FROM WEEK TO WEEK

Grey River Argus, 3 December 1943, Page 7

FROM WEEK TO WEEK

(By

H. Winston Rhodes)

THE MOSLEY CASE: Racial pride, if not Aryan myth, is deeply embedded in the hearts of those who find nothing to criticise in British constitutional procedure, government institutions, and legal practice. Some papers and some politicians have derived great pleasure from pointing out that the Mosley case and the decision of the Home Secretary ' have once again demonstrated the superiority and fairness of British legal methods, but it would seem that the common people of England are by no means satisfied with the arguments of Mr. Morrison and “The Times.”

One of the advantages of being a layman is fhat the simplification of issues becomes a confirmed habit, he argues in this way—either Mosley, is a Fascist, a collaborator with Fascists, a Jew-baiter, and a would-be. destroyer of the people’s liberties or he is not. If he is, and there is no argument upon the point, then he should be in gaol. Gaols should be run on humanitarian, modern principles, but pauper and peer should receive the same treatment. A prison hospital should be first and foremost a good hospital, one fit for peer and pauper. If it is not, then the prison system should be improved for all its sick inmates. If it is, then Sir Oswald Mosley should be in it. He should be allowed a country cottage no more than anyone without a' title and wealthy connections.

To the lawman the Mosley case is as simple as that. But there is something else involved and that is the whole problem of Regulation 188 under which the Home Secretary has dictatorial powers to detain suspects without trial. The Regulation has been attacked time after time by those who defend the liberties of the people but the layman, pondering on the Mosley case, is not concerned with the legal disputes in connection with Regulation 188. He is concerned because Sir Oswald Mosley has not been brought to trial, because he is convinced rightly or wrongly that Sir Oswald Mosley was identified with the Fifth Column i Britain, be. cause he suspects that the reason there has been no trial is not lack of evidence, not public security, but the probability that the reputations of many in high places might be damaged and that embarrassing revelations might be made about those who worked to strengthen the Nazis, to ensure the class domination by the few and to hinder the rising tide of democracy.

But supposing, which is unlikely, 1 that sufficient evidence could not be discovered to charge Sir Oswald Mosley with a crime against the people of England, then it is high time that a law should be passed which would enable the authorities to deal with the Jew-baiters who still exist in England and other countries. It is inter, esting to notice that part of Article 123 of the Soviet Constitution reads: “Any direct or indirect restriction of the rights of, or, conversely, any establishment of direct or indirect privileges for, citizens on account of their race or nationality, as well as any advocacy of racial or national exclusiveness or hatred and contempt, is punishable by law.”

The common people of England are indignant, not because they are filled with the spirit of revenge, not because they desire to break an already broken man, but because there is so much that bewilders them, when they contemplate what the Home Secretary and his associate can tolerates and what they ca'rrt. For example they know that Admiral Sil Barr'4 Domvile was released and that Capt R. Gordon Canning was .also released. They know that many exfascists are writing dangerous articles for British newspapers, that cer. tain bookshops still sell Jew-baiting literature, that Polish fascists are able to use British paper supplies to publish attacks on the Soviet Union, that the problem of General Mikhailovitch and the Yugoslavs has not yet been solved, and so one could continue. What happens about Sir Oswald .Mosley is in itself unimportant but the people of England are stirred because they are by no means sure that the Mosley case does not involve the Whole case of the ‘new social order.'