Balder Ex-Libris

Author : Britain first rally
Title : Earls court exhibition hall Souvenir programme of world's largest indoor meeting
Year : 1939

Link download : Britain_first_rally_-_Earls_court_exhibition_hall.zip

MOSLEY... LEADER OF BRITISH UNION OSWALD MOSLEY could hardly have envisaged the formation of the British Union at the time of his first Parliamentary victory in Harrow in December, 1918, but the policy he laid down in his election address at that time bears a striking similarity to the principles and convictions he now expresses with such remarkable clarity and force. In his 1918 election address, he advocated high wages and shorter hours as the basis of a prosperous home market, the public control of electricity, national housing schemes with special safeguards against jerrybuilding and profiteering, the abolition of slums and back-to-back houses, the compulsory requisition of land for social purposes, educational facilities for all from the cradle to the university, and far-reaching schemes of health and child welfare. These have been his practical objectives throughout his political life. Oswald Mosley's idealism shines out in the following extract from one of his earliest speeches in his first political campaign - "There are many things which are wrong and which should not be - poverty, wretchedness and squalor. Let us cleanse this noble land. Let us cleanse it and make it a temple worthy of the sacrifice which has been made for its honour. Let us cleanse the temple of things which dishonour its structure, dishonour its altar and dishonour the sacrifice made at that altar. Rise to the occasion ! Out of the darkness let us see that something is brought up that will warm the hearths of England and lighten and brighten its homes and illuminate the roads along which England shall march to a nobler and grander future." An inspiring call to the spirit of sacrifice inherent in the hearts of all true Britons. His phrase in 1918 describes his political philosophy throughout his life— " Socialistic Imperialism "— which is a perfectly true description of British Union policy in 1939. Mosley was forced to break with the Conservative Party when it surrendered its soul to the financiers and betrayed every promise given to the people in the " land fit for heroes " election. Oswald Mosley then joined the Labour Party in 1924 because he believed that their policy, if courageously applied, would smash the great vested interests and create the finer Britain for whicb he had fought so long and so earnestly. Again, he was disillusioned. It is, of course, impossible to give more than an extremely brief glance at Mosley's career in this short summary, but speech and writing demonstrate the stability of his convictions which have sustained him throughout his political life. His great ideal has always been to make this land of ours a finer and happier land for the ordinary people to live in. The charge so frequently made against him of political instability because of his change-over from the Conservative to the Labour Party and his later formation of the British Union is nothing less than a damning indictment of the Party system with its corruption, its ineptitude, its callous disregard of pledges and principles. It was not he who changed, but they who betrayed the pledges they had given to the people. Men who have entered Parliament with high ideals have soon been sickened, become dispirited and then faded out of political life because of the soulless materialism of the Party machine. Mosley also experienced these emotions, but, being made of sterner stuff, was determined to end this political evil. What he said in a speech in Birmingham in December, 1930, is as true to-day as it was then— " In times like this, the Party game and national welfare are two different things. To meet the new situation requires new ideas and a new psychology. We are not living in a misty world of dreams, but a ruthless world of danger and of challenge. We must not flinch back before the challenge of our age to effort and to action." Because Oswald Mosley was convinced that the Greater Britain could not be built on the shifting sands of Party politics, the British Union came into being with the clarion call to sacrifice and service for the salvation of our country. How successful his noble inspiration has been is demonstrated in the success of this mighty meeting. ...