British Lion – Fascism

THE FIRST DUTIES OF A BRITISH FASCIST

TOO many people seem to be under the impression that the signing of an enrolment form and the purchase of a badge, render the new member a Fascist in every sense of the term.

These are but the outward signs of the fact that he or she has recognised the duty of taking part, as an active worker, in the struggle against a foe who prefers intrigue to force, but who will not scruple ruthlessly to use the latter when the years of underground machination have done their work.

Great emphasis is laid on the common sense of our argument that force must be opposed by force, but far too little attention has been paid to the fact that, if the body politic be debilitated by ever-increasing doses of Communist poison, it will succumb under the shock of the ultimate armed conflict. A moment’s reflection must show that we must ceaselessly counter the intrigue while prepar­ing for forcible action should the enemy have recourse thereto.

THE NEED FOR BRITISH FASCISM
By the Editor – in – Chief

WHEN endeavouring to assess the comparative strength of the forces of Law and Order as against those of Revolution in England, it is not inadvisable to avail oneself of a fine evening in London to take a rapid view of the contrast in the lives of those living at opposite ends of the social scale.

A ride on the top of a ‘bus costs but little and thanks to a clear road in the City one can run from Hammersmith through the West End, East End, past the Docks, and out to Eastern Suburbia in a couple of hours. It is instructive and gives food for reflection.
The bus keeps to the main streets, and the first impression received is one of general prosperity. There is a prodigious amount of wealth in the shops, and even in the East End the people in the streets are well clad and look well fed. In the suburbs one is struck by the numbers playing tennis and otherwise getting some exercise after a grilling day in office, by the rows and rows of small, neat houses of recent construction, and by the general air of well-being that pervades the localities passed through.

Then comes the question, on what is all this apparent prosperity based? Is it secure?
All this complex human machine is dependent on British water-borne com­merce, on British industry, and on British prestige throughout the world.

The very food these millions eat is nearly all imported, only about half of it comes from Imperial sources, and the money to pay for it comes from the goods we manufacture and sell. Is all well with British trade?

Read the daily newspapers and see they are full of cause for heart-searching, if not for apprehension.

Communism In China – The Danger To The British Empire

RECENT newspaper headlines have brought it home to the traveller by tram or train that something is happening in China, that there have been riots and casualties, and that certain organs of the Press, as well as Members of the House of Commons who outwardly or covertly work for Moscow, have attributed all the mischief to the wicked British Capitalist.

These are just the tactics that those whose task it is to watch their machinations would recognise as emanating from the Red wire-pullers. They create a passing sensation, but leave an enduring and wrong impression in the public mind, which has all it can do to keep track of Test Matches and Gold Cups rather than concern itself with strikes and riots on the other side of the globe.
Yet these happenings may, and probably will, affect the life of every man, woman and child in this country. So far from being local events, soon to be forgotten, they may be the outward indication of great underground activities, the first symptoms of a movement of vast extent and pretensions, one of whose declared objects it is to encompass the downfall of our Empire, and our ruin.

For more than two generations people have talked of the Yellow Peril, and, regardless of transport or commissariat difficulties, have pictured to themselves hundreds of millions sweeping across Asia and Europe like the waters of a broken dam.

The Kaiser painted a fanciful and florid picture on the subject, symbolically inviting

all Europe to counter the danger—under his leadership, of course!

But nothing happened, except the Boxer trouble, which, like most risings in the East, flared up with unexpected violence, and as there was no force at the back of it to keep the revolutionary bellows working, was soon extinguished.

The Powers intervened, sent out an International Expeditionary Force under a German Commander, committed the outrage of sacking the Royal Palaces at Peking, did not distinguish themselves either in the direction of mutual cooperation or wise and humane treatment of the Chinese, and finally went away after demanding a huge indemnity. Some of them had the sense and forbearance subsequently to refuse their share of this, but the mischief had been done. The authority of the Throne had been broken, and in 1911 the Manchu Dynasty was replaced by a Republic.

Naturally, visionaries and sentimentalists all the world over hailed the event with satisfaction. China was now to awake from an age-long sleep and enjoy the advantages of Western culture.

Optimism has been the dominating characteristic of the usual flood of forecasts for the New Year.

Such cheerfulness is commendable and its apparent sincerity more so, but honest examination of facts res­trains us from sharing such views.

