My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleysome business!My speeches in denunciation of the division of Europe and a return to the balance ofpower were inspired by my opposition to Versailles, but in point of time followed mymove into Opposition, for which the Irish question was the actual occasion. I receivedthe initial evidence on the Irish atrocities by pure chance. A young man came to seeme who knew the Curzon children because he was their neighbour at Hackwood;Cimmie remembered him well. He told me a truly astonishing story. After the war hehad knocked about the world, and eventually found himself rather hard up in one ofthe main cities of the British Dominions. There he had been approached by some formof recruiting official to join as an officer a new auxiliary force for use in Ireland. Theconditions were good and he had had considerable military experience, so he accepted.Consequently, he soon found himself in a Black and Tan mess in Ireland, not only inthe company of junior but of senior officers.The first night a young officer entered the mess with blood on his clothing remarking:'I can't make the swine talk'. This was his initiation. The methods employed were acommonplace of conversation among the officers concerned. The account which mostremains in my memory was the use of thin steel rods to beat the victim intounconsciousness, when they were revived with eggs boiled till they were hot andplaced under the armpits; this was stated to be a Chinese method of persuasion. It wasaffirmed that anyone would talk if the process were repeated often enough. Thesepractitioners appeared to be under no constraint to use methods which left no mark; aconsideration which apparently only occurred to later adepts in the art of torturingprisoners in other countries. My informant also provided evidence of the violent andundisciplined behaviour of those troops in the Irish countryside, which was a clearbreach of all proper military conduct in treatment of the civilian population.Following this interview I made enquiry in many different directions, and theevidence poured in. When I put down my first questions the parliamentary stormbroke; yet as the evidence accumulated there was no possible doubt about the maincharges. In the end they were sifted, and proved to the last degree, but still thegovernment was obdurate and the Conservative majority greeted fact with nothing butnoisy abuse.I crossed the floor in October 1920 for a practical reason, though there was also asymbolic significance. It became impossible to get a hearing on my own side, so Ipreferred to face my enemies rather than be surrounded by them. It was better toconfront what appeared to me as a charge of howling dervishes than to stand in themiddle of it. I was astonished by the furious reception of my initial remarks on theIrish question from the Conservative benches. It was to me a plain duty to bring to thenotice of the House facts whose redress I had vainly sought in private. Yet to theConservative Party in revealing these things I was badly letting down the side, addingdisloyalty to impudence.To do these Conservatives justice, most of them probably did not believe a word I wassaying. When I first received my information I went at once to Edward Wood, asenior for whom I had considerable regard; he was subsequently Viceroy of India andwell known as Foreign Secretary under the name of Lord Halifax—in the jovialvernacular of the Churchill family, Lord Holy Fox. We were at that time on good127 of 424