The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1878-05-11 00:00:00

ANTI-WAR AND ARBITRATION
CONFERENCE.

In London, on Saturday, at the Memorial Hall,
Farringdon-street, an Anti-War and Arbitration
Conference was held, and was very numerously at-
tended. Mr. Joseph Arch, who presided, said that
the artisan classes throughout the country and the
Nonconformists had come forward and given in their
protests against unnecessary war, and the agricultural
labourers throughout the length and breadth of the
land had now, through their delegates, taken the
opportunity of expressing their views upon the stern
question of the hour. It could not be said that the
men attending that meeting were "paid agitators,"
for their hands were the day before at the plough or
spade tilling the soil, and they would return to that
work on the Monday; and it could not be said that
they were lukewarm in the cause of peace, seeing that
many had walked from three o'clock in the morning to
reach a railway station, and some had journeyed all
night. The following resolutions were proposed and
passed :
"That this Conference, representing a class of men
whom the Government considerunfit to vote—although
good enough to fight—enters its solemn protest against
the policy of the Government in delaying the settle-
ment of the Eastern difficulty as paralyzing to industry,
aggravating the terrible distress from which large
masses of working men are now suffering, and fraught
with danger to the peace of Europe."
" That we altogether repudiate the statements re-
peatedly made by the Government and its organs, that
their war preparations are made in the interests of
peace, being fully convinced that increased expendi-
ture, calling out of the Reserves, and bringing troops
from India, instead of being peace-preserving, are
war-provoking measures; eminently calculated to
irritate and provoke a collision which the Government
profess themselves anxious to avoid. And that, while
we have no love for the form of Government which
exists in Russia, and emphatically condemn tyranny
and cruelty, whether practised by the Russian, British,
or any other Government, we utterly despise the
barbarism of Turkey, which centuries of experience
proves is incapable of improvement."
"That should the Government persist in its refusal
to adjust its differences with Russia, either by means
of a Congress or by arbitration as provided in the
Treaty of Paris, and war be the result, the members
of this Conference solemnly pledge themselves to use
all the influence they possess to induce their fellows in
the agricultural districts to strike against war by not
enlisting, and to leave those who have made the
quarrel to fight it out themselves."

An anti-war conference was also held on Saturday
at Leeds, convened by the local branch of the Work-
men's Peace Association. Three hundred delegates,
representing the chief towns in the north and north-
west of the kingdom, were present. A letter was read
from Mr. John Bright, excusing himself for not attend-
ing, but sympathising with the objects of the meeting.

A conference of working men was held in die Odd
Fellows' Hall, Edinburgh, on Saturday evening, with
reference to the policy of the Government. There
was a large attendance, and resolutions were adopted
to the effect that the Conference expressed its strong
conviction that the prolonged depressi in of trade is
laniely due to the uncertainty caused by the present
policy of the Government, emphatically protested
against its military preparations and extravagant ex-
penditure as costly, irritating, and provocative of war,
and also expressed its deep sense of the debt of grati-
tude which the country owed to Lords Derby and
Carnarvon for their strenuous and persevering efforts
in the cause of peace and recorded its thanks to Mr.
Gladstone Mr. Bright, and other members of Parlia-
ment for the course that they had taken in regard to
the Eastern Question.

On Saturday night a meeting of representative
working men was held in Glasgow, when resolutions
were passed expressing their strong conviction that the
long depression of trade was due to the uncertainty
caused by the policy of the Government, and that its
military preparations and extravagant expenditure
was costly, irritating, and calculated to create war 7
that there was no difference between the British and
Russian Governments requiring war, that the differ-
ences should be referred to arbitration, and that the
resolutions should be forwarded to Earl Beaconsfield
and Lord Salisbury, and to the leaders of the Liberal
party.