My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleygaze the seething cauldron of European politics'. Their eyes were 'fixed on easterndeserts' and they had scant sympathy with many of their fellow-countrymen who'have to live with starvation' and are 'familiar with sorrow and anguish'. If theycontinued to 'burden industry with these colossal commitments' they would risk 'acollapse of the finances of the country'. In these parliamentary fights I first followedthe lead of Lord Cecil, and later continued alone in support of principles whoseconsistent service has brought me many a battle and caused me many a trouble.The principle object of our attack was always Mr. Churchill, main protagonist of thesepolicies. This produced many vehement clashes between him and Lord Robert inwhich Mr. Churchill was usually victorious. However, on one occasion Lord Robertscored heavily with a slight adaptation of Dryden's well-known lines on Buckingham:Stiff in opinion, always in the wrongWas everything in turn, but nothing longAnd in the course of one revolving moonWas scribbler, painter, statesman and buffoon.Even before my association with Lord Robert Cecil in the work of the League ofNations and the fight against Mr. Churchill's adventures, I had been invited by hiselder brother Lord Salisbury to become Secretary of an organisation he had formed,called the 'People's League for Economy'. This was in 1919 and it brought me in closecontact with this remarkable family. A number of visits to Hatfield were required atthat time to further the people's cause. It was a sound concept by any standard, as theprofligacy of the Coalition Government, both in the wild expenditure of public moneyand the sale of public assets at knock-down prices, often to dubious politicalcharacters, had become a public scandal. The day-to-day administration of thisLeague, which was rapidly successful in a minor fashion, was too much to combinewith my parliamentary duties, so I suggested to Lord Salisbury that it should have awhole-time salaried secretary under my general supervision. He concurred, and askedme to find a suitable man.After a visit to the Oxford Union it occurred to me that its President was just the man.He was very bright indeed, and his name was Leslie Hore-Belisha. During this periodthere was a succession of particularly brilliant Presidents of the Oxford Union, mostlyderived from the war generation, culminating in the triumvirate of Guedalla, Hore-Belisha and Beverley Nichols. The last was eventually lost to politics down thegarden path, after writing some charming things about me in some summer-house enroute; the first was gained for literature after a period in the miasma of contemporaryliberalism; Belisha alone went forward to a spectacular political career. Although hewas some years older than I was, and a major returned from war service, he wasyounger in status, as I was an M.P. and he was still busy taking his degree andpresiding at the Union. Directly he graduated I invited him to organise the People'sLeague for Economy.That staid organisation was an unsuitable frame for his volatile talents, for Belishawas in every respect the opposite of the cautious, calculating, steady and sobercharacter which is supposed to be the attribute of his race; like several outstandingJews, notably Lassalle and Trotsky, he was dashing to a degree, even reckless. At thattime he lived well and hard, and in conversation was brilliantly amusing. Hisassociation with the Church and rectitude in the House of Cecil did not last long. The116 of 424