m as unavoidable. The hypnotic response followed, but at least
twenty-four members of the national legislature woke from the trance and
_thought_. I have attempted in my comparison only to suggest how much
independence, how much cutting of bonds and attachments that thought
required. I press the analogy no further. What is noticeable is that
this thought, voiced so early and unmistakably, has been gaining wider
and wider utterance. It appears that in December, 1914, Herr Haase,
speaking in the Reichstag for the Social Democrats, declared that the
party were unanimously of opinion that the facts which had come to
light since the beginning of the war were not sufficient evidence for
them to adopt the Imperial Chancellor's view that the violation of the
neutrality of Luxemburg and Belgium was justified by military reasons.
The party had come to the conclusion and had agreed that the violation
of Luxemburg and Belgium must be regarded as a violation of justice. The
above declaration seems to have been suppressed in the German papers. It
reached the _Labour Leader_ from Holland.

AGAINST ANNEXATION.

We have all of us read the celebrated manifesto issued by the National
Executive of the German Social Democratic Party which the _Vorwaerts_ was
suppressed for publishing. Let us remind ourselves of a few passages in
that document. It was issued in June, 1915. "When in recent years the
threatening clouds of war gathered on the political horizon, the German
Socialists stood with all their strength up to the last hour, for the
preservation of peace. To the misfortune of the peoples, the Socialists
in all countries were not yet strong enough to hold back the terrible
fate which has come upon Europe. The torch of war flared up sharply and
set the whole world on fire.

"When the Cossacks of the Tsar passed over the frontiers, plundering and
burning, the German Socialists proved true to the word which their
leaders had given to the German people. They put themselves at the
service of their country and voted the means for its defence....

"The Parliamentary Party and the Party Executive have always unanimously
opposed the policy of conquests and of annexations. We raise once more
the sharpest protests against all attempts to secure the annexation of
foreign territories and the violation of the rights of other peoples,
particularly as they have been expressed in the demands of great
Capitalist Federations and in the speeches of lea