The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1927-12-08
BY WILLIAM F. DUNE.

workers anu peasants VI 1llCieb 10 OC-
ing prepared by the official leader
ship of the British Labor Party head
ed by Ramsay Macdonald.
The Baldwin government has APP
pointed commission to investigate
conditions in India, go over the In
dian constitution and recommend GER
tain changes.
Not a single Indian is on the COM
mission but two members of the La
Dor Party are-former ministers of
the labor government under Mac
Donald-Stephen Walsh and Major
Atlee.
Mother India"
The appointment of this commits
sion follows the wide distribution of
Katherine Mayo's book Mother In
dia", imperialist propaganda and spe-
cial pleading for British rule in India
of the most vicious kind.
There has been some criticism by
Ellen Wilkinson of the bill creating
the commission but as the London
correspondent of the New York Times
observes, "The comments of the La
borites were a sufficient indication
that criticism was made for political
capital rather than serious opposi-
ton"
Ramsay Macdonald has stated that
he supports the government in Great
ing the commission and his reaction
airy position is under attack by the
Communists and left elements in the
labor party.
1t is stated that not since the dis
cussion on the betrayal of the general
strike have the inner differences in
the Labor Party been so clearly de-
fined as on this question of outright
support of British Imperialism by La
Dor Party leaders.
The position of Macdonald is an
open scandal in the labor movement
and the official labor party leader
ship and right wing union officialdom
is not helped by the endorsement of
the governments Blanesburgh report,
recommending "readjustments" in the
unemployment relief by Margaret
Bondfield and other labor leaders.
Weak Opposition.
But the opposition to cooperation
with the government in planning fur
Their suppression of the Indian ma
tionalist movement, is weakened by
the extremely unclear and cautious
nature of the criticisms it is making
Ellen Wilkinson, for instance, writing
in the New Leader, makes no cri-
ticism whatever of those labor Off
Gals who are playing Baldwin's game
but confines herself to criticism of
the government She even manages
to get in, relative to another matter,
some praise of Macdonald.
Zone would hardly have thought
that this government need have gone
out of its way to look for trouble, but
it is certainly going to find quite a
lot as the result of it's Commission on
the Indian Constitution" says Ellen
Wilkinson. Lord Birkenhead is warned
that eff he imagines that 800 millions
of people in India are going to sub
nit to the sort of bullying superiority
which lost Britain her American
colonies, his pride is likely to receive
a rude shock. The only answer which
the Indian leaders can give to a COM
mission which includes no Indian
names is the boycott which is already
threatened" (Our emphas;s.)
Typical Comment. -
Ellen Wilkinson's comment is typi-
cal of the imperialist tinge which is
to be found in all the speeches and ar
ticles of British labor leaders with
the exception of the Communists and
their supporters.
Wilkinson puts the problem as one
for the Indians and not for the British
labor movement and does not forget
to mention the danger of losing India
as colony. Instead of threatening
the tory government with action by
the Labor Party and the unions Will
kinson leaves all the fighting to be
done by the masses of India.
The Record of Labor OfficialdOm.
The British Labor Party leadership
is saturated with the virus of imper-
ialism. 1t is recorded that no more
arrogant messages were ever sent by
a British premier to colonial peoples
than those of Macdonald to China
and India when he headed the govern
ment and it is likewise a matter Of
record on the word of Bertrand Rus
sell that whatever formal protest has
been made by official British LABOR
party leaders against the invasion OF
China and the Indian atrocities, was
made under pressure from the rank
and file of the workers.
In their failure to support the col
onial peoples against imperialist ag-
gression, in their support of the inn
perialist program for keeping them
enslaved, the official leaders by their
deeds echo the statement of Cecil
Rhodes, the arch-imperialist, quoted
by Lenin in mis- Imperialism:
My chief idea is the solution Of the
social problem, that is, in ord4r to