My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosley20 - Why I Opposed the WarI HAVE not become the King's first minister in order to preside over the liquidationof the British Empire,' said Mr. Churchill at the Mansion House on November 10,1942. Yet this is exactly what happened as a direct result of his policy. What has longbeen obvious is now generally acknowledged. His steadfast supporter, the Daily Mail,wrote on July 20, 1967, that the British Empire was now gone, 'not by conquest ordefeat in the field but through the sheer effort of victory, through the erosion of powerand the onset of the ideas and ideals for which we fought'.Mr. Churchill also made clear that it was only an unforeseen accident which savedBritain from a worse fate: 'There is a widespread feeling that but for Americannuclear superiority Europe would already have been reduced to satellite status: thatthe iron curtain would have reached the Atlantic and the Channel' (The Times, March2, 1955). When Britain declared war, nobody knew that the scientists would laterinvent the nuclear weapons which alone held Russian communism in check.Statesmen can only deal with the facts confronting them in any given situation.The declaration of war in 1939 risked three consequences: the disaster of defeat, thetriumph of communism, the loss of the British Empire despite victory. The onlypower which could in no circumstances benefit from that war was Great Britain. Thecomplete disaster of defeat was averted by the heroism of the British people, theEuropean triumph of Russian communism was partially averted by the scientists, andthe loss of the Empire and reduction of Britain to the position of an American satelliteremain the only clear results of the Second World War. We escaped entire destruction,but much of Europe did not. Evil was the inevitable result of entry into that war, andwe are fortunate to live only with the least of the possible evils.This situation is chiefly due to mistaken policy. It is demonstrably incorrect to assertthat our situation is due to 'the prodigious blood-letting . . . which leads to the loss ofpossessions,' though this is often said. My generation suffered nearly three times thedeaths in the First War that our next generation suffered in the second catastrophe ofmankind. Yet Britain lost no possessions after the First World War, and could stillclaim with some justice to be the greatest power on earth. The Germans are reckonedto have lost 2,850,000 in the Second World War, and in addition are separated from alarge part of their homelands; otherwise in every respect, except the possession ofnuclear weapons, their position remains as strong as at any time in their history. Thecatastrophe of Britain is due to the mistaken policy our rulers pursued, and to thedeadly poison of some of their ideas.To write this is almost as difficult as it was to take the bitter, truly agonising decisionin time of war to oppose the opinion and policy which was supported by the vastmajority of my fellow countrymen. Yet it is as much my duty now as it was then, andit would be cowardice to avoid it. Nothing is more unpopular than to oppose a war,and it can be almost as unpopular after the war to say it should not have been fought.But unless we can beseech this generation, in the words of Cromwell, 'to believe itpossible that you may be mistaken,' error can follow error until Britain enters theeternal night.It is particularly hard and bitter to say to a fine people who have made a superb effort,315 of 424