Far be it from us wilfuly to paint a gloomy picture of the future; the realities which must be faced are grim, and no amount of nebulous platitudes will surmount the difficulties that lie ahead. It is a pleasing pastime to build castles in the air, to Counè oneself into believing that all is well, and to sit comfortably in cheerful expectation. To wake up and find hopes dreams abortive and hopes shattered is the penalty of such idle romance. We know of all too much strife on foot to be optimistic.

The class war may have become a trifle less vigorous over the Christmas season, when “Peace on earth, goodwill towards men” permeated our Christian festivities, but such is the present state of things that The Master’s message passes readily into that oblivion where it is compelled to remain by the seeker after industrial unrest.

The class war and the complexity of the machinations responsible for its promotion, remain with increased bitterness at the commencement of Anno Domini 1927, and for that reason we can see no real industrial peace of a duration which will make some compensation for the strife that has almost been the undoing of the nation. We would dearly love to be justifiably lulled into that sense of security which the acceptance of the “Pinks” as moderates so readily afford. Equally so, we would love to feel that goodwill and co-operation were possible in industry throughout the coming twelve months, and that both “Pinks” and “Reds” would learn that the econo­mic fundamental of our national existence is Capital and Labour in harmony. Unfortunately, we find England to­day struggling for her markets with strife between the two component parts of her industries. Both “Reds” and “Pinks” refuse anything in the nature of a com­promise, with very few exceptions. On the other hand, we find a few “Capitalists” animated by a true sense of magnanimity, extending in tangible form the co-operative hand to their employees.

Red Whitewash

WE have no connection with Communists. No, they are Red, we do everything by Parliamentary means, we mean no harm to the Empire, we would support it (do not inquire into the years 1914—1918!) we go to Buckingham Palace and accept the King’s hospitality; we may differ slightly as to how the country should be run, but, after all, every man is entitled to his opinion AND WE HAVE, TURNED THE COMMUNISTS OUT OF THE LABOUR PARTY,”

Coincidences may occur, as “Sapper” said in one of the “Bulldog Drummond” books, in which the hero had seen one puncture to his car many times, two frequently, three occasionally, but four wheels at the same time ¬NEVER! There is a limit to the belief of the most credulous in coincidences, and this really takes the prize.

The British Workers Delegation visited Russia for the Tenth Anniversary of the Revolution in November, 1q27, and published its report in “Soviet Russia To-day,” published by the Labour Research Department, 126 Buckingham Palace Road, S.W.1.
A National Committee organised the delegation, consisting, among others, of the following:–

FASCISM AND FREEDOM

Being an Account of the Origin, Principles, and Policy of the British Fascists
By “Phoenix”

If England was what England seems,
An’ not the England of our dreams ;
But only putty, brass, and paint,
‘Ow quick we’d chuck ‘er—but she ain’t
Kipling.

1. How the Need for Fascism Arose in England.

IN 1914, we were given definite proof of the triumph of the ideals of duty and sacrifice, and a terrific demonstration of the power and apparently endless vitality that can be contained in a united nation. The cost of this effort, however, was not to be measured in the lives of the fallen; nor the wounds of the maimed; nor yet was it to be reckoned in the crushing war debt and enormous task of regeneration which faced the English people. Rather was it to be found in the sum of all these, plus the most potent factor, the reaction and loss of national vitality which followed the expenditure of so much energy.

The natural consequence of tremendous exertion in the individual is complete collapse, and this was the condition of England after the Great War. Fundamentally, she was unaltered. Her power was unshaken, her territories remained secure, while her vast commercial and industrial organisation was ready to be transferred from the functions of War to those of Peace.

But the soul of England had received a mighty buffeting, and was in need of quick and sympathetic treatment. This was no time for quack remedies, and sententious words of little meaning—the physician in this case must be one to tell the truth, and apply the remedy, however unpleasant both might be. In spite of the obvious need for drastic and scientific action, however, the quacks were called in and each prescribed his own particular material remedy for this spiritual illness, each wondered for how long he might draw his fees, and how much these might be ; while each one avoided the truth for the whole period of his office. The natural consequence was that discontent, suspicion, disloyalty, and indifference to the national interests became increasingly apparent; while the ideals of Duty, Service, Honour and Sacrifice,—those qualities that are so impalpable yet so essential to the welfare of a nation—were gradually transferred to the limbo of forgotten things, only to be spoken of in whispers.

The Marquess of Ailesbury’s Message to British Fascists

I trust “The British Lion” may enjoy a prosperous future. Fascism, as I see it, is the expression of patriots to uphold Law and Order and is the greatest safeguard that a nation could have in maintaining a just balance between militarism and mob rule.

