BRITISH BLACKSHIRTS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22285, 11 June 1934, Page 8

BRITISH BLACKSHIRTS

MOVEMENT DOOMED “KILLED BY PUBLIC NAUSEA” (United Press Association.) (By Electric Telegraph—Copyright.) LONDON, June S. The News-Chronicle declares that the unprecedented Blackshirt brutality at Olympia has moved Parliament to the height of indignation, and adds that 150 members of the House of Commons, mostly Conservatives, after witnessing these scenes, were unanimously of Hie opinion that the attacks were un-Bri-tish, one asserting that public nausea had killed Sir Oswald Mosley’s movement in a single night. Dr Gorer. who helped to attend the injured, points out that out of 70 treated none was wearing the Fascist uniform.

Sir Oswald Mosley denies that the Fascists were unnecessarily violent.

A STORM OF PROTEST MINISTERIAL STRICTURES SIR OSWALD MOSLEY’S DEFENCE. LONDON, June 9, (Received June 10, at 8 p.m.) Letters to the press, interviews and other protests reveal he unwarranted brutality of Sir Oswald Mosley’s Olympia meeting. Wonder is expressed that many of those ejected were not killed, being hurled down flights of stairs with ruthless kickings. Mr Geoffrey Lloyd, a member of the House of Commons, says ho saw several cases of a single interrupter being attacked by 20 Fascists. Ministers are joining in the condemnation of dictatorships. Mr W. OrmsbyGore (First Commissioner of Works), speaking at Leamington, referred to Sir Oswald Mqsley’s meeting and said: “It is dangerous nonsense. We cannot have either Sir Oswald Mosley or Sir Stafford Cripps, or any other ballyhoo undoing what it took our people, with the Magna Charta, the Bill of Rights and the Abolition of Slavery, centuries to win.

Sir Philip Cunliffe-Listcr (Secretary of State for the Colonies), addressing the Junior Imperial League, said: “ Force must be met by force. The majority of our people will never stand for Fascism. The idea is so alien ro our character that 1 do not think our people are likely to be diverted by any circus of foreign origin aiming at dictatorship, whether black or red.” Sir Oswald Mosley has issued a reply to the press, declaring that a campaign of interruptions had been planned weeks ahead. He alleged that icmbers of the House of Commons were ready to take advantage of Red violence in order to combat Fascism, which threatened Conservatism more than it threatened the Socialists. Sir Oswald Mosley added that the Fascist casualties were far more numerous and more serious than those of their opponents.