BRITISH FASCISTS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIV, Issue 295, 10 November 1934, Page 12

BRITISH FASCISTS.

NEWS-LETTER ANALYSIS. Following is an extract from an article in the News Letter the organ ot Mr Ramsay MacDonald s National Labour group, on the Fascist meeting in Hyde Park a short time ago: As the Blackshirt columns moved towards Hyde Park it was interesting to study'them and to try and make out what manner of men and women it is that this movement attracts. Any sueti analysis is, of course, very difficult when people are turned out m a so .n‘? r uniform to look as nearly as possible exactly 1 alike. The men, however, while here and there was a well set-up ex-serviceman wearing his ribbons, were mostly young, and their drill was poor. The columns straggled badly and (except by the women) little attempt was made to march in step. A fair proportion were certainly or the working-class, but there were a good few, particularly among those who were apparently officers of some sort, of that type of peculiarly arrogantlooking young man which can, or could, be seen about in our two ancient university towns. , The women had the appearance ot being drawn very largely from the typist or shop-girl class, and were mostly young. They were better set up, and their drill was distinctly superior to that of the men. They were also even more closely guarded by the police. But among them there was a sprinkling of that type of woman, the peculiar product of this country and the invariable astonishment of which is always in the forefront of any -ism, the spinster with greying hair, tliinnish frame, grimly set lips, and terrifying eyes.