The Lion Awakes

SINCE the last issue of this journal, an alteration has been made in the departmental organisation under which it is edited and we now present, it to you in its new form.

It has been forced to out notice that the keenness of our contributors, in pressing forward incessantly the unadulterated reasoning of the Fascist Creed; has made “The British Lion” a magazine of purely internal character. It has been suitable for members of the British Fascists but not so attractive to readers outside the movement. Whether a poor impression has been justly or unjustly attributed to it, the mere suggestion has given us furiously to think. The outcome has been an attempt to exclude all matters relating to internal organisation which can have no interest for non-Fascists, and the widening of the scope of the magazine to include a greater variety of subjects. Unfortunately, this issue will still only represent a partial approach to this ideal, but we fully anticipate that those of you who read this and subsequent issues will find that the general broadness of the subjects covered will create a new interest in the periodical itself.

The Most Honorable, The Marquess of Ailesbury, D.S.0 , T .D., who was mentioned in despatches in both the South African War and in the World War (in France, Belgium and Germany) gives us here his reason for his belief in the British Fascists.

Do We Desire To Bind Ourselves

THE absurd publicity which has been’ attached to the name Fascist recently, greatly owing to the publicity of the “Colonel Barker” case, has opened the eyes of some people to the large number of British Fascists who are to be found in this country.

The fact that “Colonel Barker” was never connected with the British Fascists did not seem, at the time, to be fully realised. Nevertheless it was a fact. Some five years ago, when the British Fascists were first inaugurated as the only body capable of adequately dealing with the Communist menace, it was only to be expected that one or two hot-heads should creep in among the seriously minded Patriots who form the nucleus of the organisation. But it did not take General Headquarters long to find out who these hot-heads were and to weed them out. This, of course, did not suit the books of those who were so dismissed, and the result was an almost Gilbertian body, who called themselves the National Fascisti, who guarded their Headquarters with wooden swords, whose language on the platform was forceful, but a trifle illogical and who adopted a uniform as closely approaching that of the :Italian Fascisti as it was possible to get. To give them their due, they did gradually settle down: at one time British Fascists General Headquarters were glad to see that they took their responsibilities a little more seriously.

British Fascist Policy

IT is very easy to misunderstand British Fascism, and easier still for those who wish to do so to misrepresent it to the minds of people who know nothing about us.

OUR CRITICS CRITICIZE THEMSELVES!

On the one hand we are accused of being almost a foreign organization—certainly one with the intention of imposing foreign ideals on this country—which takes its marching orders from Rome, just as Communists are declared to do from Moscow. The only difference is, that nobody, however mad, or however much they hated us, has ever suggested that we received money from abroad, or even that it was offered to us and refused. It is a cause for thankfulness that we are understood to the small extent that everybody knows that British patriots will only use British money.

From the other side we are attacked with the accusation that we are not Fascists, that because we don’t adopt some trifling detail of Italian origin, therefore we are impostors. Personally, I prefer to wear a clean shirt, and one that is visibly so, and I believe that in order to proclaim my Fascism to the world it is not necessary to trespass upon the wardrobe of comic opera and go about in fancy dress.

AS SEEN FROM THE WINDOWS OF GENERAL HEAD QUARTERS OF BRITISH FASCISTS.
THE CINDERELLA OF THE SKY

PROBABLY few people to-day would deny that flight is becoming a matter of prime national importance, and that instruction in it will be essential, not only to the personnel of our forces, but even more to the ordinary “industrial ” man or woman. Transport problems, and population problems aggravating them, have become so acute to-day that there is only one outlet for all the traffic that will be necessary in the future. That outlet is the sky.

Universities and Aviation

With the wide acceptance of the Kellogg Pact, and the signature of the Optional Clause, we are justified in the hope that war between civilized nations will become a matter of dead history; but in the meanwhile we have military training being continued. Surely it must be obvious that that military training should be adapted to take, account of the new factor of flight.

DON’T MISJUDGE THE DOMINIONS!

MANY people seem to have gathered a rather low idea of the aims and objects of the Dominions from what happened at the Imperial Conference. That unfortunate event, which showed little practical result of any benefit, has done real harm if it has implanted any misunderstanding of our Overseas cousins in our minds. We have heard the view expressed that the Dominions were mainly actuated by the desire for more power and that other considerations were mainly secondary to that. It seems to be assumed that the possession by the Dominions of more power automatically means a loosening of the ties of Empire.

