ENGLAND THE HAVEN

Southland Times, Issue 24440, 21 May 1941, Page 6

ENGLAND THE HAVEN

FAMOUS POLITICAL

REFUGEES

(SPECIALLY WRITTEN FOR THE SOUTHLAND TIMES)

By A. J. DEAKER

It has never been the custom of Englishmen to shoot their political opponents. Richard 111 did resort to the dagger occasionally, Henry VIII cut off the heads of a few politicians and wives, and Guy Fawkes tried to uplift mankind by piling barrels of gunpowder under a house of parliament; but generally speaking Englishmen do not get serious enough about their politics to develop the urge to kill. The type of purge with which the Nazis clear their political path has no counterpart in our history. Bitter enemies on the floor of the house are often found later at Bellamy’s having a drink together. Such is democratic government. Men in high office who have been faithless to the people have been impeached by the Commons, but defeat at the ballot box and dismissal from office generally satisfy the opponents of those who fail to hold, or abuse, the confidence of the electorate. When the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes landed on the shores of Britain they brought with them such fundamental ideas as government by the will of the majority, every man a fair trial, and no taxation without the common consent. Throughout the ages English kings have been forced to recognize these principles which are still the bedrock foundation of British life.

THOUSANDS OF REFUGEES

Unfortunately for the progress of democracy, some European races have never been able to acquire the democratic outlook so inherent in the English. It is difficult, too, for Englishmen to grasp the state of a national mind which permits such phenomena as the German and Italian dictatorships. Yet whatever the continental Europeans feel about British democracy they know where to run when their lives are in danger. England has long been a haven for refugees. At no stage in her history, however, has she sheltered such a great and heterogeneous collection as is at present found on her - soil. Czechs, Poles, Norwegians, French, Dutch, Belgians and Jews in their thousands find comparative safety in England. They may be bombed from the air, but they will not be shot in the back. Until Rudolf Hess made his amazing descent on Scotland, General de Gaulle was the star refugee. While Hess may never be useful in the positive manner of a de Gaulle, his arrival, with its many implications, is one of the most welcome events of the war. A few weeks ago Hess was probably railing about the despised British democracy and speaking with contempt of its methods. Now he finds it a welcome haven. He is not the first great European to seek safety in what he previously laughed at. Let us turn back to the case of Prince Clement Metternich, Chief Minister of the Austrian Empire from 1809 to 1848.

METTERNICH

After Napoleon’s departure for St. Helena Metternich was the most powerful figure in Europe. The powers then sought to sweep away all remnants of Napoleonic influence in Europe by restoring the legitimate rulers to their thrones and duchies. No one feared such words as revolution, democracy, and nationalism more than did Metternich. The Austrian Emperor ruled over vast dominions that included Germans, Czechs, Magyars, Slovenes, Italians and Swiss. If democratic and nationalistic movements were successful in Europe, the Austrian Empire would collapse like a pack of cards. So Metternich did all he could to discredit democracy. He imposed a police system on Central Europe that sought to crush incipient revolt, not only in the Austrian Empire, but in all European countries. Metternich sent the Austrian white-coats to overthrow constitutional movements in Naples and Sardinia. He supported the French march into Spain to restore absolutism there. Metternich, in spite of the opposition of the English Ministers, Castlereagh and Canning, developed the policy of “intervention” in European politics. He declared the English to be “slightly mad” and heartily disapproved of their type of government. Yet in 1848 when cries of “Down with Metternich” rang through the streets of Vienna, he was glad to flee by devious routes and find a refuge in the land which he had derided for 40 years.

FOUR FRENCH KINGS

In the 55 years between Napoleon and the Third French Republic, there were four kings of France. They were Louis XVIII, Charles X, Louis Philippe and Napoleon 111. Every one of these kings at some time in his lifetime had to seek a sanctuary in England. Not one of these four French rulers was at heart a real democrat. All but Charles X pretended to rule constitutionally, but they concurred in limitations of the franchise and in restrictions on the freedom of the Press. The memory of the French Revolution restrained to a degree their enthusiasm for absolute rule.

What they thought of the English system of government we do not know. It was much less democratic in the nineteenth century than it is now, but it did give protection and freedom to the individual. These rulers of Francd*were all glad to accept the shelter that a democratic type of government afforded.

Louis Philippe landed at Dover in 1848 as “Mr Smith,” a bowed and pathetic figure, muffled and heavily bespectacled. Emperor Napoleon 111 went to England in 1871 where his Empress and only son had preceded him. He died at Chislehurst two years later and his son lost his life fighting for the British in the Zulu Wars.

SOME GREAT CIVILIANS

Rudolf Hess has no title or royal rank. He is no more than one of the leading German civilians. Yet he is by no means the first important continental civilian to flee to England for political reasons.

Early in the eighteenth century Voltaire, the great French author, had to cross the Channel because his championship of Protestantism and religious toleration had offended the authorities.

Mazzini, the great Italian patriot, an ardent champion of liberalism and the most untiring political agitator for Italian unification, had to fly to London in 1837.

Karl Marx, the founder of international socialism, after his expulsion from France and the failure of the revolutionary movement in the Rhine, settled in London in 1849. Kossuth, the Hungarian patriot, tried to liberate his people from Austrian rule and after the failure of the 1848 rebellion was permitted to travel to England in 1851. Rudolf Hess, however, comes neither as a patriot trying to liberate his people from oppression, nor does he come, like Mazzini, as the advocate of a noble cause. None of the civilians mentioned above fled from the fury of his own party nor from disgust with the state of affairs their actions had brought about. Hess comes, unlike them, into enemy territory where he is a prisoner of war. • - -