representative of the Belgian Government during the war, as
Chairman. In England, where the Socialist and Trade Union forces were
divided, it was necessary to constitute a special joint committee in
order to raise the British quota of the cost of the Bureau, and to
elect and instruct the British delegates. It was decided by the Brussels
Bureau that the 20 British votes should be allotted, 10 to the Labour
Party, 4 to the I.L.P., 4 to the British Socialist Party (into which the
old S.D.F. had merged), and 2 to the Fabian Society, and the British
Section of the International Socialist Bureau was, and still remains,
constituted financially and electorally on that basis.

In France and in several other countries the internal differences
between sections of the Socialist Party have been carried to far greater
lengths than have ever been known in England. In France there have been
hostile groups of Socialist representatives in the Chamber of Deputies
and constant internecine opposition in electoral campaigns. In Great
Britain the rivalry of different societies has consisted for the most
part in separate schemes of propaganda, in occasional bickerings in
their publications, in squabbles over local elections, and sometimes
over the selection but not the election of parliamentary candidates. On
the other hand co-operation on particular problems and exchange of
courtesies have been common.

The International Socialist Bureau, under instructions from the
Copenhagen Conference had made a successful attempt to unite the warring
elements of French Socialism, and in the autumn of 1912 the three
British Socialist Societies were approached with a view to a conference
with the Bureau on the subject of Socialist unity in Great Britain.
Convenient dates could not be fixed, and the matter was dropped, but in
July, 1913, M. Vandervelde, the Chairman, and M. Camille Huysmans, the
Secretary of the Bureau, came over from Brussels and a hurried meeting
of delegates assembled in the Fabian office to discuss their proposals.
The Bureau had the good sense to recognise that the way to unity led
through the Labour Party; and it was agreed that the three Socialist
bodies should form a United Socialist Council, subject to the condition
that the British Socialist Party should affiliate to the Labour Party.

In December, 1913, a formal conference was held in London, attended on
this occasion by all the members of the International Socialist Bureau,
rep