THE PEACE CRUSADE IN OLDHAM - NEWSPAPER LETTERS

OLDHAM CHRONICLE
10th August 1917 (Friday)
THE PEACE MEETING

Sir, Those of your correspondents who sympathise with the peace party are very profuse in their professions of love for humanity, but it would be more to the point if they would supply answers to the following questions: who is supplying the immense sum of money now being expended by the peace party in their propaganda? Is it not a fact that that no violence took place on Monday night until one of the I.L.P. leaders hurled a foul suggestion at the New Zealanders? Is not a clue to the unpopularity of these people to be found in their allegations against those who do not agree with them? A typical example is provided by 'Trade Unionist and Railway Worker' in your issue of thursday when he states that attacks on pacifists are financed, applauded and engineered by Government officials and others. Is it true that for months past the I.L.P. headquarters have been used as a training place for conscientious objectors in the art of dodging any form of national work? Why do so many of the leaders of the peace party carry on their work under assumed names? E.D. More (real name Deville) and Norman Angell (Ralph Lane) are instances chosen from many.

It is not the public expression of views, however unpopular, that the mass of the people object to. Public indignation, however, is stirred by the acts of a body whose activities are promoted in secret and directed to the embarrassment of our country in its time of need. One of your correspondents has suggested that English people may desire a similar state of things to that now obtaining in Petrograd. It is not likely. Mr. Julius West, a Socialist, has recently given some of his experiences of Petrograd. They include the payment of 3s. 6d. for an orange and £6 for a pair of boots. He also tells us that the chief product of the revolutionary movement in Russia, so far, is talk.
I am etc.,
ONLOOKER