PARTY UNIFORMS

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 131, 30 November 1936, Page 4

PARTY UNIFORMS

QUARRELS INFLAMED

INFLUENCE IN HISTORY

A PERILOUS ALLURE

The Prime Minister's assurance that a Government Bill to deal with political disorder will go very far to discourage a repetition of the disgraceful scenes lately witnessed in East London has excited universal interest (writes J. B. Firth in the. "Daily Telegraph"^ : In principle spokesmen of all parties in both Houses- expressed warm approval: But , notoriously nothing is move difficult to legislate upon than matters connected in any shape or form with Free Speech and the Right of Public Meeting. ..,...< :■ . '■■ One subject:the .Bill is to deal with is the thorny question of political uniforms, which is so intimately associated with the more recent developments, of political disorder. It is obvious at once that a ."uniform" is very difficult .to', define. /\ ' '■■.■ -/'.. •.• . ■ "'... '■'••.:. .- :' //If/ a close definition is attempted, those affected by, it will at once set their wits: at work to -contrive the alteration which will make just legal what before was illegal. Moreover, there is always the 'chance ;of the authorities; being turned to ridicule. The experience of, the Irish Free State ixx dealing with General O'Duffy- and hi^ Blue Shirts is fresh in the public, .mind.-. .■•.'- ; ■/ ■ .■ .- ', ■ !••' '■. :■ -' ;,''.:' Without their distinguishing^ c.olpurs and badges:: the factions would be largely shorn, of their propagandist allure. The appeal to the eye is more effective than that, to the ear. " t ; . i MANKIND LOVES IT. {-'. ■ Thosewhb started the: coloured shirt movement1 had studied mankind to good purpose. The love 'of dressing up, of ; wearing distinguishing.'•; sashes and "regalia," .of carrying: a weapon, even if .it be a rubber' truncheon, of parading the streets, with or ■without a/flag 'arid a:band, and;,marching 'in comradely step, is ineradicable. Those who march .in company move.jtogcther with a swing.' It imparts,a thrill.//; !■'■;' But it alsoprovokes to imitation.^ Al,^ ready, in ■ addition to; Black.,: Shirts; there are Gre^h-Shirts, of the Social Credit Party,; :yho sport green berets and brown-, belts; there is :a Jewish Blue and/White Legion, which -is, antiFascist and . ahti-Cornniufiist;/ there;, is the; Young Communist League,,whose faricy:;leans*to;khaki shirts, .red: ties; and grey flannels;, and: there are -.the Young Pioneers, infant Communists, in' dark grey : shirts; and knickers./.with red hahdkerchiefsjrpund their throats,/who are: taken-for /a treat in; carts ;to :Hyde ParkrpnvMay'l;' ;;. "•'■■ ■ '']l>i',- /,'.'' '■: ,'/.-;' •The^ordinary: Englishman would be glad to, be:delivered from this; menace of'the Political Shirt. It may have certain humorous/ aspects; 'but "it;.:, teems, with menace; to; political liberty. ". ,' -, , :;: i :Without;theVßla9k,;shirt;iv. doubt whether .Mfesolirii ;could have marched in; triumph' on■ Rome. 'Without/the Brown Shirt, Hitler xpuidi even/ less have .stormed his way; into ,Hindenburg's- ante-chamber. Without his: Red Shirt—-whichlbegan 'as- a/: workman's blouse—Garibaldi would certainly hot have" made such an irresistible,appeal to';' yictprian'' enthusiasm; for liberty. ,His lpose: grey trousers were eyen : sloppy./; The poncho -in which1 he wrapped himself at nights on the'cold hillside was L a,dull variant ''pt}:« shepherd's plaid.; It was the Red 'Shirt which' yfifed'- the 'I imagination,; of, /the :outside world. ';• '■-/ -'-; : '')'-\'': c, '•'.:,'; f ;,,.rai^i^^Ara:'^i&vC«E^;i ;.- ---!i Deprived of: his' Blue Shirt; General O'Duffy : feit'/as; helpless as?the late; Mr. William i O'Brien when, stripped: of his breeches. Yet even the dullesti English mind sa\y v/'the' irony N ofj Mr; ;da Valera's. outlawing- of, Blue when one '■of the rhbst mpurnful of: all Irisrij,ballads'still/wails an undyihgiamentfor those who wore the 'outlawed Green. .; :Meariwhile,-.it seems, the' I.R.A.::may drill in/ whatever •■'!■, shirts 7. they:' fancy-' arid carry arrhs.- /-.: V;}-':;/:. ,"■;■.'■ '■.'..'■■• :■ , British', political-.., parties > have long sported colours and emblems," though, now that' successful candidates run a risk' of losing their seatsif, they distri-1 bute among their yputhiui supporters a hundful ;of trumpery, favours,/'elections, are not sp colourful as' heretofore. ■';.■'.'■'" ■•"'-•:;,; ~'• '.'■.-1''1-- ;";;'" '■"..'•" , The t buff waistcoat of the Foxite of quality/ was! perhaps the nearest approach to a political shirt and the last waistcoat of that' distinctive type van-: ished from the political scene with the demise of-the late Lord,Courtney,.who ( 6f all his generation least resembled the coloured-shirt type of politician. Blue, and buff provoked to wrath in their day, but red is a fierce and savage colour. There are tame Socialists,' indeed, who wear red.ties yet would be just as happy if they were pink. Not. so those who love red because red is, the. colour of blood. Rouget de ; Lisle well understood the passions excited by the red Phrygian cap of.Liberty. "Qu'un sang impur abreuve nos sillons." ; / ■ ';'..," ' "/ •. ■/.'-.! ' AN ITALIAN FEUD. Let me recall too, that red was the colour of the Guelfs. Their desperate feud with the Ghibellines lacerated medieval Italy till the partisans quite forgot'what the party names for which they died denoted. But as the origins of the strife grew more remote its rancours became more inveterate.. A few lines from J. A. Symonds's "The Renaissance in Italy" show what evil plants partisanship can prPduce oh congenial soil:—•■■ . "Banners, ensigns, arid heraldic colpurs followed the divisions of //the factions. Ghibellines wore the feathers in their caps on one side; Guelfs on theother. .Ghibellines cut fruit''at table cross-wise, Guelfs straight down. In Bergano some Calabrians were murdered by, their host who discovered from their way of. slicing garlic that- they sided with the;hostile party. Ghibellines' wore white and Guelfs red roses. Ghibellines drank out of smooth and Guelfs out of chased goblets. "Yawning, passing in the street, throwing dice, gestures in speaking or swearing, were used as pretexts for distinguishing the one half of Italy from the other. So late as the middle of the fifteenth century the Ghibellines of Milan tore Christ from the high altar of the cathedral atCremaand burned him because he turned his face to the Guelf shoulder." That last event occurred three centuries after the original Guelfs and Ghibellines had ranged themselves under the rival banners of Emperor and Pope. Obviously there are real dangers in distinctive political uniforms when party/passions are roused. Even the Ghibelllne Dante could find no jjlace in Hell, Heaven, or Purgatory for ignoble Laodiceans who stood aloof from Guelf and Ghibelline and prayed a plague on both. WARS OF THE ROSES. We had our own Wars of the Roses, which reduced the ancient baronies of England to a; handful, while they piled their slaughtered partisans in more dreadful heaps than the world's battlefields had known.for centuries. In that long partisan war the major feud of York and Lancaster scarcely masked the innumerable.private feuds of the great nobles, some, of whom crossed from one side to the other as the fortunes of the war swayed or their private interests -counselled.

