“AN ELEGANT SOCIALIST.”

Otago Witness, Issue 3802, 25 January 1927, Page 10

“AN ELEGANT SOCIALIST.”

MR MOSLEY’S CAMPAIGN. LADY 'CYNTHIA’S SUPPORT. . (See Photograph in This Week’s Illustrated Pages.) (From Oub Own Correspondent.) LONDON, December 15. Mr Oswald Mosley, referred to as “the elegant Socialist,” is, at Smethwick (Staffs.), carrying on a Parliamentary byelection campaign, caused by the retirement of Mr J. Davison, the Socialist member. It is to be a three-sided contest. With Mr Mosley is his wife, Lady Cynthia (one of the daughters of the late Marquess Curzon), but pro tern, she prefers to style herself “plain Mrs Mosley,” while her husband. “Comrade” Mosley, referred to her' at a meeting of constituents the other day as his “missus ” Both Have, naturally, come in for a good deal of publicity in connection with their canvassing, and recorders cannot help making comparisons as to the’r natural place in the universe and the position which they have selected for themselves meanwhile. One reads, too, a good deal about the. “Red Squire” and the country house which has lately been bought by “Mrs” Mosley and upon which a number of workers are engaged while their owners are railing against the “idle rich” and commiserating with their wretchedly housed “comrades.” WE WANT TO CHANGE ALL THAT.

Launching her campaign as a Socialist orator in support of her husband, Lady Cynthia announced that she had decided to be known as “just plain Mrs Mosley” for the purposes of the election. “Friends,” she said, “I want to talk to you about the miserable conditions you are in, all through this rotten, miserable inefficient, and incompetent Government.” This, notes a local correspondent, was in the proper proletarian manner of the “Mrs Mosley” of the election, but-sud-denly she became Lady Cynthia of May fair. “Of course,” she said, with a contemptuous gesture, “there are people who have such a gorgeous time under this system that they do not want to changu it The idle rich do nothing for their money.” She painted a picture of the “lucky few” who have an income of £lOOO a week and of a duke whose income she put at £1 a minute. “WE LABOUR PEOPLE.”

“My friends,” she went on, “my hus band wants to change all that. They say it is brains that brings them their wealth, but some of these rich people have nobrains at all. They just inherited it, while you poor people who work have a miserable, rotten wage. It makes my blooo boil as I see it all—and it is ail because* of these Conservatives ano Liberals who are responsible for everything. , We Labour people want to sweep away this horrible system under which the workers are blackmailed by starvation into surrender. We want a change, and, if you send my husband, a Labour jnan, to Parliament with a thumping big majority you will scare this Government. He does want a change. He will work hard for it. He will do his best to get the workers jolly good jobs, and homes, and the really good time they ought to have.” “IN THE PAY OF RUSSIA.”

“He had begun in the typical Socialist style, fiercely denouncing the Government, ‘as the most incompetent, the most treacherous in British history.’ He looked round and waited for the applause, which ultimately came. Then he talked of the ‘dark days of test and ordeal’ and suddenly flashed out what he appeared to regard as his trump card—the allegation that_ the Gvernment was out to reduce the wages of all workers. He emphasised his Socialist leanings by remarking: ‘You know that .every one of us on the platform is in the. pay of Russia, don’t you? My pockets are bulging with orders from Moscow. Ted Roberts’s pockets bulging with red gold. I have got used to seeing myself caricatured in Russian boots. I

did not mind when I read that Lady Oxford wears them too.’

