My Life

My Life - Oswald MosleyEngland, he developed wide and successful business interests. I did not know himuntil after the war, as he was in another division of cavalry corps and, of course, verysenior to me. I met him soon after my resignation from the Government, and he threwall his drive and energy into raising funds for the New Party from a number ofprominent business men, including Lord Nuffield.My dealings with Lord Nuffield were protracted; they began in the days when OliverStanley was still associated with me, though he soon fell out of these discussions, ashe was always a little too sensitive for such matters. I had practically given up hope ofany help from the motor magnate, as nothing seemed ever to come of our talks, whenI suddenly received a telegram inviting me to lunch with him at Huntercombe golfcourse club-house, which he was reputed to have bought after some difficulty aboutbecoming a member, in the same manner that Otto Kahn was said to have acquired anopera house in America.We lunched alone, and as usual the conversation roamed widely over general politicalquestions. Like Lord Rothermere, he was a genuine and ardent patriot, but he waseven less versed in the technique of politics, a business genius who seemed to berather lost outside his own sphere. His success rested on an extraordinary andinventive flair for mechanical processes—visual and manual rather than theoretical—and a remarkable capacity for picking men, particularly business executives. Politicalconversation with him tended consequently to be tedious, as the only real contributionhe could make was through the power of his money, and this point seemed neverlikely to be reached. However, ennui flew out of the window when at the end of lunchhe pulled a cheque from his pocket and handed it to me across the table; it was for£50,000. He said he had been studying me for a long time—the object of theseemingly pointless conversations were now clear—had developed full confidence inme and had decided to back me. Then came one of those white-light observationswhich reveal a whole career; in this case the long and dusty road from the littlebicycle shop to the motor empire. 'Don't think, my boy, that money like this grows ongooseberry bushes. The first ten thousand took me a lot of getting.' I bet it did, Ithought, and was deeply touched. He was a good and honest man, as well as abusiness genius; a combination which can occur.Lord Rothermere entered this picture at a later stage than Lord Nuffield, WyndhamPortal and the original New Party backers, although he had known me longer than anyof them. It was the combination of blackshirt success and our strong advocacy ofnational rearmament in what appeared to him a period of flabby surrender on allfronts which attracted him, rather than our social policies, of which he seemed to bealmost unaware. He was delighted, for example, when I said in an Albert Hall speech:'Stand by our friends, and stand up to our enemies'.Lord Rothermere gave generously, but not on the scale of Lord Nuffield. Then hecame to me one day with an extraordinary proposition. He prefaced his proposal withthe statement that he had made two large fortunes, in newspapers and in theNewfoundland pulp business, and with my help would make a third, which would bethe largest of the three. He had undertaken a close study of the tobacco trade and hadfound that distribution was the chief question; the combines had tied shops, as thebrewers had tied houses. The manufacture of cigarettes was relatively easy, if thequestion of distribution could be solved; and that was where I came in. He had288 of 424