My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleythe war and my consequent public meeting campaign without intermission, I had notleft our island since 1936, except for one short visit to Paris in 1938. Yet at the end ofthe war in 1945 another four years were to elapse before we could travel to Europe. Inretrospect this is strange, for the action of the Labour Government at that time notonly violated every principle for which they professed to have been fighting the war,subsequently stated in the Charter of the United Nations and the concomitantinstruments which British Government later signed, but also casually tossed on thescrapheap the basic principles of our own Magna Carta, the Bill of Rights and othersacred institutions long enshrined in British constitutional usage. Magna Cartaordained that any British subject might leave the country without let or hindrance. Yetwe discovered that in accordance with more recent practice sly bureaucrats and trickypoliticians found a way round British basic law, without exposing themselves to anaction in the courts, at that time. The simple device was to deny a passport, and to sayin effect: you are as free as air to leave the country, although without this documentno country will receive you, and what is more no ship or airline will carry you.We were refused passports, and despite the best efforts of personal friends andeminent politicians—notably our old friend Brendan Bracken—the refusal of theLabour Government persisted; most Conservatives, to do them justice, were deadagainst this denial of elementary liberty, and so of course were the Liberals. Anotherold friend, Hugh Sherwood—for years a Liberal Whip in the House of Commons andlater Treasurer of the party—raised the matter in the House of Lords, to which he hadbeen elevated for his part in wartime at the Air Ministry. He received the strange replythat the Government wanted to retain some control over us, long after the finalabolition of all the wartime controls over individuals accorded to government byparliament. Brixton and Holloway were enlarged to become an island prison, withoutenactment of parliament or authority of established law. The withholding of apassport was one more trick for getting round the liberty whose alleged maintenancehad cost our country so much.However, there was one way out of the island prison: buy a yacht. It was a liberty nomore available to all than the freedom to sleep in the Ritz instead of on theEmbankment. But a little money worked, as so often in our land of the free. Oncemore, without this aid from my forebears, the dull devils might have got me down foranother long spell. It was an expensive business at the time, but in the end it did notcost me much, as I sold the boat for a fair price directly its purpose was fulfilled. It isonly right to admit that we found this enforced exercise of seamanship quite enjoyable,and even pursued our government-directed employment one year longer than wasnecessary.The way out of the island prison was the yacht—because our physical detentionwould have involved the government in serious legal action— but the question stillarose whether we could land in any other country; it seemed unlikely at best that wecould get beyond the confines of any port we put into. However, we were determinedat all costs to assert our freedom— it is a wonderful sensation when you have beenimprisoned a long time to feel that you can turn a ship in any direction and sailanywhere across the free seas of the world—and we had an idea that we might makequite a happy landing in Spain. So we pored over maps and charts taking us throughthe Channel and across the Bay of Biscay. We took two experienced seamen with us,as my sea experience was confined to feeling ill in a troop-ship or cross-Channel349 of 424