My Life

My Life - Oswald MosleyI ever make are to underestimate the stupidity of other people; he never could believethey could do anything so foolish, but in his sad experience they always did. However,I would not have believed in 1936 that we should have been so foolish as to fightabout the Polish Corridor, instead of letting the Germans go to a possible clash withRussia, which, if it happened, would have smashed world communism, pointedGermany in the opposite direction to us, and kept its vital energies busy for at least ageneration while we had ample time to take any precautions which might provenecessary; nor that the Germans would be so foolish— after getting already nearlyeverything they wanted—as to risk a war with the whole world against them in orderimmediately to establish their last position in Danzig and the Polish Corridor, when ashort pause, used in a more adroit fashion, could so easily have secured this. I did notreckon on the degree of obstinate stupidity on both sides, and such conduct did notseem to be calculable by a rational mind; since then I have learned not tounderestimate the follies of mankind.These larger affairs really belong to the politics of the 1939 war. We are at presentengaged with my meetings and conversations with these historic figures in the thirties,and my impressions of them at that time. My first meeting with Hitler was in April1935, and was privately arranged without any publicity at all. This was not difficult,as Ribbentrop and others had been in London and in touch with us even before hecame to power, and I think it was the Ribbentrop bureau which organised the meeting.Hitler gave a luncheon for me in his flat in Munich, where a large company assembled,including Frau Winifred Wagner, the brilliant English wife of the composer's sonSiegfried, whom I met there for the first time, and whose friendship I have esteemedever since; in recent years some of our happiest moments have been spent with her inthe garden of Wagner's house at Bayreuth during the opera festival.An interview with Hitler was exactly the opposite to a first encounter with Mussolini.There was no element of posture. At Munich in April 1935 we talked for an hourbefore lunch at this first meeting. He entered the small room in his flat quite simply;we sat down and talked with the aid of an interpreter, for I could speak no Germanuntil I learnt it during the enforced retirement of my war years.At first. Hitler was almost inert in his chair, pale, seemingly exhausted. He camesuddenly to life when I said that war between Britain and Germany would be aterrible disaster, and used the simile of two splendid young men fighting each otheruntil they both fall exhausted and bleeding to the ground, when the jackals of theworld would mount triumphant on their bodies. His face flushed and he launched withmuch vigour into some of his main themes, but in the normal manner of any politicianmoved by strong convictions. The hypnotic manner was entirely absent; perhaps I wasan unsuitable subject; in any case, he made no attempt whatever to produce any effectof that kind. He was simple, and treated me throughout the occasion with a gentle,almost feminine charm. Naturally, it was much easier for me to deal with him than forsome politicians, because in the international issues under discussion we had nothingto quarrel about. The men with whom we quarrel in life are those who want the samething as we do, with consequent clash of interest; Hitler and I pursued different paths.My ideas for maintaining and developing the British Empire in no way conflictedwith what he wanted for the Germans. He did not desire war with Russia, because hisaims were limited to the union of the German peoples in Europe, but he wanted305 of 424