Originally published in the Manchester Guardian on 23 April 1934
FLEET STREET, SUNDAY
Do people go to hear Sir Oswald Mosley because they hope to see some fisticuffs or because they think there is something in his policy? Whatever the cause he almost filled the Albert Hall tonight and got an excellent hearing. The applause came by no means only from the hundreds of Blackshirts dotted singly or in groups about the hall. There was no intimidation, but there were no scoffers. Long before seven, the advertised time, the approaches to the Albert Hall were crowded, and inside the building troops of Blackshirts were clattering along the passages to their appointed positions.
When the doors were opened at 7.15 a Blackshirt orchestra began to play Fascist songs and copies of the words were sold to the uninitiated. Copies of the "Fascist Week" were sold in the audience, and news bills of the "Fascist Week" and the "Daily Mail" adorned the edges of the balconies.
Just before eight the spotlights were turned on and a procession of twelve standard-bearers marched in. The standard-bearers grouped themselves round the organ, the spotlights swung back to the main entrance, and there stood the Man of Destiny, the man whom his paper refers to in reverential capitals as "The Leader." Slowly he paced across the hall, chest out, handsome head flung back, while his followers, every man on his feet, cheered and waved and cried, "Hurrah! Hail Mosley! Mosley, Mosley."
He spoke for an hour and thirty-five minutes without a note or a check, and as a piece of platform oratory it was a fine performance. Every sort and condition of person seemed to be represented in the audience. There were many women of all ages, those of middle age as a rule more keenly interested than the young ones. There was fairly steady applause throughout Sir Oswald's speech, and three times it became almost rapturous. The first was when he said that Fascism had grown faster in Britain than anywhere else in the world. The second was when he stated that Fascism would give a man a job of government and full power to get on with it, but would dismiss him if he failed. The third was when he said that Jews would be expected to put Britain before Jewry. This reference to the Jews suggested a closer relationship to Continental Fascism than Sir Oswald publicly admits, and he was at pains to justify Hitler and Mussolini against the charge of tyranny.
These archive extracts are compiled by members of the Guardian's research and information department. Email: research.department@guardian.co.uk
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/2011/apr/25/archive-oswald-mosley-london-meeting-1934
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