14 APRIL 1928, Page 3

The Conference of the Independent Labour Party opened last Saturday

at -Norwich. ' Many speakers in- sisted upon the importance of maintaining the Party as a distinct organization—an insistence which implied a good • deal of apprehension as to whether a separate existence could be maintained. The revenue of the Party has been falling ; Snowden's resignation was a shock ; and the Party's proscription of Mr. Ramsay MacDonald has done it no good. It is a fact that the Labour Party owes its existence to the I.L.P., bathe common sense of the matter seems to- be that the I.L.P., having created something greater than itself, ought to sing its Nunc Dimittis. That,- however, was exactly what Mr. James Maxton, the Chairman of the Party, refused in emphatic terms to -do.

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