| Main Performers | Mr G H Stuart Bunning (Chair of the Parliamentary Committee of the Congress),
Mr A Henderson (Secretary of the Labour Party),
Mrs (Philip) Ethel Snowden,
Mr Barnard Shaw,
Mr J Ramsay MacDonald,
Mr G Lansbury,
Mrs Philip Snowden - speakers |
| Performance Notes | "The brightest features of the demonstration were the speeches of Mrs Snowden and Mr Barnard Shaw. Mrs Snowden grew almost tearful over the babies of Germany doomed to starvation by the brutal allies, and begged the women of London to send them half a million indiarubber teats for their feeding bottles. She also inquired (by way of 'Parable') whether Trotsky would be allowed to attend the Peace Conference. Mr Shaw added to the gaiety of the evening by summarizing M Clemencau's attitude towards the League of Nations in the "familiar quotation from Tennyson" - "Half a league! Half a league!"
"The Chairman described the meeting as an expression of a great determination to end war for all time. It was, he said, a solemn protest, and a warning to statesmen abroard and at home, however strongly entrenched in the Hindenburg lines of their own making, manned by a band of ticketed followers, that they must do something more than give mere lip service to the cause of a League of Nations.. There was arrayed against President Wilson, and against Labour and a League of Nations , a great force, composed not only of men who called themselves statesmen but of profiteers, of all the enemies of Labour. Labour was the one body that could assist President Wilson. International Labour was the only force that believed in peace."
(The Times, 3 January 1919)
"PREPARING FOR NEXT ELECTION.
A demonstration in support of President Wilson's proposals for a League of Nations took place last night at the Albert Hall, under the joint auspices of the Trades Union Congres and the Labour Party. The hall was about half-filled, and the majority of those present were women."
(The Daily Telegraph, 3 January 1919) |