FASCISM UNVEILED
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR.] SIRS Mr. Fortescue-Brickdale complains that I have mis- represented Sir Oswald Mosley in describing his programme
as little more than the programme of tariffs and trade bargains," and in my assertion that half his programme has been carried out by the National Government. He says
that Sir Oswald Mosley expressly said that tariffs were useless. That is true. I admitted that. I expressly quoted Sir Oswald Mosley as declaring " amid a cataract of cheering that we must be self-contained and we can do it." But that was not his only point. For later in his speech he said that " one of the first plans of the corporate system will be to help export trade and to unify and consolidate it." The Blackshirt watchword is "Britain buys from those who buy from Britain, and that power which we will get under the corporate system will enable us to take away the barbed wire entanglements which confront our industry today in the markets of the world."
What is that but trade bargains, and how can the bargaining be negotiated without tariffs, and is not that part of the programme of the National Government ?
Mr. Fortescue-Brickdale declares of the Fascist programme that " anybody of average intelligence can easily comprehend it by reading our literature or listening at our meetings." He might well begin himself by studying a little more carefully the speeches of his own leader. Had he read this particular speech in the Daily Mail instead of relying on his own confused recollection of it, he would not have accused me of misrepresentation.—I am, Sir, &c., ROBERT BERNAYS.
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