29 SEPTEMBER 1925
The admissibility of Communists to membership of the Labour party was expected to be the sharpest issue before the party Conference at Liverpool, which begins today.
Mr A. J. Cook, speaking at Wigan, said the most difficult phase in the history of the Labour movement had arrived. While he himself held views which he hoped some day would be applied, he recognised that other people had their views too. He hoped the Labour Conference would consolidate the programme laid down by the Trade Union Congress. He held the view that if the Communists thought they could convert the Trade Unions to their point of view they had a right to try.
Addressing a miners’ demonstration near Nottingham, Mr Frank Hodges said there was no universal model for expressing the will of the Labour movement; each country had its own methods. The effort to inject the Communist party and doctrine into the movement must be thwarted at Liverpool. Labour and Communism were mutually opposed in fundamentals; there was no basis of reconciliation.
In an interview at Liverpool, Mr A. J. Cook said he was hopeful that the present difficulties regarding the Coal Commission would be overcome.
Mr J. R. Clynes, at Liverpool, declared that the growth of the Communist movement was very largely the result of bad trade conditions. These things, he added, were due far less to influences from Moscow than to wage reductions the men had to suffer.
The Allied Conference with the representatives of Germany on the Security Pact will be held at Locarno.