27 OCTOBER 1939, Page 15

The " British Council for Christian Settlement in Europe "

bears many honourable names. The motives of some of its supporters are Christian in the finest sense of the word. But it also contains the names of other people who have in the past been identified, less with Christian pacifism than with pro-Nazi propaganda. It is difficult to resist the im- pression that such people hope to be able to continue the work for which their previous organisations were banned under a sweeter, gentler name. There is Mr. John Beckett, for instance, at one time a member of the British Union of Fascists and founder of the National Socialist League. Mr. Beckett's former colleague, Mr. William Joyce, does not figure as a member of the British Council for Christian Settlement, since he is now in Germany, from where he broadcasts Nazi propaganda in English. There is Dr. Meyrick Booth, who in 1936 published a pamphlet warmly eulogising the Fiihrer. There is Mr. C. E. Caroll, the former secretary of the Link. There is Professor A. P. Laurie, a member of the Link Council. And there is Mr. Ben Greene, whose activities have for some time been engaging the atten- tion of the British authorities. I can scarcely believe that all those who have, from the highest motives, given their names to the Council can be fully aware of its genesis and heredity. * * * *