SNUB FOR MOSLEY

Evening Post, Volume CXVII, Issue 127, 31 May 1934, Page 11

SNUB FOR MOSLEY

HOME SECRETARY'S LETTER'

Sir John Gilmour, the Home Secretary, has replied through his secretary to a letter sent to him by Sir Oswald Mosley recently concerning a statement made by Sir John in the House of Commons on April 9 about a meeting of the British Union of Fascists at Bristol, says the "Manchester Guardian." The letter is as follows:— "I have laid before the Secretary of State your letter of April 10 regarding the meeting held by the British Union of Fascists at Bristol on March 28, and in. reply I am directed by him to say that in his statement in the House of Commons on-April 9 he did not suggest that marching in procession was illegal, but that the semimilitary evolutions involved in marching in formation and the general behaviour of the Fascists, which, was regarded by the crowd as provocative, contributed to tho disorder which occurred. "The Secretary of State has nothing to add to that statement, except to say that he is informed that the police arrangements were such that the people attending the meeting were able to leave the hall without interference and without any need for marching bodies. "In the penultimate paragraph of your letter it is stated that 'if men who were well known to be Fascists, whether wearing the black shirt or not, j had left t'uat hall in small parties they would certainly have been attacked by bands of highly-organised roughs and a series of fights would have taken place resulting in considerable disorder.' The Secretary of State would observe that if members of the British. Union of Fascists did not wear a uniform they would not be 'well known to be Fas"With reference to your statement that you were attacked by two negroes outside the_ hall, what happened, so far as the police are aware, was that one half-caste Communist, who is very excitable, protested to the Fascists as they marched away from the hall against the way in which some of his associates had been treated at the meeting, but no assault or threat with a knife by him was observed by the police."

Such of thu cable news on this pace us ts bo headed has appeared In "The Times" and la cabled to Australia and New Zealand hy special permission. It should he understood that ths opinions are not those of •'The Times" unless expressly stated to bo so.