My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleyby British officials who are supposed to be charged with the duty of assisting ratherthan attacking British subjects. It was certainly their action which led to my legalclash with Dr. Adenauer, for which he finally made handsome and indeed generousamends.In the case of those who had never been fascists or national socialists there could beno overt objection to my method of accepting or establishing contact with men of allprevious opinions provided they seemed to me to be genuine, wholeheartedEuropeans, but any man approaching me from the circles of those previous parties oradministrations at once created a furore to which I was quite indifferent if he appearedto me to be a good European. A highly intelligent German in this category saw clearlyat the end of the war that the only hope for all the Europeans was the making ofEurope. However, his most normal and legitimate entry into politics produced aconvulsion of acute hysteria in the British occupation authority, because at the end ofthe war he had occupied a conspicuous position in the propaganda ministry. He wastoo young to have played much part in previous events, and nothing in the way of warcrimes or any misconduct except doing his duty as an official of his country couldpossibly be urged against him. In fact, no move was made against him until he was incontact with me. Then the whole fury of the British occupation authority descendedupon him and the German government was ultimately dragged into the matter.The British authorities were playing a happy game of ducks and drakes with the basicprinciples of British justice, starting with Habeas Corpus; these officials had been soaccustomed during the war to making all that old-fashioned stuff look silly at theirwill and fancy. However, on this occasion they were to learn their error. When thisGerman was arrested in January 1953 by the British authorities and assailed with ashower of ridiculous charges, I introduced to the scene Mr. Lane, of the Englishsolicitors' firm of Marsh and Ferriman, who acted for me during and since the war. Hehad shown much character and ability in a stand for prime principles of British law inthe Second War, after serving as a soldier in the First and being involved in Mr.Churchill's post-war frolic at Archangel. He briefed Mr. Scott Henderson, K.C., theRecorder of Hastings. Sir Ivone Kirkpatrick of the Foreign Office and his supportersthen quickly learnt that British law still existed even within the arbitrary dictatorshipof the occupation authority. The prisoner had been held incommunicado in violationof every principle of British justice, but was now quickly produced in court when theBritish solicitor and counsel appeared in Germany. The next phase was in the Germancourts, though it appeared possible that British official inspiration had something todo with the matter. In the end, all charges against this German were quashed in theGerman High Court, and he went free; he had done nothing whatever except expresshis political opinions openly and publicly.While the matter was by our standards still sub judice, however, Dr. Adenauerweighed in with a curious contribution. He suggested in a world Press conference thatthe German was guilty of treason against the German state, and shocking to relate, the'Auslander' Mosley was at the back of the business. Then occurred an unprecedentedevent in contemporary German experience, for the 'Auslander' in question wentstraight to Germany and demanded the institution of libel proceedings against theGerman Chancellor in the German courts. It was at first tactfully suggested to me thatit was not the habit to bring libel actions against chancellors, particularly forforeigners. I persisted, and the matter went forward with honourable and capable370 of 424