My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleythis considerable company of men, who were accustomed to act together in adisciplined movement. It was rumoured that at first the prison was surrounded bytroops at night; I do not know if this was true. In pursuance of our principle to donothing to impede the war effort of the nation, I at once instructed our members tobehave with complete propriety, which they did. Any anxiety then abated and by thestaff we were always well treated.Official instructions were given in the early days that for security or other reasons wewere to be locked in our cells twenty-one hours out of the twenty-four, and only letout for one hour's exercise in the morning and afternoon and other necessary routines.This suited me reasonably well, for we were allowed books and I spent the whole timereading. There was complete silence and the considerable number of our people whoalso enjoyed reading found this monastic existence relatively tolerable. Paradoxically,the trouble began when the cell doors were unlocked, and my readers would havesome difficulty in guessing what it was. When conditions were relaxed the curse ofprison was noise.I had to take action altogether against my interests, for I heard that a number of peoplewere being very adversely affected by this seclusion. The Italians were particularlystricken, for they are a happy people who like a gregarious life and a merry din. It wasclearly in the interests of the many to press for the doors of cells to be opened exceptat night, and to give every assurance of orderly conduct in this event. My request waseventually granted, and the cell doors were opened; all hell then broke loose. Imaginetrying to read amid a genial babble of Mediterranean voices in an enormous roomwhich echoes exactly like a swimming bath; it needed some concentration, to put itmildly. The final nightmare was permission to bring in a ping-pong table, when theechoing seashell of the building resounded with the music of ping and pong and Latinlaughter. The subsequent discomfort of being locked in cells while bombs werefalling round the prison was nothing to it. Then too I was able to perform some smallservice of reassurance, for I was credibly informed that some simple types among thewarders felt safe in the cell below mine because they believed that those careful andskilful fellows, the Germans, would never pinpoint a bomb on me.A strange and disquieting incident occurred during this period in Brixton Prison,which contained a certain bitter irony all too typical of the times. A member of ourmovement came to see me privately in my cell, and informed me that he had beencertified by outside doctors as a leper. I had known him for a long time in the work ofthe party, and had no reason to doubt his word. The poor man was in a natural state ofdistress and not very coherent, but I understood that before his imprisonment at leastone doctor had certified him as a leper; there was apparently some doubt about asecond doctor's certificate, which in his opinion would render him liable tocompulsory treatment and segregation. He was very concerned in case the prisonauthorities should find out about this and have him put away in still more unpleasantconditions. His story was supported by obvious evidence of some skin disease.This put me in a considerable difficulty, but it seemed to me that my duty was clearand I explained it to him. I would do everything possible to protect him and hisinterest, but he could not possibly remain among the other prisoners. He agreed that Ishould go straight to the governor and deal with the whole matter. The affair wasreported to the Home Office for their action, which in my recollection was not very340 of 424