My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleyalways far less when the highly trained men from headquarters were present, becausethey were experts in the business, with all the patience it required, and never lost theirheads in the excitable fashion of the neophyte. They would wait calmly through anyuproar until the process of repeated warnings was exhausted and a clear, definite ordergiven by the speaker to eject the assailants of the meeting; I was always bothchairman and speaker at my own meetings, as the situation needed a firm andexperienced control. The blackshirts were moved always by the slogan I gave them inthe early days: 'We never start fights, we only finish them'.Our means of mobility were ordinary vans used for moving furniture. They had thintin sides and wire netting over the few glass windows, and this protection wassufficient to stop most of the missiles then in use. We were only fired on once, when abullet went through the window of my car at Hull; I can vouch for the hole, but notfor the incident, as I was not in the car at the time. Some witnesses said it was firedfrom a neighbouring roof. The vans used for transport quickly became known amongour opponents as armoured cars and the wildest tales were circulated about them. Wewere always aided in our efforts to maintain order by the simple process of ouropponents becoming scared by their own propaganda and thus losing prematurelytheir stomach for the fray.All this meant money, though much less than was alleged. The men paid foreverything themselves, from the black shirts to their accommodation. The movementonly had to find money for its administrative staff, which never at any time exceededone hundred and forty men or women, and that was at a later stage when the blackhouse, as our barracks in Chelsea came to be called, was closed and we had ordinarypolitical offices in Great Smith Street. We then had national inspectors or agentsthroughout the country, like all political parties. Having given the movement its spiritby centralisation, I had then decided to spread that spirit throughout the country bydecentralisation. The change was introduced in 1935, sixteen months before thePublic Order Act, which made the army illegal. I will deal later with the wholequestion of finance, though I was by my own volition, and consequently by ouroriginal Constitution, removed from that sphere.My part was to declare policy and to assume the ultimate responsibility of decisionand command. In practice, there was far more consultation with members beforepolicy was published or decisions taken than in any other party. Not only did I alwaysconsult my colleagues at headquarters, but in my constant journeys throughout thecountry I consulted all members. This was done both in regular conferences and in theassembly of blackshirts after every meeting, when I not only addressed them but alsomoved among them talking to individual members. I felt deeply that we owed eachother this friendship, and their companionship was one of the joys I have known inlife. It was also an essential method for obtaining the vital information whichproduced efficiency, because it was difficult in these conditions for anythingimportant to be kept from me. We were, admittedly, organised as an army, but it wasan army with a difference, for our members were volunteers who could walk out anyday they liked, telling me or anyone else to go to the devil. Strangely enough, veryfew of them did. Our discipline was voluntary, an act of devotion, without sanction ofany kind. It had to be a new model army, and it was.It has been said that this was the first time since the days of Cromwell that a 'private254 of 424