WAR MEMOIRS OF DAVID LLOYD GEORGE 1917

PROBLEMS OF LABOUR UNREST 189
duty shall be to assist the formation of local Workmen's
and Soldiers' Councils and generally to give effect to the
policy determined by this Conference."
Nervousness was expressed in some quarters as to the
possible outcome of the Leeds Conference and I was urged
to prohibit it, but I thought that it would be a mistake to
treat it too seriously. The only measure taken by the Government
was to support the War Office in its ban on soldiers
in uniform attending. Events proved that we had gauged it
aright. The Conference was largely attended and seemed imposing,
and its resolutions were carried by sweeping majorities.
But as very many of the "delegates" attending it
were individual enthusiasts who came without authority or
instructions from any organised bodies, their votes bound
no one but themselves. The leaders were mostly men of the
type which think something is actually done when you assert
vociferously-that it must be done. The most important result
of the Convention was the irritation it roused among the
members of the Sailors' and Firemen's Union, who were indignant
that it had declared against demanding any compensation
from the Germans for sailors murdered in the
U-boat campaign. They held a protest conference of their
own in the course of the following week, and resolved not to
man any vessel on which peace delegates should sail who
adhered to this attitude. Mr. Ramsay MacDonald was himself
the chief sufferer from this. He thought it would be better
for him to be out of England when the Leeds resolutions to
set up revolutionary machinery on the Russian model were
put into operation. His part of the business was accomplished.
He had helped to summon the meeting. He had delivered a
resonant speech to the delegates. Action was not in his line.
So he decided to be out of the way. He resolved to visit Russia
and Stockholm. As I relate elsewhere, the seamen refused to