But partisan ferocity rose; lo Its peak In the feuds of the White, lied, Groon,. and BJuo factions of tho Hippodrome at Constantinople; which culminated eventually during tho reign of Justinian in n murderous conflict between tho Blues and the Greens, The Blues' enjoyed tho patronage of tho Court, and, "Jnuolont-. with Hoyal favour," as Gibbon In v famous chapter describes them, they "a/Teoted to strike terror by a peculiar and barbaric dress, the long hair of the Huns, their close sleeves, and ample garments, a lofty step, and a sonorous Voice." "In the day . they concealed their two-edged poniards, but in the night they boldly assembled in arms and in numerous bands prepared for every act of violence and rapine. Their adversaries of the Green faction, or even inoffensive citizens, were stripped and often murdered by these nocturnal, robbers, and a daring spirit, rising witn impunity, proceeded to violate the safeguard of private houses, and fire was employed to facilitate the attack or conceal the crimes of these, factious* rioters. ■■;'.' . . The dissolute youth of Constantinople adopted the blue livery of disorder; the'laws were silent, the bonds of society were relaxed." THE CARNAGE OF ONE DAY. It is recorded that the "merciless and, promiscuous carnage" of a single day cost the lives of 30,000 citizens, and the Emperor himself came .very near to losing his throne and' sharing their late.,; /■:':.. *':. . . :'..,,■/:.;:. ./ .v It may be said that Jthese. ancient tales of partisan bloodshed have no relevance to the England of today; that there is no parallel between; cay,.modern Bethnal Green and the Constantinople of the Nika riot of ;532. Yet though not even .the:wildest spirits among Black' or Eed aspire to rival the ; swollen arrogance of Justinian's Blues, the essential spirit '■■ of partisanship remains the same. The Triangles of Terror which we have lately seen in Palestine and, Spain might be. redrawn to scale, if circumstances combined to favour • the lawless, even in an East End borough.. We do-not want the youth of;this country;to wear the livery of disorder, whether it be Black or. Red;'or Blue. ■•. '■';, .;'.■.%■•'•--'.'■ ■■•■■'--;-::-' What need, mi fact, is there for■ any political liveryr at all?;"7 ,Jf the pretext be" that drilledVand guards have .been; found-necessary to preserve order: atVpublic meetings and maintain.'the right of free; speech, the answer is that this duty is or should be the function of the ;,law. if those who should;combine to protect it fail in;:their. duty.' '';.:■■;. ■' ■••..'.'■'..•'■'• ■■'-'.■ :- : ■:. In the background, of course/ of these unhappy political developments/there stand the new dictatorships of the; Cdn-^ tinent, which,; for all their: contrasting antagonisms, agree at any. rate in. this that they" are fiercely intolerant of all political opposition.' > ; a -'fv;;-; .■.;_'-.:. :^ ■■.■■•ln that atmosphere liberty 'cannot! breath'e'at^all,;'and''i^'ynr;perish.-;he're'. unless it is,better ordered;arid placed under the fullerycontrol.of Law: