Inter-Allied Socialist Conferences of World War I  During the First World War there were a number of conferences of the socialist parties of the Entente or Allied powers. The first conference was held in London 14 February 1915. The official minutes were not published, but among the approximately 40 delegates were representatives from the Independent Labour Party (Keir Hardie, Ramsay MacDonald, Bruce Glasier and William Anderson), British Socialist Party, Fabian Society, Labour Party; the Belgian Workers Party (Emile Vandervelde, Camille Huysmans and Henri La Fontaine); the French Section of the Workers' International and the General Confederation of Labour – Marcel Sembat, Jean Longuet, Édouard Vaillant, Albert Thomas, Adéodat Compère-Morel, Léon Jouhaux, Alphonse Merrheim and others; from the Russian Empire :Socialist-Revolutionary Party – Rubanovich, Viktor Chernov, Bobrov, Central Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party – Maxim Litvinov, Organization Committee of the Russian Social Democratic Labor Party- Ivan Maisky  The ILP had tried to include the German and Austrian parties, but the French said they would not This conference was initiated by Vandervelde and presided over by Keir Hardie. Both Litvinov and Maisky attempted to attend the conference and transmit declarations. Litvinov was unable to finish reading his at the conference, but he was subsequently able to have it published in the March 1915 issue of the "Socialist Standard" of the Socialist Party of Great Britain Reports were made by Vailant, Vandervelde and one of the Social Revolutionaries enthusiastically supporting the war. The British apparently abstained from making a report. There was apparently much debate in the drafting commission and the subsequent plenary session on the war responsibility of the Central Powers and the position of Belgium and Serbia. The Belgian and French delegates are reported as taking a harder line on this point than their British comrades. The attitude of the Russians is difficult to ascertain because of contradicting primary sources. The resolution adopted by the conference claimed that the war was the product of the antagonisms produced by capitalist society, imperialism and colonial rivalry in which every country had a share of responsibility. Given the invasion of Belgium and France, a victory in the war for Germany would extinguish liberty, national independence and faith in treaties. Therefore, the workers of the Allied countries are fighting a defensive war against the German and Austrian governments, not against the German and Austrian people, and would resist attempts to turn this into a war of conquests.