The Key West Citizen

ENGLAND TAKES FASCISTS GROUP MORE SERIOUSLY

FIGHTING BARONET SHOWN TO HAVE FORCED CONSERVATIVES TO TAKE NOTE OF OPERATIONS

By DeWITT MacKENZIE

(By Associated Press)

NEW YORK, Oct. 21. Sir Oswald Mosley, the fighting baronet who is leader of British fascists, has finally forced conservative England, which at first sniffed contemptuously at his black-shirts, to sit up and take note of his now very extensive operations.

Constant bloody street battles between fascists and communists have resulted in the hard-hitting reds appealing to the government to take "effective measures against fascist hooliganism."

Britons could almost smile at that, were it not for the fact that these fierce conflicts have become a menace to life and property.

Blamed For Attacks On Jews

There is another situation at which they cannot smile. Anti-Semitic disturbances in London's crowded East End are the order of the day, and these attacks on the persons and property of Jews are, rightly or wrongly, laid at the door of fascists. Whether or not Mosley's organization has anything to do with this, he has been preaching anti-Semitism for a considerable time.

How many followers Mosley has is a secret carefully guarded at fascist headquarters. It is known that they run to many thousands, and there are some 500 fascist branches in the United Kingdom.

He has achieved this in four years of hard work.

The 39-year-old Mosley is one of the most unusual personalities in England—a paradoxical figure in some ways. This blue-blooded man of title is a fighter from the drop of the hat, quite as ready and efficient with his fists as he is on the speaker's rostrum. When he is off the war-path, however, you get the picture of a quiet-spoken aristocrat, with finely chiseled features and drawing-room manners, whose slight build belies the wiry strength of his athletic body. He looks like anything but a scrapper.

Born A Conservative

Mosley is an individualist, and has always been a rebel against orthodox political ideas. He was born with a gold spoon in his mouth, the son of aristocracy, and he inherited his title.

He was a brilliant youth and was only 22 years old when first elected to the House of Commons in 1918. He started out under the Conservative flag, as was rather natural, but he quickly kicked over the traces and in a few brief years ran the gamut of political emotions.

He deserted the Conservative party of his father and ancestors and went over to Socialism and the Laborites. Then he quit Labor and formed a party of his own—the "New Party" and advocated dictatorship to remedy the economic ills of the country.

There was a fascist tinge to the New Party, and this tinge became a blaze of color in 1932 when Mosley turned his organization into "The British Union of Fascists" and adopted the Mussolini tenets.