My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleyit was a defence of my wartime position, coupled with an exposure of the methodsused to suppress our opinions and a psychological analysis of the Labour Party, whichis still quite entertaining reading. His allegation in effect was that letters had beenfound among Mussolini's papers which purported to show that I had accepted fundsfrom Italy on behalf of British Union in the years 1934 and 1935. I challenged himnext day to produce the evidence, adding that 'evidence on any subject could now beavailable at a penny a packet' in alleged archives. Referring to events before the warand propaganda against the fascist powers, I said it was not 'long since phrases aboutthe "lie factories" of Europe were current and popular, while the discovery of"revealing documents" was made the subject of universal merriment'; and concludedthat in the post-war circumstances 'the hilarity of most people is but little diminishedif the factories change hands'.I went on to quote from Lord Snowden's autobiography, which cited a communiquéof Lloyd George's government attacking George Lansbury when he was Editor of theDaily Herald—some years before he became elected leader of the Labour Party—andI then dealt with the Daily Herald's refutation of Lord Snowden and denial of thegovernment's communiqué, together with their statement that £75,000 in partcomposed of Russian diamonds had been 'returned to the donors of the CommunistInternational'. A profound, unwonted silence then enveloped the Home Secretary andother spokesmen of the Labour Party. It was all quite fun even in this period of myunpopularity, particularly as for reasons given it would not have worried me in theleast if the charge were proved to be true. The pundits of Labour were throwing theirstones from a very fragile glasshouse, and my own long-established and well-foundedindependence in financial matters gave me a particular invulnerability to such attack.It would be a pity to leave this subject without some reference to the position of SirStafford Cripps, when Chancellor of the Exchequer; I always thought that he andGeorge Lansbury were personally among the most conspicuously honest of Labourleaders. The Daily Telegraph reported on November 26,1948, that: 'Gifts and loans ofmoney, totalling at least £5,000, have been sent by the British Labour Party andindividual trade unions in this country to the French Socialist Party and theConfederation Generate du Travail Force Ouvriere'. This journal further reported aweek later that Sir Stafford Cripps, Chancellor of the Exchequer, had stated in theHouse: 'The transfer of money abroad by individuals or organisations for politicalpurposes would be approved by the Treasury if for the purpose of "strengthening thedemocratic forces in any country" '. Finally, the Evening News reported on December7 that Sir Stafford Cripps, in answer to further questions on the matter, had replied: 'Iaccept full responsibility for the decisions of the Treasury'. It would appear that whatis sauce for the goose should also be sauce for the gander, but error these days is lesseasily allowed to the masculine gender.Finally, it would also be inappropriate and forgetful to leave the topic without somereference to the more serious record of prominent conservatives in 1914. The leftwingjournal Tribune, in an unanswered attack on men at one time most respected inthe Conservative Party, reviewed on June 30,1967, a book on the Ulster rising andstated: 'The third Home Rule Bill. . . had passed through all stages of Parliament byJuly 1914. Unable to stop it, either by argument or voting strength, Carson, theUnionist leader, contacted the German Government for help. And the Germans, at thatmoment planning war in Europe, obligingly sent a shipload of arms for an Ulster292 of 424