Evening star., 1933-10-01

I'LL !. ..rsNl'
G A FIELD DURING THE TITHE WAR.
swinging to him, and the middle classes,
who organized SO rapidly to combat
mentary leaders and coalescing around
the Fascist anti-Left organization.
The other possibility is the disrup-
ton Of the national government and d
return to party warfare which would
very probably eventually have q dis
! migrating effect upon the two re-
naming big parties: whereupon anti.
parliamentary iment, already
strong, would grow throughout the
country, and there would be a big
turnover Of the people to the idea Of
that authoritarian form of government.
which is called communism in Russia,
Fascism in Italy, and Nationalist
cialism In Germany.
In either Of these eventualities Mos
ley sees himself rising on a flood tide
to Ducedom. On a balance of prob
abilities, the second looks to be the
best Of those two long-chance bets.
The motion Is widespread. and one
hears it voiced among all classes, that
If the institution of Parliament is not
obsolete, its leisurely processes are.
Further, the national government will
not last forever, and the seeds of its
disintegation are already being sown.
Some prophets forecast disruption In
side two years.
But only one Of two things can sus-
tain a Right government in power for
long In England. One is rising tide
I0fv f1o nfh Jc vic
Of nationalist passion engendered by a
war or some national or imperial cause
which infiamed the British mass inag-
| nation In the absence Of either Of
these things, the country would react
to the Left, maybe to the accompani-
ment Of growing labor troubles. Con-
fusion would grow. And panic. dis
ruption. confusion are the friends Of
| Fascism.
Today the great Conservative party
lacks real leadership and shows omi-
nous cracks. The Labor party is split
| four ways. And Lloyd George has
publicly performed the obsequies OF the
Liberty party, Of which he is the titula-
and tendencies favor Mosley. Indeed,
! II the long political experience of the
British had not made them incorrigible
compromisers, the outlook for Mosley
would be much brighter If all these
quarrels and fueds and splits and hesi-
tations should decisively break down
g-party barriers and precipitate n
multitude Of splinter parties upon the
British people, Mosley would be i'll
clover.
Great Team Men.
But the British are great team men,
and slow movers. They are in the
Roman, not the Carthaginian trad!-
ton. If it came to great crisis and a
showdown, a popular dictatorship IN
the British wartime manner and the
American economic crisis manner Is
! much likelier than a swift and revolu-
tionary turnover to the imported Fascist
creed, name, shirt and salute.
The difficulty, however, Is to spot the
dictator The war crisis threw up its
great magnetic. capable leader. q man
with all the cunning of Machiavelli.
the ruthlessness Of a Mussolini and the
oratorial gifts of a Hitler behind the
mask of Rooseveltian charm and
smile. But Lloyd George is old now,
and has lost his spell. Churchill S
oratory and ideas are like Kipling s
imperialist sentiments: they date. Ram
saw Macdonald Is taken serious only
because he is prime minister. Baldwin
is a tranquillizer. not a revivalist.
And a quite detached glance at Mos
ley fails to detect in the Fascist leader
any of the necessary qualities OF
great leader. He lacks alike the COM
mon touch and the power to move
crowds. He invites an Italian solution
for a British problem, offers Latin
dramatics to an Anglo-Saxon race with
q strong sense Of humor. He may be,
as some big capitalists see him, a useful
| counterbalance to organized Labor
and Left elements generally. But he
Is en- q small basis now, and the pic
ture of him as the black-shirted Duce
| of q Fascist Britain is a severe strain
ON even an apprehensive capitalist
imagination.
| In passing, it may be said that the
| only Individual who today commands
the confidence Of the entire British
people Is probably the Prince of Wales.
There are q thousand reasons why the
heir to the throne could not either be
called to the position of national leader
or consent to function In that capacity
If he were called by national as
sembIy. But If the crisis were big
enough these reasons might easily be
been publicly mooted. It IS not that
the Prince, at 40, holds the secret
Of national recovery locked in his
head. No one does. But, like Roose-
velt, he would be unifying figure and
force, enabling things to be done by
men Of drive and energy which could
not otherwise be forced through
against the opposition of intrencheo
sectional and vested interests. The
Prince of Wales as Duce In Britain
seems wildly fantastic; but as fantasy
he Is several shades solder than Mos
ley in the role of Duce, with an army
Of black-shirted Fascists holding 50,'
100000 tough Britishers In thrall
Good Judgment Lacking.
So far Ine career Of Britain's Fascis'
leader has not been distinguished BY
good Judgment. He has moved tot
early or too late; he has made In
Vulnerable miscalculations. However
he is only 81, and 1t Is q point in hi
favor that he does not jib at tn
fences. His wife was his chief aid II
her lifetime. Her untimely death ha!
shaken him up, changed him q goot
deal. He lives bachelor life. His SIS
ter-in-law. Lady Alexandra Metca1fe
looks after his children. Mosley Is fre'
to gamble again.
And todav Il "a m 4 eamhle II th