The Government and Blackshirts It is only now, nearly six
weeks after the debate in the House of Commons on the Olympia hooliganism, that the Home Secretary announces his intention of carrying out the undertaking he then gave to confer with the leaders of the Labour and Liberal Parties in the House of Commons regarding special legislation to ensure the preservation of order at public meetings, and the tolera- tion or otherwise of political uniforms. The Government may be right in the view that they are stated to hold, that the Fascists' movement has passed its zenith and is in decline. The events of June 80th in Germany have convinced a great many people with Fascist inclinations that dictatorship is a peculiarly uncomfortable form of government even for those who have the ear of the Dictator. The abandonment of the proposed rally at the White City in August may or may not be due to other causes than those announced. But there is cer- tainly no sufficient ground for concluding that the dangers inherent in the British . Fascist movement are now negligible. Even Hitlerism in its triumphant progress had its set-backs, and for the Mosley movement to suffer, if it is suffering, from a summer slump, • does not mean that it is dead. It should be carefully watched, even if for the moment at any rate special legislation is regarded as unnecessary.
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