The Labour Party leaders who were invited last week by
the Prime Minister to discuss practical measures of unemploy- ment relief with the Cabinet did not jump at the opportunity of being useful. They summoned a conference to formulate a reply to the invitation. The reply, sent after two days' delay, embodied the views both of the extreme men who seek to make party capital out of the prevailing distress and of the moderate men who recognize their duty to their country. The Labour leaders declined to take any responsibility for the Government's policy or to act with employers on a com- mittee. They were apparently surprised when the Prime Minister showed no anxiety to meet them again. When he offered to receive them on Tuesday, they were careful to explain that they " had not refused to co-operate with the Govern- ment,'" though their previous letter had produced that impression. It may be noted with satisfaction that the Labour Party's organ, the Labour News, has denounced the Com- munist tactics, remarking that " To play with human misery and to foment human passions merely in order to serve their own revolutionary ends is a heartless and wicked game."
But the tactics of some Labour leaders are not easily to be distinguished from those of the avowed Communists.
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