MR BALDWIN ON FASCISM

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 196, 2 August 1934, Page 7

MR BALDWIN ON FASCISM

Warning to His Party ENGLISHMEN IN HISTORY Mr. Baldwin was the chief speaker at a Conservative fete at Osmaston Manor last month. Ho dealt with the growing support given to Fascism, and warned people against becoming impatient of the progress that is being made ia this country. “The policy of Fascism.” he said, “is what you may call an Ultramontane Conservatism. It takes many of the tenetr uf uur own party and pushes them to a conclusion which, if given effect w, would, 1 believe, be disastrous to our country. But it has taken from the Continent one thing that is completely alien to the Englishman, and that is a desire ultimately, common to tho Communists, to suppress opposition and to be able to proceed by dictatorial methods.

“There are two dangers, as I see them, to this movement. The first is that in proportion as it draws from us our own supporters it dissipates the strength of the united vote which we all want at the next election, of people of all parties who stand for ordered freedom and ordered liberty in this country. (Cheers). Secondly, and still more serious, if there be one thing certain historically you cannot suppress any Englishman.

“I am not one who lias even been afraid in this country of Communism. Communism can only spread in a country where there exist the gravest distress and suffering, together with a people unsympathetic and a. Government that will do nothing to help the people of the country to better their conditions. There has been u marked increase in the number of that body (the Communists) since Fascism has become more active. “It is not in my view a fact that more people arc becoming Communist in the sense that they are Communists by poliiacal conviction, but at the moment. when tho Englishmen see a fight between two parties there will always bo a. rush to the side of tho smaller, and the real danger of a movement of this kind, that has for its ultimate aim a dictatorship, is that you may get in this country what you have never had before, a real class war. “Communists, such as they are, are drawn in the main from tho very poor. Fascists are not, and the idea that the very poor are being singled out for being hit on the head creates a spirit that may be dangerous. Remember this, though wc are a long way from it, and in my belief we shall never come to it, but if you do have this country divided into two private armies, each desiring to get their way bv suppression, by force if necessary, of the views of their opponents, you have then all the raw material for what we have not had for 300 years, and that is civil war. “Therefore I beg followers of mine who may he tempted to think twice and three times before they fall out of the ranks and join another pack. If ever there was a time it is this for all people Io stand together and vet keep moving. This country without freedom would no I longer lie a country for Englishmen to ! live in. Ordered liberty will never ; nerish from the earth so long as Eng'ishmen are the guardians of their | liberties.”