My Life

My Life - Oswald Mosleysuccessive governments pursuing the same policies, as part of consistent principleswhich I have pursued ever since.It is pleasing to me today to observe that the motif of Europe was already runningthrough my speeches. They all reiterated the same theme—eschew foreign adventureswhich are none of Britain's business, look after our own people, conserve ourresources, guard our Empire, maintain our strength, develop our vital interests, whichare in Europe, and ignore all distractions from these purposes in remote territories.Can I really be accused, when I opposed the 1939 war against a German drivingthrough Poland towards Russia, of doing so because I was attracted by his politicalideas rather than guided by my own deeply rooted concept of the interests of mycountry?Aversion to wars I regarded as unnecessary swung my young allegiance in thisdecisive period from the side of Mr. Churchill to that of Lord Robert Cecil. Theenterprise in Russia in 1919 seemed to me to risk British lives without British purpose,and in military terms it occurred to me that Mr. Churchill might not succeed whereNapoleon had failed. Lord Robert Cecil, on the other hand, stated with great force thesensible and honourable theme that we must fulfil war-incurred obligations to allies,but extricate ourselves directly it was done from remote adventures which were noconcern of Britain's. Yet it was impossible not to feel some personal sympathy withWinston Churchill, and this relationship endured many years after the parting of ourpolitical ways. From his side a warm and affectionate nature often moved him togestures in private life which cost him considerable time and trouble. He was capabletoo of emotion in a degree unusual among the English, in this respect ratherresembling Curzon. He came to some small private gathering to initiate a day nurseryin memory of Cimmie some time after her death in 1933 and when he greeted me hiseyes filled with tears. He was a genial host even to his prisoners and in the classicEnglish tradition did what he could to mitigate our condition during the Second WorldWar. Another vivid recollection of him as a charming host was at the twenty-firstbirthday party of his son Randolph, then a handsome and engaging lad. The presentLord Birkenhead also made a speech on that occasion, as a very young man withsome of the wit and more than the charm of his father.As many others have noted, Winston Churchill had no ungenerous qualities, a factquite apart from his capacities as a statesman or the grave question of his policies. Tothe dismay and even to the disgust of some of my friends in several countries, I havenever been able in personal as opposed to political terms to regard Churchill as ascoundrel or Roosevelt as a criminal. It should be possible, and it is possible in whatwe conceive to be the interests of our country and of our continent, to oppose menwith every fibre of our being to the extreme of personal sacrifice, without treating asvillains those who are personally honourable, even though, in our view, profoundlymistaken. To believe that all errors are diabolic shows a misunderstanding of theworld, although if they threaten the ruin of our country we must combat them as ifthey were. It is noteworthy too that even across all the bitterness of internationaldivisions a certain regard, even admiration, for a great enemy is an imprimatur of thegreat periods of history. It was a moving moment in the surgent genius of the Britishwhen Napoleon came onto the bridge of the Bellerophon at Plymouth Sound byrequest, to show himself to the people in the fleet of small boats who had rowed out tosee him, and every man in the crowd took off his hat. It must be conceded that he had92 of 424