Mr. J. H. Thomas said that he had hitherto opposed
Direct Action, and tried to justify himself for going over to the revolutionaries. If the Bolsheviks were lying in their promises to Poland, " then it is for us not blindly to follow anybody but to deal with the situation as it then arises." Mr. Seddon, who, we believe, speaks in this matter for the British working man, denounced the " Council of Action " in good round terms. Most of its members, he said, were " the bitterest enemies of this country during the war," and had persecuted Mr. Clynes and other patriotic Labour leaders. Mr. Seddon, as an old trade unionist, denied the claim of this " Council " to represent British workmen or their right to declare a general strike, " which meant a declaration of civil war, to shed the blood of women and children, their own kith and kin." Mr. Seddon's manly protest against revolution contrasted favourably with the pitiful sophistries of Mr. Clynes and Mr. Thomas.
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