and virtually determine the policy of the Allies in the world settlement and he regards the presence of American Labor as essential in order to support the President’s views. But even if American Labor does not see fit to cooperate in the preliminary conversations or conferences which the Allied Socialists desire, he does not feel that the absence of American representatives need prevent such conversations or conferences from taking place.