My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleysomething symbolic of all their failure in the stiff absurdity of the English ruling classat that time, when they rejected any form of marriage with an American of beauty,intelligence, charm and character which would have been a link between twodivergent outlooks in different civilisations, only later through their further andgreater follies to make their country a circling satellite of the American system, whilethey extended the begging bowl to the controlling planet and trembled at the thoughtof leaving its orbit. Was not this honourable and natural alliance in that day preferableto the pathetic and disgraceful dependence of this day?If the pre-war situation had been handled quite differently—as it certainly would havebeen if I had had anything to do with it—would it have made any difference? I wouldnot claim that if I had been the leader of the Labour Party we might have won theElection of 1935, as that would be a vain and egotistical assumption; though at thattime a mere competition in dullness between Baldwin and Attlee resulted almostinevitably in the victory of the former. Baldwin's influence would in any case havebeen very powerful; behind him was certainly the full authority of the Church andruling clique, the whole weight of the established order. Yet I should at any rate havebeen in a stronger position, within the Labour Party, to have some influence on events.For instance, it was not possible for me to see a constitutional King while he was onthe throne and I was in a position of revolutionary challenge to the existing system;consequently, I never saw King Edward in that period and only knew him before andafter.Even had it been possible by some combination within the system with Churchill,Beaverbrook and others to prevent the Abdication—and that was very doubtful in theprevailing set-up—how would this have affected the larger issue of war? Supposingthe whole thing had been played quite differently, with the help of other influenceswithin the Establishment; say by getting Goering over to put up one of hischaracteristic performances in a public relations exercise, not very different from themanner in which Khrushchev disarmed British hostility? The character of Goeringpresented the unique combination of a hero who for great purpose was prepared toplay the clown. That this wearer of the German V.C.—the Order 'pour le Merite’devised by Frederick the Great—was a hero in the First World War is beyond doubt.He was selected by the Luftwaffe to succeed their fallen hero Richthofen, who hadkilled our hero in the greatest individual air duel of all time; it would have been nouse then telling the few remaining airmen of my generation that Goering was not ahero, and in these circumstances our voices would have carried some weight.Goering would have been far more at home than most foreigners in all the variedsocial and sporting occasions of English life, the ex-service clubs and institutionsabove all, but also the horse show, the football final, the pub, and even the drawingroom.He was capable of putting on any form of democratic, indeed demagogicperformance; he would laugh at himself in a way which would make particular appealto the English people if translated into our national terms by sensitive intelligence. Aninstance of this capacity was provided each year at the Nuremberg Rally, at which Iwas never personally present, but of which I had detailed accounts. As the HermannGoering Division of the S.A. approached the saluting base the whole crowd wouldchant, 'Hermann, Hermann'; and a large and portly form would be seen at the head ofthe division, not only raising his arm in the salute but doing the goose step at the sametime. It was his annual turn, and the crowd laughed and cheered till they 'rolled in the313 of 424