My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleythat a war fought ostensibly to preserve the liberties of European peoples was not onlyin vain, but that their self-sacrifice has left our own country in a far worse positionthan ever before. Yet this is much the same experience as we had after the First WorldWar, when we were told that we were fighting to 'make the world safe for democracy',and to make Britain 'a land fit for heroes to live in'. For those of our generation whosurvived, the results in terms of democracy were soon plain: communism in Russia,fascism in Italy, and national socialism in Germany. The results for the heroes, whowere promised all at the end of their war effort, were equally plain: the unemploymentqueue and the slums. Bitter indeed was the question: was it for this that a million died?Yet I always felt deeply that from this experience something immense was gained. Itproved the greatness of Britain and the heroism of its people; not only that, for on thefiery anvil of that ordeal the character of the war generation was forged. Similarly, themagnificent response of the British people to the challenge of the last war evokedthese same qualities, and they have by no means been lost for ever in the lassitude anddissolution which followed. Vital forces born of two wars can still inspire the tasks ofconstruction, in erecting an enduring monument of peace. The finest qualities of menare often evoked by the bitter trials of history, and they will not always be misused orlost.Men who suffered much in one war or the other—or in one way or another in both—thereby acquired the character to meet further tests of destiny; these tests will recur,there is no escape from them. They will be made harder by the vast errors of policywhich preceded and followed the last war. To meet them we should be united by thefuture, not divided by the past. I fully accept that it was possible in this now remoteperiod for honourable men to hold the opposite belief sincerely and with passionateconviction; I ask only in return for it to be recognised that it was equally possible tohold my minority opinion honourably and with deep conviction.Before I give my reasons for believing that the last war was an immense mistake, Ishould answer the question whether it could possibly have been avoided. Policies canonly be judged effectively by their results, and it is not difficult to show that this warwas disastrous to Britain; but to convince, I must show that an alternative policy had areasonable chance of avoiding the catastrophe.The policy for which I stood before the last war was to make Britain so stronglyarmed that it need not fear attack from any quarter, to develop the British Empire, andnot to intervene in any foreign quarrel which did not affect British interests. It may beconvenient here to record my advocacy of the rearming of Britain over a long periodbefore the war.From the day our movement was formed I pressed for the rearmament of our country.On October 1, 1932, I wrote: 'The arrival of the air factor altered fundamentally theposition of these islands, and the consequences of that factor have never yet beenrealised by the older generation of politicians. We will immediately raise the airstrength of Britain to the level of the strongest power in Europe.' I was naturallypreoccupied with the air arm in which I had served, but also advocated themodernising and mechanising of the army. For instance: 'We will immediatelymobilise every resource of the nation to give us an air force equal in strength to thestrongest in Europe. We will modernise and mechanise our army, and at the end of316 of 424