Mr. Snowden in a rasping speech asserted that the repre-
sentatives of Labour did not speak for the rank-and-file. He was informed that at the recent Conference one-third of the delegates voted against the proposals in the Ministry of Munitions Bill. Here Mr. Hodge interrupted with: "I speak with the fall authority of my Trade Union." Mr. Snowden went on to say that the civil and industrial liberty of the people was at stake. Mr. Churchill had told the country that he had been charged to have the Navy instantly ready for war. Lord Haldane had said that for five years Sir John French had been preparing for such a war as this. But the late Government having been convicted of unreadiness and inefficiency, an attempt was now made in this Bill to put the blame on the workers. Mr. O'Grady informed Mr. Snowden that he evidently knew little of Trade Union movements. The one-third minority at the recent Conference voted, not against this Bill at all, but against compulsory arbitration in all disputes. Letters came from Tr•ade Unionists in the trenches appealing for support. When these men came home they would say that the willingness to forgo privileges temporarily was the greatest work Trade Unionism had ever done. The Bill was read a second time.
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