“Soon afterwards Mr Mosley introduced another appealing note. I have a deep feeling of sympathy for the workers, he exclaimed. The fingers of starving children in the mining villages of the country are clutching at our hearts and asking you to fight for them. With out-stretched hands he declared that he was sacrificing himself and his position for the workers who would make a great mistake if they failed him in this election.” “THE WICKED GOVERNMENT.” One of Mr Mosley’s first steps to carry conviction with the electors was to move from a fashionable hotel to modest rooms. He began one of his speeches by suggesting that while he could not himself be described as a workman, all classes could be of service to the workers by fighting this wicked Government. He declared that while tlie Government had made the load of the rich lighter they had made the conditions of the worker worse than at any time in the history of the country. ‘I want to see v< all get big wages and good houses. I am going to fight this election on these two issues—the Tory attack on wages and the attempt to destroy trade unions.” AN ELEGANT “RED.” Mr Mosley, the “elegant Socialist” as he is styled, opened a mass meeting, which is thus described: “In a manner becoming the surroundings, Mr Mosley made a dramatic, impassioned, sometimes pathetic appeal to be regarded by his hearers as a teal red-blooded Socialist. He was immaculately dressed. By his side sat Lady Cynthia elegantly gowned. She removed her magnificent fur coat during the meeting and revealed a charming dress from which brilliants sparkled on the cuffs. It was in striking contrast to the appearance of the audience. There was a little touch of comedy when the chairman announced -that -for the purposes of the election Lady Cynthia would be known to the electors simply as Mrs Mosley, but explained, “there are so many ladies in Smethwick that I am going to give her a Socialist title, just plain Mrs Mosley. Lady Cynthia blushed and looked confused. HECKLED. The slums of Smethwick, packed a schoolroom to hear Mr Mosley explain his ownership of a town house and an Elizabethan country mansion. “They say I own a country mansion,” he scoffed. “Aye, we saw the pictures,” was the answer. “Well, '1 own two places,” Mr Mosley admitted, and hurried on as he noticed a rustle of disapproval in the crowd. “But the country mansion is nothing but a farmhouse,” he thundered, with seaming indignation. “Yes, it is just a farmhouse, and if you look at the picture you will see cows in the field They’re not my cows yet, but they’ll be mine soon! I am going to work on my farm. I am going to work for Labour.” When he opened an address with a repetition of the old falsehood about the. tyrannical Conservative Government forcing down wages and about miners being the first victims, a heckler shouted: “Play the game and tell the truth! You know the miners are getting more money since tho strike!” — On being advised to “fight cleanly” he turned angrily unon his . hecklers and shouted at the top of his ’voice: “My opponents are attacking me with personal points, but I am here with the .workers. Smethwick not going to be tricked by bluff!” “That is why you won’t get in!” interjected a heckler. Mr Mosley declared: “This. is a fight, not a kissing match. I am going to fight this business in my own way.” WEALTH AND A CURSED SYSTEM. “What are you doing with your money?” asked aNwoman. Tn the din that followed , her question'- and lasted nearly 10 minutes Mr Mosley was unable to make himself ‘heard. ' At length he exclaimed: “I could have had all the privileges, luxuries and comforts the freaks of this rotten system could have given me I” “And you do!” said the woman. Mr Mosley indignantly declared: “My services and all the wealth this cursed has given me are at the disposal* of the workers!”

“Why don’t you give some of it to the poor instead of talking so much?” Mr Mosley paid no heed. “Socialism is an ideal which will give" everybody the same chance, ” he proclaimed. “When are you going to try levelling up from your own pile?” demanded one of the crowd. At that Mr Mosley crumpled up and sat down. “MRS” MOSLEY IN A SLUM AREA. Lady Cynthia talked to women with babies in their arms in a poor quarter of the town. She is stated to have said: “You know I have got a big house for my babies. I want to see you all living in big houses like 1 am, with a nurse for your babies. You ought to be able to send the darlings to the seaside as I do.” “But where shall we get the money from?” “0h,,” replied Lady Cynthia, with her' most charming smile, “when we get a Socialist Government everybody will have enough money.” “But what shall I do with a big house?” asked another woman. “I should not be able to do all the work.” “You should have servants too. You have as much right as I.” “But what will happen to nay Nell, who is in service?” Lady Cynthia, taken by surprise, answered with a blush, “Oh, that will be straightened out under a Socialist Government.” SIR OSWALD MOSIEY ON HIS SON. Sir Oswald Mosley, from whose pocket came the money for the education and many years’ keep of Mr Oswald Mosley, believes that the working men of the constituency will not be deluded into voting for his son, who “is incapable of representing working men.” “My son has not done a decent day’s work in his life,” Sir Oswald said, and added: “He has money from the Mosley family and money from his wife. So in the winter they have been able to go to Italy and enjoy themselves in the sunshine; and they have their- houses in the country and London. Just because he fell out with the Conservative Party he stands, as an extreme, oh, a very extreme, Socialist. Then he rates his father for criticising him. saying that I know nothing of his life. For many years I paid out of my own pocket thousands of pounds for his education and upkeep. And it was I who received his school reports—on the quality of which I do not wish to comment. WHY NOT WORK? “If he and j is wife want to go in for Labour, why don’t they do a bit of work themselves?” urged Sir Oswald, “or why doesn't Lady Cjmthia sell her pearls for the good of the Smethwick poor? And why doesn’t she drop her title if she doesn’t like it? I understand it is only a courtesy title. I could not drop mine if I wanted to drop it. My son tells me the tale that he does this and that, but he lives in the height of luxury. If the working class, for whom I have always stuck up, are going to be taken in by such nonsense I am sorry for them. How does my son know anything about them?”