GREAT BRITAIN: Christian & Cockney

While the British Admiralty prepared to tuck away its Home Fleet in the safety of Milford Haven, the Leader of His Majesty’s Loyal Opposition, stubborn “Old George” Lansbury, 76, explained last week the aggressive Pacifism which caused him to threaten to resign as Labor Party Leader when the proletarian Socialists of British Labor’s Trades Union Congress fortnight ago urged war if necessary to restrain Fascist Italy. Never a militant trade unionist, Mr. Lansbury warned Laborites last week at Dumfries: “War, either by the League against aggressor or by one State against another would leave the world more unsettled than after the last war. That war was waged because we had pledged help to Belgium. It ended in the complete defeat of Germany and her allies—but today, my friends, Germany is one of the most powerful States in the world. The penalties imposed upon her were Dead Sea fruit. . . . The Peace Treaty of 1919 made the world safe for more war!”

This shot went home, since British Socialists hate & fear Nazis even more than they do Fascists. The solution proposed by Mr. Lansbury, however, distinctly lacked the Nelsonian touch. He urged his countrymen to remember that they are Christians and face the fact that the Empire has won more overseas territory than His Majesty’s Government always know what to do with. Proposing once again his favorite project to “call a World Conference to redistribute resources on a fair basis among all nations,” Christian Socialist Lansbury cried: “Britain is the greatest Imperialist power in the world. The call which Christ gave to the Rich Young Man to give up his riches is the same call which Britain should heed now!” Hoping to Heaven that peaceful Old George will resign, ambitious Herbert Morrison, the Cockney Labor boss of the London County Council who expects to be the next Labor Prime Minister, rushed about last week rousing his constituents with the platform cry: “Mussolini is an irresponsible fanatic with bloodthirsty tendencies. The people of Italy ought to overthrow him !”