Last night in the spacious halls of Belle Vue Gardens here there was enacted the final scene of a comedy entitled, “The Strange Metamorphosis of Sir Oswald Mosley— or From Plain Fascist to Fancy Anti-Semite.”
The final scene was acted to the accompaniment of a few cheers that were effectively drowned out by the catcalls, boos and jeers of a large audience comprising more enemies than friends of the doughty leader of the Blackshirts.
Despite the unfortunate attitude of the audience, gathered in what was to have been a monster Fascist rally to show England how the Fascist cause was prospering, the star of the show managed to effect his metamorphosis.
100% ANTI-SEMITISM
For the first time since he rounded up his ragged army of followers, he emerged a full-fledged, 100 per cent anti-Semite of the most virulent type.
Incensed by the persistent booing, Sir Oswald flung into the teeth of the crowd the charge that his opponents in the audience were “from the sweepings of Continental ghettos, financed by Jewish financiers.” Further, they were “an alien gang brought from the ghettos to Britain by Jewish money.”
During those parts of his speech that were audible above the din, Mosley was heard to say that every evil affecting Great Britain could be attributed to the “international trade racket,” in which he saw both Conservatives and Socialists playing willingly into the hands of “Jewish international financiers.”
Mosley also charged that Walter Citrine, in America to attend the American Federation of Labor convention, and the British Trades Union Council, are “openly working with Jewish international parties to destroy the great movement which dares challenge the corrupt power of international finance.”
Following this, Sir Oswald once more returned to the attack with the following:
“This highly organized attempt to prevent free speech,” he said, “has justified me in taking steps, to form a defense corps. In every great city I have been in, there have been organized attempts to prevent free speech by alien Jewish mobs. . . . If this was an indoor meeting with Blackshirt stewards these hooligans would be outside to yell in the streets.”
POLICE PROTECTION
The speaker and his body guard of Blackshirt followers had been {SPAN}###ded{/SPAN} by large detachments of {SPAN}###ce{/SPAN} into a square enclosure {SPAN}###ed{/SPAN} by a stout wooden barrier, {SPAN}###d{/SPAN} on the inside by policemen. {SPAN}###se{/SPAN} outside the barrier were {SPAN}###ed{/SPAN} to by Mosley as “those {SPAN}###{/SPAN} who stabbed our men in the {SPAN}###{/SPAN} when they were fighting in {SPAN}###ches{/SPAN} in the last war.”
###e going to let those peo###### asked, “lead us to war ###many in a Jewish quar###### Oswald organized his ###ovement, he disclaimed ### of anti-Semitism. Later ###ed his disclaimers. Later ### began to make openly a###emitic statements. Last night’s speech discovered him completely and undisguisedly anti-Semitic for the first time.
In an editorial on the meeting, the Manchester Guardian cynically remarks that last night’s events “should appeal to the comic spirit.” . . . and when Signor Mussolini and Herr Hitler hear of our popular police interning our Blackshirts in a zareba at Belle Vue, they will have learned something interesting about the standing of Fascism in this part of England.”
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.
