My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleyinefficient Prussian; he is always beaten. Unfortunately for the tax-payer whosemoney is consumed in the maw of his omnivorous ambition, whenever he meetsvigorous and determined opponents, such as Lenin and Michael Collins, his vauntedmilitary genius appears impotent to effect a conclusion. And, at the end of anunsatisfactory and fluctuating combat maintained at the expense of English lives andmoney, upon the sheathing of his ineffective sabre, these enemies of his, whether theyhave been hailed as monsters on thrones of skulls or merely as chiefs of murder gangs,are received into his paternal embraces. We really do not get value for money. It is nogood keeping a private Napoleon if he is always defeated. It is altogether tooexpensive a luxury. The Right Honourable gentleman has waded through blood todefeat in many adventures, he has often been compelled to surrender to force what hehas previously refused to reason.'The charge was political profligacy and military incompetence. We had suffered theexperiences of Antwerp, Gallipoli, Russia and Mesopotamia, as well as the bitter Irishevents. This savagery of debate against a man who was then himself unbridled in hisutterances—'monster on a throne of skulls' for the Russian leader and 'chief of themurder gangs' for the Irish leader, with whom he was shortly afterwards crackingjokes over a rifle in Downing Street during the peace negotiations—did not beginsuddenly but developed gradually. I supported Mr. Churchill when government policyduring a military operation was threatened by trade union action, although onpractical grounds of the national interest I later opposed the policy as mistaken, andthen urged withdrawal. We were in Russia as an operation of war, a fact demonstratedwith much force in Mr. Churchill's speeches, and had to extricate Russian soldierswho had acted as our allies. It was therefore an outrage to everyone of my mind andtemperament when Labour leaders threatened a general strike to enforce their politicalprejudice in favour of the Soviet power against which our troops were fighting.There is no doubt about that threat. It was deprecated but explained by the moderateMr. Clynes, then vice-chairman of the Labour Party, in a speech in Parliament on July20,1919: 'There has now been formed in this country so strong a feeling in the mindof organised labour that assurances can come only by a complete reversal of thepolicy so far formed in relation to Russia, and so strong is that feeling that it hasbeen—I regret to say—deliberately resolved by a very formidable organisation knownto the country as the Triple Alliance to take such steps as might lead to something inthe nature of a national strike, unless we reverse our policy on this question ... Ishould hope that the working classes in the use of the industrial weapon will neithernow nor in the future commit an act which would supply to any other section of thecommunity any excuse for the defiance of the law at some time or other.' The mild Mr.Clynes need not have feared a precedent, for such crimes were only permitted to theLeft. Can we give a better definition of high treason than the calling of a generalstrike to enforce a change of policy by government, and in so doing to deny suppliesand munitions to our troops fighting in the field?While strongly supporting Mr. Churchill in the face of such threats, I neverthelessbecame convinced that we should extricate ourselves as quickly as possible from theRussian campaign. The parting came when the Russian expedition seemed to be indanger of becoming a crusade to crush Bolshevism. 'If we don't put our foot on theegg, we shall have to chase the chicken round the world's farmyard' was then reputedto be a Churchill phrase which has a genuine ring. I then began to oppose him, and91 of 424