28 JULY 1950, Page 5

I really don't know when I have read a more

depressing docu- t than the Resolutions for the 49th Annual Conference of the boar Party. I find it impossible to believe that the majority of British Socialists are as pompous, acquisitive, irresponsible, intolerant and woolly as these 40 pages make them sound. Blackpool (South) thinks that " it is now time to end conscription." Crewe considers that " further delay in the adoption of competent Socialists in key positions in the administration of the Foreign Office and nationalised industries constitutes an affront to the Party's policy." Tottenham and Salford (East) both want a foreign policy designed to " secure allies among the common people of the world " and call for the " ending of all foreign commitments, such as the Atlantic Treaty and Brussell's (sic in both cases) Pact, which have as their objective the preservation of capitalism." Birmingham (Small Heath) demands " the suspension of interest on the National Debt (small savings and Post Office savings to be strictly exempted)," the funds accruing from this breach of faith to be devoted in the first place to increasing Old Age Pensions „and National Assistance. Smethwick " deplores the present Government's policy of creating a new aristocracy by continuing to create new hereditary peerages."