Labour and internationalism

OSWALD Mosley emphasised an aspiration rather than a fact when he said in a recent speech at Delhi that the Labour Party stood for internationalism. There can be no doubt that internationalism in the sense of breaking down of national barriers in the matter of free and full enjoyment by the masses of the fruits of their labour is the ultimate goal of a properly constituted Labour Party. But it is equally undeniable that internationalism in this sense is not the immediate objective of the British Labour Party, if, indeed, it is the immediate objective of the party in any country in the world. Indeed, it is safe to assert that the nine months during which they were in office between the resignation of one Conservative ministry and the assumption of office by another did not show that in this respect there was any appreciable difference between the most advanced and the least advanced party in England. Mosley, indeed, claimed that the Labour government had rendered a greater service to mankind during the brief period of its office than any previous government. But this was clearly a matter of opinion, and we do not think that Mosley’s opinion is shared by the majority of disinterested and impartial observers. Nor must the fact be overlooked that internationalism, like charity, must begin at home, and that the sincerity of the international efforts of the British Labour Party will be judged less by what it does with regard to Russia and Germany than by what it does by way of settling international issues with the British Empire itself.

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