A HEALTHY SIGN

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25394, 27 November 1943, Page 5

A HEALTHY SIGN

EVIDENCE OF FIGHTING SPIRIT (N.Z.P.A. Special Correspondent) LONDON. Nov. 25. It is a strange war-time sight to see long caterpillars of demonstrators marching the London pavements chanting: “Put Mosley back,” and also to see l mounted police trying to kgep the crowd in order outside the Houses of Parliament. The general opinion seems to be that Mr Herbert Morrison’s explanation is satisfactory, although some believe that a debate will be held in the House of Commons. The Manchester Guardian puts its finger on the spot when it says that the hubbub is a healthy sign. “It has shown that ordinary people have extremely strong feelings about anything which remotely savours of Fascism,” says the paper. “The mood of 1940 remains, and any form of appeasement, either domestic or foreign, will rouse the country. Nobody, of course, thought that the Government was actually weakening in its hostility towards Fascism. What the people were afraid of was that the Government was doing something that might lead others who do not understand the British temper to think it might be. “It should always be borne in mind that the memories of our ‘ appeasement’ days are still strong, and that the legend of the attachment of our titled and moneyed classes to European reaction is slow to die. No harm will be done to our national credit by public demonstrations or by resolutions of censure like that of the National Council of Labour. They are evidence of a keen fighting spirit—intolerant, perhaps. but desperately earnest."