My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleyoccasion of the break was my error in asking him to accept an invitation from theenterprising Vicar of the City Temple church to speak from his pulpit after lunch. Itwas reported to me afterwards by some of his young friends that he began with a sidesplittingparody of the parsonic demeanour in the words: 'Rising as I do in thishallowed spot, my only regret is that I have neither the clerical voice nor yet theclerical manner'. The oration was interrupted at this point with a resounding hiccoughand was necessarily brought to a premature conclusion. This did not go at all wellwith Lord Salisbury, and he departed from the People's League in a cloud of dust.At this period of his life Hore-Belisha was 'living it up', a tendency which continuedeven after his entry into the House of Commons, where it marred some of his earlyspeeches. It is greatly to his credit that he subsequently pulled himself together anddrove forward with cool and sober will to achieve for a period the heights of politicalsuccess. My last intimate discussion with him was due to a curious accident. We hadtaken a seaside house in Normandy, and went into neighbouring Deauville at theweekend. I visited the casino to see for the first time the celebrated Greek syndicate inaction, and was surprised to find that their principal challenger at the big table wasHore-Belisha. He explained to me in the intervals of this desperate encounter that hehad been left a considerable sum of money by some relation and meant for better orworse to put his whole fortune to the test that evening. He was quite sober.I watched, fascinated by the drama, throughout the night. He invited me to supper atsix o'clock in the morning, after rising from the table with three times the fortune hehad staked. I urged him to leave Deauville next day and never to return. I nevergamble myself, because I find so much in life more interesting, but the next weekendI returned to the casino to see if there were any comparable drama; there was, it wasHore-Belisha again. He emerged at dawn without a penny, and this time I invited himto supper. He was very cheerful, and explained that if he had retained that fortune hewould have been tempted never to do a stroke of work and just to have a good time.Max Beaverbrook had offered him a job at a large salary as his chief politicalcolumnist, and now he was going to accept, it would be the making of him. I admiredboth his fortitude and his philosophy.Our paths did not cross again until his disaster, when as Secretary of State for War hewas driven from office by troubles in 1940. It was a personal sorrow to rne that ourorganisation previously played a part in that assault, as years before I had much likedhim, but it would have been a denial of public duty to prevent it. Afterwards I sawhim only once again, and he looked at me with eyes of sad reproach. Public life is toooften laden with these 'tears of things'. We were friends though we had a differentattitude to life. He was always surprised and rather envious of my automatic decisionin favour of purpose before pleasure in the bitter choice which is often necessary.My mishap with the appointment of Hore-Belisha as Secretary to Lord Salisbury'sPeople's League did not deter his brother Lord Robert Cecil from inviting me to act asParliamentary Secretary to the League of Nations' Union, a large organisation whichhe had established with considerable financial assistance from Lord Cowdray tosupport his ideas for the promotion of the League of Nations. I accepted, and wasmuch occupied with this task in the summer which followed my marriage andhoneymoon in May 1920. We had rented the agreeable Downshire house atRoehampton, and I used to go up every day to the L.N.U. office at 15 Grosvenor117 of 424