British authorities were in a quandary today with regard to George Lincoln Rockwell, leader of the American Nazi Party, who succeeded in entering England despite the fact that the Home Office issued an order last week banning his admission to the country.
Rockwell, along with neo-Nazi leaders of German, Austrian, Hungarian and French nationality, is attending a conclave of British fascists held at a private estate in Gloucestershire, organized by Colin Jordan. The latter, a school teacher recently dismissed from his job by the school board of Coventry, is leader of the British National Socialist Party.
Rockwell landed at Shannon Airport, Ireland, last Thursday, it was ascertained today, and managed to get by the British immigration officials who had been instructed by the Home Office to keep him out of this country as an “undesirable person.” Today, it appeared that the Home Office was reluctant to start deportation proceedings against the American Nazi.
After a conference at the Home Office between police and immigration authorities, it was indicated that long and complicated legal moves may preclude the issuance of a deportation order and that, pending the issuance of such an order, Rockwell will be allowed to go wherever he pleases in England. A Home Office spokesman said today “the Home Secretary is now considering reports to see whether any official action is necessary” on the Rockwell case.
DELIVERS LONG SPEECH AGAINST JEWS AT FASCIST PARLEY
Rockwell delivered a long tirade against Jews at Colin Jordan’s rally at Gloucestershire yesterday. Teenagers armed with heavy sticks and air rifles guarded the estate, while Rockwell shouted praises of Hitler. Jordan and many of his cohorts wore fascist uniforms, emblazoned with the swastika, parading in jackboots reminiscent of Hitler’s hordes. Scotland Yard plainclothesmen visited the site of the fascist conference today to check on the activities there.
Jordan, refusing to leave the grounds, told a newspaper correspondent, talking to the latter across a fence: “Our principles and beliefs are, and we unashamedly admit them, the same as prewar Germany’s. We are proud that we are a racial movement.”
Leading newspapers here featured the reports of the Nazi conference at Gloucestershire and the fact that Rockwell had entered Britain in the face of the Home Office order. The Daily Express banner line read: “Fuehrer Beats Ban.”
Meanwhile, a second fascist group, the British National Party, led by Andrew Fountaine, continued its own conference today, at Fountaine’s estate at King Lynne, about 100 miles north of London. That conference also opened yesterday, and is being attended by about 50 British and foreign fascists.
Today, it was reported, the Fountaine group discussed plans for a rally scheduled to be held at Trafalgar Square here on September 2. Rallies have been held recently at that Square by Jordan’s group as well as by the third fascist group in this country, Sir Oswald Mosley’s British Union Party. Both those rallies, as well as others held elsewhere by the Jordan and Mosley groups, resulted in riots and in many arrests.
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.
