My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleyrising'. We can at least acquit the Conservatives of joining in the snivelling hypocrisyof the attacks upon us for alleged financial dealings in 1934 and 1935.Our opponents often attack us with charges which are contradictory and thereforeself-destructive. On the one hand, they suggested in the period in question that wewere financed by fascism abroad: on the other, they alleged that these fascist leaderswere planning some attack on the British Empire. Leaders such as Mussolini wouldindeed have been starry-eyed philanthropists if they had held such sinister designsagainst the British Empire and yet financed the only movement in Britain which wasstanding for its rearmament, and agitating continuously, publicly and furiously to thatend. Throughout these years we alone among the parties stood for the rearmament ofour country, when Labour on principle was opposing it and Baldwin was not riskingthe loss of an election by advocating it. In reality, fascist and national socialist leaderseverywhere were quite content to let us get on with our business, which waspreserving and developing the British Empire, if we would let them get on with theirbusiness, which took them in a totally different direction to the British Empire and ourvital interests.Personally, I had quite enough to do in the development and propaganda of themovement's policies in the thirties and in rebutting on the platform, in debate and inthe law courts the continual attacks upon us. The tale of our law suits in the thirtieshas still to be told and in retrospect is quite entertaining. The apprehension that my'private army' might be a menace to the State had already been dealt with in the lawcourts, when the Public Order Act was introduced in 1936 to suppress it. The Star onFebruary 25,1933, in a leading article entitled, 'Is it Progress?' said: 'Sir OswaldMosley warned Mr. Maxton that he and the fascists would be ready to take overgovernment with the aid of machine-guns when the moment arrived. Mr. Tom Mannwas recently thrown into prison on the mere suspicion that he might say somethingten times less provocative than Sir Oswald's words'. The article referred to a publicdebate I had against James Maxton with Lloyd George in the chair. I sued the Star forlibel, and the case was heard five months after the Olympia meeting in November1934 before the Lord Chief Justice, Lord Hewart and a jury. Sir Patrick Hastings wasmy counsel.The Times report stated: 'Sir Oswald Mosley, giving evidence, said that at the meetingin question he expressed the view that the Independent Labour Party were stirring upin the country a violent feeling which would be taken advantage of by the communists,who believed in violence, and that later on Mr. Maxton and other peace lovers wouldmake way for communists who believed in violence. He used the words contained inthe transcript of the shorthand notes of his secretary.'The cross-examining counsel on behalf of the Star was Mr. Norman Birkett, who waschairman of the committee dealing with the various categories of 18B detaineesduring the war, and was afterwards well known as a judge, in particular at theNuremberg trial.Passages in The Times report ran as follows:'Cross-examined on his speech at the meeting of February 24, 1933, Sir Oswalddenied that British Fascists were training as a military organisation in the proper senseof that term.293 of 424