UNIFORMS AND PROCESSIONS
By Dr. J. J. MALLON (Warden of Toynbee Hall)
ONE might infer from the popular Press that civil war was raging in East London. The inference would be unfounded. On certain open spaces and at certain street corners Fascists and Communists make evenings and the week-end noisy with their contention. When the rival forces march and demonstrate, which is often, the noise increases. Noise is not the only manifestation of hostility. On walls and on pavements are exchanged slogans and taunts and battle-cries. We are told that "Mosley shall not pass " or invited to join a " Victory March "to celebrate the success of efforts made to prevent his passing. On the other hand, we are urged to "crush the Jews" and to keep "Britain for the British." In this discord the typical East Ender has no part. It goes on around and about him but does not include him. An impressive fact in connexion with the recent conflicts is that not one decker, not one transport worker, not any one earning his bread in the heavier employments of the area, has troubled the Courts. The representative man- hood of East London is not only not engaged in the clash of Fascism and Communism but is bored and exasperated with it.
The point is important when we ask what issues of liberty are involved. It is well to keep in mind that after years of marching and counter-marching and flag- waving and tub-thumping and every imaginable type of advertisement and appeal,- the Fascists and the Com- munists are inconsiderable sects. The right to march, the right to demonstrate, is claimed on behalf of numeri- cally unimportant factions who, in the view of East London, have marched and demonstrated too much al- ready. Because they live in the area the right of the Communists to become a nuisance to it, a right which has been liberally exercised, is greater than that of the Fascists, who, with few exceptions, are imported from other areas. The long-suffering East Ender is much more impressed With the right of children not to be frightened or debarred from play, and with his own right to sleep o'nights and may-be smoke a peaceful pipe in quietude on Sunday afternoons.
Another distinction between the factions, though it does not touch the objection of the wage-earner to the disturbance of his rest, is nevertheless of importance. The Communists do at least stand for and expound a political "prineiple. They• are fanatical, but they are sincere. They are ideologists genuinely concerned with a re-arrangement of political and economic life, which they regard as desirable in' the common interest. The Fascists may also have a political theory, but in that ease it is a pity that they do not tell us about it. From their orators we hear little of the virtues of Fascism and much of the vices Of the Jews. To treat such raucous disturbers of the peace as expound Fascism in East London as the serious servants of a political theory is to do them ridicu- lously too much honour. They are not politicians or ideologists. They arc not even fanatical. They strike the observer as calculating and hard-faced men doing professionally an ugly job of work. One emphasises " professionally." The Communists are amateurs.
The job of work has a simple aim, namely, to intimidate and alarm and enrage the Jews. It has met with a certain success. The East End has become conscious of the Jews and the Jews conscious of themselves. Though grave events have not happened, the conditions are being created in which grave events may happen. -For example, Jewish children are being harried by other children ; dissension has crept into local institutes and certain factories. Hooliganism has uprearcd its very ugly head. The wildest rumours are prevalent. In Jewish families which inherit memories of persecution and pogrom, there is deepening anxiety. Such families are asking whether in this land too they arc to be assailed. Can they rely upon the liberalism even of England ? They are looking for allies. They have much in common with other dangerous animals which defend themselves when they are attacked. The danger is that in apprehension and resentment the more combative members of the Jewish Community will join the Communists in order to hit back. If they do so, they will play into the hands of their enemies. The Fascists will emphasise tellingly the rapid growth of Communism and the part of the Jews in bringing it about. They will win recruits because of the "Communist Menace" and intensify their attack on the Jews, more of whom will be driven into Communism, with good results again to the Fascist Sergeant- Majors.
What can be done to defeat this cruel, immoral and dangerous strategy? Undoubtedly, as its leaders, who are preaching restraint and self-control to their followers realise, the main effort must be made by Jewry itself. The younger and more irresponsible Jews Must be Warned,. and if possible disciplined. Their vitality and hyper-sensitiveness, their flair for speaking and organising are toci fullY. indulged. They are doing with energy and enthusiasm many things which they had better not do. East LondOn has had too much excitement. It will quickly settle 'down if it is allowed to do so. It should be allowed to do so. If the younger Jews are wise they will try a rest cure. In enlarging the conflict their risk is too obvious to be stated.
But unless there is action elsewhere, it is idle to bid or beg the Jews to be inactive. From the Government and the people of the East End they must be given reassurance. The part of the Government is an obvious, and should be a popular, one. Uniforms must go. Military exercises must go. Unless they go quickly, others also will don uniforms and militarily exercise. From these beginnings it will be a short step to the use of arms. Then as to marchings and processions. The right to march is one thing ; the right to march on routes which are chosen because they are in enemy country is another. The Secretary of State should be empowered, if he is not empowered already, to prescribe the line along which any procession shall move.
Prohibition either of processions or meetings is a different matter. Objection to it would come awkwardly from the protagonists of systems which in other coun- tries forbid these as well as every other assertion of political freedom. Nevertheless, and not only on grounds of impracticability, objection to it is overwhelming. The demon which is distracting East London must be exorcized and not merely suppressed. The prohibition of meetings is certainly not necessary. One can stay away from meetings. If one attends them and is mishandled, one is entitled under a statute as old as the period of Henry VII to "remedy by surety of the peace." With meetings as with processions, however, places should be prescribed for them and-they should be kept away from the habitations of those whom they are intended to offend. One would like in this regard to penalise, at least in narrow streets, the use of the amplifier through which, often at a late hour, threats and insults penetrate doors and windows which are closed against them.
The part of the population at large is not less important than that of the Government, although because of the absence of community organisation, it is more difficult to play. The lack of organisation may be remedied by the Council of Citizens of East London with which the Archbishop of Canterbury, as Chairman of Toynbee Hall, and General Sir Frederick Maurice, among others, are associated. The Council, an independent body, which is supported by the Clergy of all denomina- tions, by the local Members of Parliament, and Mayors, the leading employers and trade union represen- tatives and the numerous social organisations of the district, and aims at mobilising the mass of the popula- tion against the disturbers of good order, and in favour of peace .and friendly relationships. It hopes soon to be able to demonstrate to the Jews that they have no cause for alarm, and that in English kindliness and sense of fair-play, they and other minorities, if they will invoke it, have a sure shield. If the Council of Citizens should indeed be able, as they expect will be the case, to direct the united public opinion of East London against those who are attacking its peace, a triumph will be won for the moral order and the Sword of the Spirit of which the effects may be far reaching.
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