Greymouth Evening Star. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1945. MOSLEY’S CAMPAIGN.

Greymouth Evening Star, 22 December 1945, Page 4

Greymouth Evening Star. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 22, 1945. MOSLEY’S CAMPAIGN.

has been recommended to leaders of armies as an effective measure when the outlook is dark, and history records that the advice has been often justified. Perhaps, Sir Oswald Mosley is recalling this, in reopening his campaign to convert Britain to Fascism. It is sheer impudence on his part to act and talk as he is doing, considering that in most other lands, one of his type would have been executed long ago. During the war, he was interned, under special regulation, but was not brought to trial, some declaring this consideration was due to “influence,” whereas the official explanation was there was insufficient evidence to convict him of treason or treachery. The then ■ Home Secretary, Mr. Morrison, .was strongly criticised especially by his Labour colleagues, when he released Mosley, but the Minister explained he had little option, as the circumstances which warranted Mosley’s detention had passed. The present Home Secretary, Mr. Chnter Ede, finds himself similarly handicapped in dealing with Mosley’s revival of Fascist agitators, and new powers may be sought to overcome this legal obstacle. Several members' of Mosley’s Fascist Union have been convicted of treachery in aiding the enemy, but Mosley has managed to keep within the law. It is not strange that the British people are becoming' indignant, and that the Russians are suspicious of the British Government’s good faith in dealing with Fascism. There have been enough disclosures to prove that Mosley and his followers, or dupes, have real nuisance value, when not something worse, and they should be dealt with. No question of “freedom” is really involved. It is not denied that the Fascists would have welcomed a Nazi victory, and they are alleged to have been ready to assume control in Britain had a Geiman invasion been successful. It is absurd to think that the Home Secretary and police can be defied as Mosley is now doing. Admittedly, there is a tendency to overwork the taunts “Fascist” or “Communist,” but both these schools of political action are a menace to national well-being. Neither of these extremes is popular with the public. Communism gains adherents through the lavish promises of easy comfort and control, promises never so appealing as when Conservative die-hards seek to maintain their one-time class privileges. Fascism’s best friend is the Labour enthusiasm for socialism and State control. Every infringement on personal liberty, each unjust confiscation of private property, and the other attacks on individual freedom, cause thoughts favouiable to the growth of Fascism, and make telling propaganda for the Mosleys. Recollections of the methods used by the Fascists in Britain in pre-war days, and the disclosures since, emphasise the danger of permitting this group, to prepare for another agitation, but the most effective weapon against them would be for the constitutional authorities to preserve democratic real liberty, and not lessen it by legislation and State seizures, no matter how well-intentioned. |