40 YEARS AGO

Blackshirt creed
There was great enthusiasm when Sir Oswald Mosley addressed a meeting at Lewisham. He outlined the Blackshirt policy, many points of which are excellent. However, in answering a question, he gave the National Socialist views of religion, which cannot be accepted by a Catholic.
Lewisham Town Hall, 8 o'clock . . Every seat occupied. Tough young men with the sign of the -lash and Circle on their sleeves stand in groups talking, or distribute leaflets.
Five past 8 . . . the Leader keeps us waiting. That backcloth has a hypnotic effect . . . such a monstrous flag „ . A sallow man in a grey suit, black shirt and black tie walks on from the wings . . "Mosley' Mosley!" Many of the audience jump to their feet and stretch their arms in salute ...
Sir Oswald Mosley begins speakingquietly, in the tones of someone trying to explain things to very dense little boys
"Today we must face the fact that the capitalist system has once again swung from boom to depression . How long can industry withstand these recessions — as our politicians call them — without collapse?"
He speaks almost without pasuing, and he clips his words, so that at times they a harsh slur. A self-supporting Empire . . . a corporative Britain . • . State control of credit •
"Those who send their capital out of Britain will go where the poor now, who break the laws, have t go."
In answer to a question on
denominational education, Mosley says: "We believe in complete religious toleration and we are in favour of deno.minatiOnal edu-1 cation." Someone then asks how complete religious tolerati,on can be reconciled to the British Union's attitude to the Jews.
In answering this Mosley makes a statement which shows why Catholics are still so distrustful of the British Union. He says: ". . Any nation has the right to demand that the people of that nation shall not subscribe to forces, whether religious or racial, outside of that nation."
From the Catholic Herald, February, 1938.