an Government would neither seek, nor accept
advice on her national projects, from her quondam internationalists.

There are grounds for suspicion that the party is playing a game desired
by the Berlin Government. For some months past they have tried every
means possible to arrange personal interviews with the leaders of the
corresponding party in France--the French "comrades" have refused to
meet them. The _Leipziger Volkszeitung_ for July 16th, 1915, contains
more than a column about "We and the French," in which the German party
spreads the usual Teutonic lime of sophistry and empty phrases.

One passage betrays the entire intrigue. They wish their "French
brothers" to agree to a peace without annexations, which means, in so
many words, that the French Socialists are to renounce Alsace-Lorraine
for ever. Had they been, or should they be in the future, so foolish as
to enter this German mouse-trap, then before the war has reached a
decisive conclusion, a large section of the French nation would be
pledged to renounce the lost provinces even in case of a German defeat.
This is an excellent instance of the manner in which German Social
Democracy works in an enemy country to assist its own Government. In
like manner, the Independent Labour Party and Union of Democratic
Control are forces exceedingly sensitive to German influence, and in a
decisive moment can be set in motion by the German "comrades."

The hundred and eleven Social Democrats in the Reichstag have no real
power in Germany. If they possess any degree of power, then fear for
their own skins, prevents them from risking its exercise. Their real
opinion concerning Alsace-Lorraine appeared in the same journal four
days later. "According to our opinion it would be a crime, if France
made the return of these provinces a condition of peace." In the same
article an accusation of one-sidedness is made against the Socialists in
France for supporting the French Government. After which, it is not
surprising that every time the names of the _Genossen_ Macdonald,
Snowden, Hardie and Newbold occur in the _Leipziger Volkszeitung_, they
are mentioned with awe and reverence.

"Besides Ramsay Macdonald and Philip Snowden, our friend J.T. Walton
Newbold has got on the nerves of the English patriots."[86] These
gentlemen invariably receive polite mention, but French Socialists are
evidently in disfavour--presumably because they know too well the German
game.

[Footnote 86: