Charges that the Fascist movement led by Sir Oswald Mosley was financed and controlled by Jews, which appeared in the Blackshirt, organ of the Imperialist Fascist League, which includes anti-Semitism as one of its basic planks, led to the riot here last night which broke up an Imperialist League meeting.
The Imperialist League organ also asserted that Mosley was related to Jews.
A free-for-all fight ensued when the Mosleyites descended on their rivals’ meeting. Umbrellas, chairs and benches were used as weapons in a sanguinary fray in which ten men were knocked unconscious and scores of others suffered minor injuries. Among the injured were the Imperialist League’s leader, Arnold Leese, and General Blankeney, the chief speaker at the meeting. The organization’s flag, the British flag with a swastika mounted on it, was torn in the disorders.
The Imperialist Fascist League, in the past few weeks, has become very active in the provinces, particularly in the districts which have elected Jews to the House of Commons. Their latest meeting in the provinces was at the Isle of Ely, which James Rothschild represents in the House.
At that meeting, speakers repeated the well-known Nazi arguments and Leese, replying to questions from the floor, declared that a single state could not solve the Jewish question but asserted that Fascist states, working together, would be able to decide what to do with the Jews and where to send them.
In the meantime, he urged, citizenship should be withdrawn from British Jews. They should not be allowed to enter the government services, should be prohibited from owning land and “Jewish-controlled international finance” should be broken up.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