Perhaps this is the case, and if so it is very regrettable. Nevertheless whoever is to blame for this, it is not the Dominions. Nobody can say sincerely that the present British Government is a satisfactory one, that it is doing all that the nation requires, and is honestly straining every nerve to abolish unemployment! Can it be wondered, then, that the Dominions, seeing what a muddle and mess the Socialists have made of this country, should desire to have as little as possible to do with them? Do we in this country wish to see ourselves, not to mention the Empire, under Socialist control? The Dominions are not to be blamed, they are to be envied, for being outside the control of the crack-brained authority of British party politicians.

Let us remember one very important point. The Dominions have a system of government in most things very similar to our own, and that system here involves the right of the British Prime Minister to advise the Sovereign direct. Can any valid reason be advanced against ac-cording the same privilege to the Dominion Prime Ministers?

THE LEAGUE AND SMALL NATIONS

WE have received a copy of “The Independence of Small Nations,” a pamphlet issued by the British Friends of Montenegro, which gives the history of the absorption of that gallant little country by the Jugoslays.

Apart from the dark reflection that this event casts upon the actions of certain politicians, the most important thing which is revealed is that the League of Nations, formed with all its high ideals of safeguarding the rights of small nations, has either been unable or unwilling to interfere in this instance.

While it is obvious that the Montenegrins, being no longer a nation, and therefore having no representation in the League, would find it difficult to raise the question at Geneva, it is not surprising that the delegates have no desire to broach a subject likely to disturb the international peace and quiet which is their object of existence.

It almost seems as if the League, in its disregard of Montenegrin claims, has justified the belief that it is an organization which only results in making wrongs and injustices eternal by agreement and treaty!

BRITISH FASCISTS AND RUSSIAN BUTTER
HOUSE OF COMMONS GETS A SHOCK

PROBABLY most of the Conservative Members of Parliament receive a circular which emanates from their party headquarters giving useful information about Soviet activities. But whether they ever read it is quite another matter!

A recent issue contained the following quotation from the Russian official newspaper Pravda:—

“The Soviet Farm Molcchnoye” is one of the largest industrial combines included in the Butter Trust… The main task of this gigantic milk factory is to obtain the highest possible production for the market The Soviet farm, however, is not a good example of organization of labour, but, on the contrary, works less successfully than Collective farms. The cattle are fed on a starvation ration… The workers of the Soviet farm drive out the cattle at 8 a.m., and bring them in at 8 p.m…. What does the cattle-yard of the Soviet farm represent? Certainly not a milk- centre, for the sheds are small and dirty. In the third yard the cows stand knee deep in mud. This makes milking very difficult and spoils the milk. The calves are also kept in very dirty sheds. They are often fed on sour and unsterilized milk from tubercular cows… The production of this factory is transported on the same vans as- Benzine and Kerosine, of which the butter often acquires the smell.”

Prompt Fascist Action

The Publicity Department at General Headquarters immediately wrote to a large number of members of Parliament, including the Prime Minister, the Minister of Health, and the Secretary of State for India, urging that steps should be- taken at once to prevent an epidemic arising from this contaminated butter.

The National Government Fraud Economy At The Expense of The Poorest

MR. MANDEVILLE ROE, who has studied the Unemployment problem both in this and in other countries, shows that all the “scandals of the dole” are not on one side.

WHEN the National Government, after an electoral victory so sweeping ¬as to have no parallel in history, was returned to office everybody understood we were in for a period of most drastic economy. For- the nation now had two alternatives only, either to pay up for the crimes, follies, and blunders of the Labour Government, or to behave like a fraudulent trader and go bankrupt.

By supporting the National Government the British people decided to do the honest thing, however  unpleasant it might be. The National Government demanded sacrifices from all, and on that basis of equality of sacrifice the whole country was prepared for privations even as great as those demanded in War. The Government, however, has not even attempted to achieve equality of sacrifice.

What is Economy?

Some people seem to think that economy merely means saving money, regardless of how it is saved, or what material losses- are sustained in saving it. That is an utterly false definition, but it is unfortunately the one which the National Government has embraced with eagerness. As I once heard Mr. Pethick,Lawrence point out in the House of Commons, that neither the present administration nor the last wild riot of Socialism (led by the same Right Honourable Gentleman as lulls the present Government) gave a thought to this absolutely first principle of public affairs.

The abolition of the “genuinely seeking work” clause. I have elsewhere denounced that clause, and am prepared to denounce it again, because the need for such a clause indicates the utter failure of the whole system of Labour. Exchanges, which should be the clearing houses for jobs and men.

