THE PEACE

' MEMORANDUM SUBMITTED BY THE NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

(adopted by the Annual Party Conference by 2,413,000 votes . to 30,000.)

1.

At no time since the War "began has the British people been more united in its will to victory or more clear in the recogni­tion of its urgency. The fate of those nations which have fallen under the heel of Hitler has made it plain that no civilised way of life is possible to those whom he conquers.

The British Labour Party, therefore, regards victory as the only basis upon which the achievement of its ideals becomes poss­ible. More* it is convinced that, for the attainment of victory, this purpose has an importance greater t^an at any previous time. For if all the energies of the nation are to be concentrated on the immediate end of victory, the ideas required for their effec­tive mobilisation are those which this Party has consistently affirmed since its foundation.

The full use of our material resources for victory, whether it be in the organisation of the mines and transport, whether in the development of the land, 6r in the adequate protection of the civil population, can only be attained by the combination of tequity with efficiency. That combination means the instant and / thorough-going recognition that the interests of the Common­wealth come before those of any vested interest, however powerful.

1Without such recognition the maintenance of national ufcity i

in the transition from War to Peace is bound to be incomparably more difficult; and our power to meet the grave problems Peace will bring is certain to be hampered. The Central principle of Socialism is the insistence that the interests of the Commonwealth are the supreme test of policy. It is only b$te4he vigorous application of thiS principle that we can win both the War and the Peace.

11.The record of the Parliamentary Party is before the Conference.Its leading members with the full assent of Conference, enteredthe National Government formedJby^Mr. Churchill in May, 1940, on tterms of full partnership". Since that time, our Ministers, likeour members of Parliament, members of Local Authorities andregional bodies of every kind, with the National Executive, havebeen concerned to make their maximum contribution to the greattask of winning the War as speedily and as decisively as possible.At the same time they have done their utmost to lessen the heavyburden which War inevitably casts upon the workers, and to preserve g^d even to enlarge, their rights. Not least, they have beendeeply concerned to see that the vital civil liberties of thepeople are amply safeguarded and maintained.

The area of the social services has been increased. Largely through the care and determination of the Trade Unions, the standard of life has been well safeguarded. The health of the workers has been protected by the maintenance of the factory codes, and by the institution of factory doctors, canteens, and nurseries. Labour, national and local, has taken its share in wivil defence; and in every sphere its activities have done much to improve the provision for the safety and comfort of citizens. The social pro­tection of our people has been facilitated by the alert and continuous watch which has been kept over financial policy. In­terest rates have been kept down. The Treasury h,as assumed powers over the Banks which assures their full co-operation in the policy upon which Parliament decides. The dangers of inflation, every present in War-time, have been kept to a minimum..

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* 3'.the easier and the more equitable will he the ultimate transition to Peace. We cannot act too swiftly to this end.

IV.

The nation is fighting this War that it may live as a free people. To win it is to defeat the gravest threat the Socialist idea has ever met. For Socialism asserts, as the Nazi faith denies, the intrinsic worth of a man as a man. By our determina­tion to defeat the Nazi effort, we are making the human values for which Socialism stands more clear and more compelling to millions of our fellow-citizens. Those values are increasingly accepted not merely hy the free peoples all over the world, hut with equal intensity hy the victims of Nazi and Fascist oppression. They are the source of that will to victory upon which we can build a Peace of justice leading to that international order of free co-operation which alone can give dignity to the lives of men and wonen.

War has taught us that without Socialist principles there can he no security; without them, also, there is no prospect of that justice which seeks to realise for every citizen his equal claim upon the common stock of welfare.m War has taught us, also, that Without Socialist principles, the immense possibilities of science cannot he harnessed to the achievement of the common good not only o of our own people, hut those of every land. The Labour Movement, therefore, calls for the rapid translation of these principles into the organisation of the War effort that our victory may be the more rapid and certain. It calls for this translation in the conviction that victory and reconstruction are indivisiblej that the spirit and idea of the one are the spirit and idea of the other.

Finally, the British Labour Movement is fully aware of the speical and proud position of our country has come to occupy in the public opinion of the world. British aims and British conduct will determine, in large measure, the aims and conduct of all nations in the years which follow victory. If that is an achievement, it is also a trust. We in Britain have so to set our course that the chart we follow is at once an exmaple and an inspiration to the rest of mankind. Histroy has given us the opportunity to consecrate the sufferingsof the world by fulfillings its hopes. That is the vision to which we must dedicate our lives. It is not only the debt we owe to the men and women who built our Movement; it is also our inescapable obligation to the sons and daughters of men who will follow us and whose lives will be shaped by the principles on which we build our effort. It is in that spirit we must go forward. There is no other high-road to a noble victory and just and enduring Peace.

Collection Number: AD843

XUMA, A.B., Papers

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