MOSLEY SPEAKS

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 52, 2 March 1934, Page 7

MOSLEY SPEAKS

BIRMINGHAM MEETING

PRESS REPORTS VARY

(From*"The Post's" Representative.) LONDON, January 23. Hitherto the meetings of the blackshirted Fascists in Great Britain have gone largely unrecorded, but now that Lord Eothermerc has thrown in the ■weight of the "Daily Mail" in support of the movement we may expect to- hear a great deal more about Sir Oswald Mosley and his band of followers. On Sunday night Sir Oswald addressed an audience of about 7000 people in Bingley Hall, at Birmingham, and the "Daily Mail" devoted more than two columns of' its space to an account of the meeting. Needless to say, the newspaper's representative did his duty and gave his report the necessary-notes of idealism -and enthusiasm. "One of the most memorable political addresses ever pronounced in this eouutry," is how he described the speech. ""He was speaking on historic ground," he goes on, "for the Bingley Hall was the scene of some of the.miost famous harangues in which Joseph Chamberlain launched the original Protectionist campaign in Britain. INSPIRING AUDIENCE. "The magnetism of the now political movement which is now the talk of Britain was felt directly one entered the great building. The aisles were lined ■with sturdy and efficient Black Shirt stewards—lithe, athletic, vigorous j young men in the prime of manhood. In their simple, close-fitting, modern uniform, standing rigidly to attention, they were themselves a visible expression of the business-like but straightforward spirit which marks this up-to-j date movement. %. ■ ' i "It was a splendid and inspiring audience- upon which he looked down. Hardly a gap was to be seen in the long rows of listeners, each two or three hundred strong, which stretched right from the front' of the hall to its furthest limit." Other paragraphs in the "Daily j Mail" report rend:— "He described the tedious delays, vain repetitions, and empty formalities of Parliamentary procedure.' The deep roars of applause and bursts of scornful laughter that accompanied his philippic were striking evidence of the heights to which popular indignation has .already risen. MORE EFFICIENT LINES. "By. contrast, Sir Oswald Mosley described the "use that the Black Shirt Government would make of power if this were bestowed upon it by the nation at a General Election. • "Its first act," he said, "would be to obtain authority to carry on the administration of the country on efficient lines, while members of Parliament, instead of being employed in futile, chatter at "Westminster or in the intrigues of the lobbies, would be required to spend most of the time, not at Westminster at all, but in their constituencies, keeping in touch with the desires and requirements of their constituents. "Ho denounced the reckless waste of our enormous purchasing power by our failure to use it as a lever for expanding our commerce overseas. "The motto of the Black Shirt Administration would be, he announced, amid loud and repeated cheers. 'Britain buys from those who buy . from. Britain.'" The "Daily Mail" writer goes on to say that it was when Sir Oswald Mosley began to answer questions that the enthusiasm of this great audience reached the climax. ■"Each answer, incisively delivered, brilliantly phrased, and direct to tho* point, was received with .1 new roar of cheers, and when, after two and a half hours of almost constant speaking, he left the hall it was to an ovation such ns has not yet been heard in Birmingham or any other British city for many years." LESS ENTHUSIASTIC ACCOUNT. An unprejudiced account conies from the correspondent of "The Times":— "It is difficult to judge the significance of the big meeting held at Bingley Hall, Birmingham, to hear Sir Oswald Mosley expound his creed of action," says the correspondent. "It seemed fairly clear that the imagination of Birmingham had not been deeply fired. There was no crowd outside the building, and the hall, which has been the rallying ground of many causes, is capable of holding several thousands more than actually attended. It is probable that the audience did not exceed COOO or 7000. "On respect in which it differed from other great gatherings was that it was predominantly youthful, although there was more than a sprinkling of the mid-dle-aged. A number of young women were present. Many sympathisers came from. London and Manchester,

and big contingents from Midland towns. Apart from a few ordinary w terruptions, Sir Oswald Mosley was heard with attention." "TOY SOLDIERS." • From the "News-Chronicle," which is actively engaged in exposing what it terms' the "Black Shirt Bunkum," we get quite a different report. The special correspondent says:— "That the British Union of Fascists will endeavour to 'secure a majority from the people at the General Election' was the most significant and practically the only constructive statement made by Sir Oswald Mosley. The rest of his speech was mainly rhetoric." ! Of the Black Shirts he says:— "They were rather raw material— , young lads most of them, leavened by the presence of a few older men wearing military ribbons. "Many of them could not possibly • have votes and took a 'toy soldier' de- . Ught in greeting their leader with the Nazi salute." Near the end of his speech, the 1 •'News-Chronicle" writer says, Sir Oswald went "Hitlerite." "'We will attack the alien forces in L the ity of London," he shouted. "Every producer lives under the tyranny of these alien forces. "We will crack 1 the whip over their heads and ; drive .' "The rest of that sentence, delivered in a frenzy, was lost in a roar of Black Shirt applause. [ "Would Lord Rothermere have ap- . j plauded ?—I wonder."