The Government and the " Peace Congress
Neither his personal prestige, which is considerable, nor his powers of persuasion, which are not small, enabled the Home Secre- tary on Tuesday to make any convincing defence of the Govern- ment's lamentable mishandling of the so-called World Peace Congress at Sheffield. The Government might theoretically have banned the Congress altogether ; practically it hardly could, so long as Communists remain free in this country to hold meetings, run newspaper and elect Communist members to the House of Actually the Government took credit for its broadmindedness in countenancing. the Congress in the interests of freedom of speech. Tofollow that up by sending back from the ports and airports nearly all the principal delegates who were to attend the Congress is to play straight into the hands of the Communists. We are inured enough to baseless attacks in Pravda and like journals ; it is not agreeable to have the Government presenting them with sound grounds for criticism. The Congress, closely watched as the dele- gatet would have been by an adequate force of by no means inefficient special police, could have done no harm 'to anyone in its four or five days' sessions. The newspapers would have shown little interest in it. As it is, undreamed of publicity has been given to the Communists' or pseudo-Communists' efforts. The organisers and individual delegates have clearly been involved in considerable expense. No one will feel much tenderness for them as such, but there is such a thing as fair play. If the Government intends to introduce anti-Communist legislation it will be considered on its merits, and probably enough approved. But to issue visas to dele- gates abroad and then stop the delegates at the ports when they come to England is-to play a very unattractive game.
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