SHALL WE LOSE ULSTER
NO SURRENDER?

As Ireland is so •very much in the public eye at the moment, I feel that a few words of explanation as to the conditions which obtain before and during a “free” Irish election.

The English are, by nature, a law-abiding nation. In England, if you want the public not to use a certain path, you merely place a small stick or cord across the said path, and all pedestrians, meekly turn aside and go another way. In Ireland, should you wish to block a path, you need to put up barb wire barricades, and then you will probably find that some bright lad has produced wire cutters and forced his way through!

The law, in Ireland, must be enforced with a very strong hand if it is not to be broken and the ordinary conventions of life count for nothing with a people who are half dreamers and half unsentimental materialists.

Only those who have been through the intimidation which is practised at a present-day Irish election can have any idea of the conditions.

It is not easy for a woman living alone in an isolated cottage to go to the polls and vote as her conscience dictates, if she knows that the I.R.A. have her under observation, and that it is more than probable that the night before the election her cow will be maimed, her windows broken by revolver shots, and that she herself will be hustled and probably injured as she attempts to enter the polling booth.

I was living just inside the Ulster border during the first post-war election, and was responsible for bringing many trembling elderly women voters to the polls. Being loyalists, they would have stood no chance of recording their votes had we not fetched them from their outlying homes, and literally fought our- way through the members of the I.R.A. who lined the steps of the school where the voting was taking place, with the avowed- intention of preventing loyalists from recording their votes.

The outline of a 4.50 colt, worn beneath a thin coat is a useful barrier against terrorism, and the only one which gains- any respect from the lawless element in Ireland, where pacifism and conciliation are merely counted as weakness.

THE SURRENDER OF AN EMPIRE
By
Sir Michael O’Dwyer, G.C.I.E., K.C.S.I.
late Governor of the Punjab

THE British people by superhuman efforts saved the Empire in the Great War; since then our Statesmen have been busily engaged in surrendering it. Ireland has under the treaty of 1921 become a hostile republic, in fact if not in name; Egypt and Iraq, standing on our Sea and Air routes to the East, are fast slipping away from our legitimate influence, though we rescued the first from the Dervishes and the second from Turkish tyranny; the great island colony of Ceylon whose prosperity has been built up by British enterprise and capital and which is protected by the British Army and Navy, free of charge, has in the last few years been given a pseudo-democratic constitution which enables the local political cliques to set at nought British Authority, strangle British trade and squeeze out the British Officials.

India still remains, but our position in India and our responsibility for the welfare of its 350 million people are now being abandoned. If that insane policy inherited from the Socialist Government and embodied in the White Paper, is carried through, and the present Government are straining every nerve to carry it through, India will he lost to the British Empire “after a period of transition”. (to. quote the Prime Minister’s words).

With it the British Empire will go down. For as that great Viceroy, Lord Curzon, said 30 years – ago, “India is the pivot of our Empire. If this Empire loses any other part of its Dominions, we can survive. But if we lose India the Sun of our Empire will have set.”

That is the great issue with which the British people are to-day confronted. Fortunately they are waking up to the fact that the Government without any mandate from the Constituencies are flinging away the glorious heritage for which our fore fathers shed their blood. The surrender of our position in India would be even more disastrous to the peoples of India whom we have rescued from anarchy, civil war, invasion, famine and pestilence, that to the millions in this country whose livelihood depends on the trade—£200 million per annum–which British enterprise and capital have built up to the advantage of Great Britain and India. The surrender which the: White Paper contemplates would in the words of Mr. Lloyd George he the greatest betrayal: in history. It can only be averted by prompt and vigorous action on the part of the British people: They have the last word. Let them speak it.

AN ANNOUNCEMENT
The Apology

THE new Editor of BRITISH FASCISM commences this resumption of the papers activities by presenting to the regular subscribers the most ample apologies on behalf of all concerned for the lapse of these activities during the last few months. The loss of both the joint editors and the dislocation of normal activities during a period of re-organisation have resulted in an interregnum which is now at an end. Unlike the orthodox modern politician, Fascists are to be judged by their works rather than by their promises and we feel therefore, that an apology would nor neither worth offering nor worth accepting unless it is accompanied resumption of the regular issue of the paper at intervals of not less than one month from the issue of the present number.

The First Announcement

After a period of something over a year at 22, Stanhope Gardens, the British Fascists are removing to more convenient quarters. The new address will be announced later