Nutshell Knowledge.

XII.—The Class War.

The only real wars, of course, are international wars, and when they are in progress we must see that no energy is dissipated in civil strife. We must applaud the action of the Second International in 1914. which decided that every trade union and every Labour Party must exert every effort for the defence of every fatherland.

It may be that some will say when the next war comes that Labour has no interest in Imperialist war. Let us combat that heresy. Let us teach that class interests should be forgotten in the national cause.

And let us think out answers to use when they irrelevantly point to cases when the ruling class has considered class interests more important than the national welfare.

They may mention 1871, when Bismarck handed back to the French the 60,000 prisoners he had captured at Sedan in order that the ruling class of France might smash the Parish Commune. They may mention 1918-9, when the Central Powers and the Allies were both engaged in a war of intervention in Russia.

They may mention the troubled years in India, when the nationalist, Ghandi, was let out of prison to create a diversion whenever Communism was gaining too strong a hold. They may metnion Britain's choice between Italian control of the road to India and an Italian defeat that would have endangered Italian Fascism.

Let us think out our explanations of these cases. Let us point out the national advantage that participation in the next Imperialist war will bring. We must defend our shores. In 1914 Germany was building half as many warships as Britain. To defend our shores from this menace the Anzacs fought for territory that had been promised to Italy by a secret treaty (but which was not awarded to Italy at the Versailles prize-giving), in order to keep Italy in the war against Austria, which was the ally of Germany, which was building half as many ships as Britain in 1914 and hence was a danger to our shores.

If New Zealand is to dervie such direct benefits from the next Imperialist war, then we must suppress class struggle in the national good.—"Spectator."