| Main Performers | Mr F C Fairchild (presiding),
Mr Neil Maclean MP,
Mr John MacLean,
William Foster Watson (Chairman, London Workers' Committee) - speakers |
| Secondary Performers | Mr Israel Zangwill,
Mrs Charlotte Despard,
Miss Sylvia Pankhurst - on the platform |
| Set List | Messages read expressing sympathy with the object of the meeting from Bertrand Russell, Arthur Ponsonby, Mr F D Morell, Mr Austin Harrison and Mr George Bernard Shaw,
Speech and Resolution (Mr Mr Neil Maclean MP),
Speech (Mr John MacLean),
Speech (William Foster Watson),
'The Red Flag' |
| Performance Notes | "SOCIALISTS AND RUSSIA
DEMONSTRATION IN THE ALBERT HALL
"Hands off Russia" was the keynote of a Socialist demonstration held at the Albert Hall yesterday evening, to protest against intervention in Russia and to demand the withdrawal of all the Allied troops from that country. The hall was filled.
Cries of "Shame" and "this is the land of the free" greeted the prelimnary announcement of a steward that Edvard Soermus, the violinist, who was to have given solos before the speeches, had been taken from Merthry for deportation, and was now in Brixton gaol. The red flag was brought on to the platform draped in black and the chairman, Mr F C Fairchild, asked the audience to rise in silence in memory of comrades Liebknecht and Ross Luxembourg."
(The Observerm 9 February 1919, page 10)
"SOCIALISTS AT THE ALBERT HALL
A Socialist demonstration was held at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday night to protest against intervention in Russia and to demand the withdrawal of the Allied troops from that country....Messages expressing sympathy with the object of the meeting were read from, among other, the Hon. Bertrand Russell, Mr Arthur Ponsonby, Mr E D Morel, Mr Austin Harrison and Mr George Bernard Shaw.
It was stated on the programme that the cost of the meeting was at least £400. A collection was made to meet this, but the young aliens of Jewish extraction who formed a late part of the audience and corps of stewards did not appear to contribute very liberally, and it is doubtful if anything approaching the sum stated was rasied. But it is understood that substantial donations had been received previously by the organisers. The hall was not full, although on Friday it was announced that every seat had been allotted. Accommodation had been provided for the Press and two of the speakers denounced and warned the "scribes of the capitalist newspapers" and, incidentally, the "camouflaged shop stewards of Scotland-yard." A red flag draped in black commemorrated Rosa Luxemburg and Liebknecht. There were also a few Sinn Fein flags on the platform.
Mr Neil MacLean MP, who suggested that the workers should also demand "Hands off Glasgow", moved a resolution in accordance with the object of the meeting, and calling on the working class of Great Britain "to enforce this demand by the unreseved use of their political and industrial power.
Mr John MacLean, the Bolshevist "Consul" in Glasgow, demanded the immediate release of the Sinn Feiners and conscientious objectors and all other political prisoners of "that brazen-faced scoundrel Woodrwo Wilson."
Mr W F Watson, the chairman of the London Workers' Committee, deplored the attitude of the great majority of London workmen who were not inclided to come out on strike or remain out very long. As matters stood they must wait for the miners to move and take every possible advantage of every industrial grievance to make industry impossible."
(The Times, 10 February 1919)
One of the speakers from this event, William Foster Watson, was charged under the Defence of the Realm Act with making 'seditious utterenaces' and was sentenced to six months imprisonment in the second division.
(The Times, 24 March 1919) |