WAR MEMOIRS OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 1917

STOCKHOLM AND MR. ARTHUR HENDERSON 149
ganda, to talk over with French Socialists the arrangements
for an International Conference of which his own Government
did not approve, and to which our Allies, the French,
the Italians and the Americans, were strongly opposed.
Mr. Henderson failed to put in an appearance at the
meetings of the War Cabinet on the 25th and 26th of July.
At the latter meeting, the question was raised of his proposed
visit to Paris, which had come to the knowledge of
the Foreign Office through the application of the Labour
Party delegates for passports. Mr. Henderson had not notified
the War Cabinet of his intentions, though he cabled me
in Paris where I was at the time, stating that he was coming
to Paris with four Russian delegates and Messrs. Wardle and
MacDonald — not, however, stating their business.
The War Cabinet was naturally a good deal perturbed
at the news of Mr. Henderson's intended trip and decided
that Mr. Henderson should be asked to confer with his colleagues
in the War Cabinet at 7.30 P.M. that evening, with
a view to their ascertaining from him how far the proposed
action committed His Majesty's Government to the meeting
of British Socialist representatives with enemy Socialist
representatives at Stockholm; and whether the inclusion
of Mr. Ramsay MacDonald among those chosen to proceed
to Paris implied official recognition by the British Government
of Mr. Ramsay MacDonald's status as a representative
of British Socialists.
This conference with Mr. Henderson was duly held, and
the Members of the War Cabinet told him clearly how
thoroughly they disapproved of the course he had decided
to take. He intimated to them that he had made up his mind
and his arrangements for the visit, and could not and would
not draw back. Mr. Bonar Law and his Cabinet colleagues
were in a difficult position, for they could hardly prohibit
Mr. Henderson from going, nor yet demand his resignation