My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleypolitical lives in their hands, was becoming much too risky for most people on eitherside of the House in a situation which did not appear to be a really disastrous nationalcrisis. Labour M.P.s were also quite entitled to withdraw, for they were committed tonothing. The same could not be said for W. J. Brown, who stayed on the field muchlonger. When the time came for action, only four other M.P.s, John Strachey, memberfor Aston Birmingham, Cynthia Mosley, member for Stoke-on-Trent, Dr. RobertForgan, member for Renfrew, and from the Conservative side, W. E. D. Allen,member for West Belfast, remained of our impressive company. The rest had meltedlike snow upon the desert's dusty face, for the good reason that the sun was stillshining. It was conclusively shown that a consensus of that kind for national actioncan only be effective in a far greater degree of national crisis.I was perhaps alone in the certainty that such a crisis would eventually occur, but thetime was not yet. The discussions with the older men in politics occupied a longerperiod. They began as purely social occasions before I was a member of theGovernment, and continued in serious form after my resignation until the eve of theNational Government in 1931.Letters help sometimes to fix dates, but can only be published under the timehonouredrule to which I rigorously adhere, if they are not marked private. Two lettersfrom Beaverbrook assist in this respect. The first, dated December 7,1928, began: 'Mydear Mosley, I do not usually write in the newspapers about those whose friendship Iseek without communicating the material to them first to make sure they do not mindpublication'. He went on to say that he had written about me in the New York Worldand hoped I would not find in what he had said 'anything to complain of or anythinginconsistent with our personal relationship'. It was at that time certainly a personalrelationship, as I did not enter into any form of political negotiations until after myresignation from the Labour Government in May 1930. His second letter, dated July17, 1930, took things much further: 'My dear Tom, I congratulate you on your speech.It was a very fine achievement. I am ready at any moment to make overtures in yourdirection in public, if you wish me to do so. On the other hand, I will be glad toorganise a committee to work with you and your colleagues in the hope of hammeringout an agreed policy.' I maintained close contact with Beaverbrook in this period butdid not take up his suggestion of a committee; probably because I was closelyengaged at that time, on the one hand with the group of young M.P.s, and on the otherwith Lloyd George and Lord Rothermere, who was usually on good terms with LordBeaverbrook but was not always easy to harness with him.Lloyd George was the moving spirit in the older group, more so than Churchill, whowas sometimes but not always present when we met. The situation was depicted withsome accuracy by the cartoonist Low, who combined much inside information withan acute political sense, when he showed us setting out into the desert with theassistance of Lloyd George, while Churchill remains in the picture, but a little furtherwithdrawn into the Tory background. It was during this period that I grew to knowLloyd George well and to appreciate gifts unique in his generation, which at thisconjunction of events at home and abroad might again have been of immeasurablebenefit to our country. This was not to be allowed in any situation short of thecatastrophic. All the dull people combined to get Lloyd George down. Theysucceeded—but they got the country further down: the epitaph of an epoch.229 of 424