24 AUGUST 1918, Page 3

M. Troelstra, the Dutch Socialist on whose verbal authority Mr.

Henderson assured our Labour Party that the German Socialists had repented of their Imperialist aims, has now repudiated Mr. Henderson's interpretation of his message. i1I. Troelstra, whose partiality for Germany caused the defeat of his party in the recent elections, is now in Switzerland conferring with enemy delegates. When he says positively that Herr Scheid( mann will not hear of a German indemnity to Belgium or of a Referendum to deter mine the future of Alsace-Lorraine, and that he will not consider a Corderence with the Inter-Allied Socialist Memorandum on War Aims as a basis, M. Troelstra is speaking of what he knows. In an interview reported-in Thursday's papers Mr. Henderson admitted II it he was mistaken both in his speech and in his later attempt to justify the speech. It was a serious mistake, because it raised false hopes in the minds of honest and ignorant people. Mr. Henderson, in effect, tried to show that, if black was not white, t was at any rate a light grey. But ,the German Socialists are really as black as they are painted.