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ABSTRACT
Mulhall sets out to explain how, contrary to what one might expect, imperial decline was rarely a pressing issue for the British far right, usually falling below both the perceived threats of Communism and immigration on their list of priorities. By first explaining these unexpected findings and then placing them in an international comparative context, new evidence emerges that supports those imperial historians who subscribe to the ‘minimal impact’ orthodoxy regarding the effect of empire on the metropole. In addition, however, those aspects of the radical right that did concern themselves with imperial decline, namely A. K. Chesterton and the League of Empire Loyalists, are explored in depth, revealing a peculiarly British form of conspiratorial antisemitism that blamed imperial decline on secret Jewish power. This strand of conspiracy thinking, best articulated by Chesterton, is traced back to its origin so as to illuminate the continuity of ideas and ideologies between the interwar and post-war periods within the British far right. The result is an article that contributes to several existing historiographical debates and provides an exploration of a less well-known aspect of the work of A. K. Chesterton and conspiratorial antisemitism more generally.
Notes
1 David Cannadine, ‘Apocalypse when? British politicians and British “decline†in the twentieth century’, in Peter Clarke and Clive Trebilcock (eds), Understanding Decline: Perceptions and Realities of British Economic Performance (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1997), 261–84 (261–2).
2 Bernard Porter, The Lion’s Share: A Short History of British Imperialism, 1850–1995, 3rd edn (London and New York: Longman 1996), 347.
3 See the essays in Stuart Ward (ed.), British Culture and the End of Empire (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press 2001). They challenge the ‘minimal impact’ orthodoxy by highlighting the wider cultural and societal impacts of imperial decline.
4 Chesterton, quoted in David Baker, Ideology of Obsession: A. K. Chesterton and British Fascism (London and New York: I. B. Tauris 1996), 15.
5 Stuart Ward, ‘Introduction’, in Ward (ed.), British Culture and the End of Empire, 1–20 (4).
6 Helen Graham, The Spanish Civil War: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press 2005), 3.
7 Paul Preston, The Spanish Civil War: Reaction, Revolution and Revenge (London: Harper Perennial 2006), 31.
8 Martin Evans, Algeria: France's Undeclared War (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press 2012), 324.
9 Angelo Del Boca and Mario Giovana, Fascism Today (1970), 197, quoted in Andrea Mammone, Transnational Neofascism in France and Italy (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press 2015), 98.
10 Ibid., 96.
11 See, for example, ‘Red Suez plot’, Union, no. 424, 18 August 1956, 1.
12 For details of Europe a Nation policy, see Oswald Mosley, The Alternative (Ramsbury, Wilts.: Mosley Publications 1947), 143–91.
13 Alexander Harrison, Challenging De Gaulle: The O.A.S. and the Counterrevolution in Algeria, 1954–1962 (New York: Praeger 1989), 20.
14 Martin Evans and John Phillips, Algeria: Anger of the Dispossessed (New Haven, CT and London: Yale University Press 2007), 32.
15 Niall Ferguson, Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power (New York: Basic Books 2004), 315.
16 H. A. Gwynne, ‘Introducton’, in The Cause of World Unrest: With an Introduction by the Editor of ‘The Morning Post’ (London: Grant Richards 1920), 13.
17 Nesta Webster, World Revolution: The Plot against Civilization (London: Constable 1921), 293.
18 Ibid., 326–7.
19 Arnold Spencer Leese, The Destruction of India, Its Cause and Prevention [1935], 3rd edn (London: Steven Books 1974), 6.
20 Ibid., 7.
21 Arnold Leese, Out of Step: Events in the Two Lives of an Anti-Jewish Camel Doctor (Guildford, Surrey: The Author 1951), 50.
22 A. K. Chesterton, British Union Quarterly, April–June 1937, 53–4.
23 Richard C. Thurlow, Fascism in Britain: A History, 1918–1985 (Oxford and New York: Basil Blackwell 1987), 237.
24 Baker, Ideology of Obsession, 130.
25 Thurlow, Fascism in Britain, 237.
26 Frederic Mullally, Fascism inside England (London: Claud Morris 1946), 84–5.
27 Morris Beckman, interview by the author, 10 January 2014.
28 Rupert Marlowe, ‘Fascists' new stamping ground: Blackshirts in M.E.’, On Guard, no. 9, April 1948.
29 Robert Row, ‘One of those Blackshirts’, Comrade, no. 53, December 2000, 2.
30 ‘Israel and us’, Gothic Ripples, no. 135, 4 December 1956.
31 Row, ‘One of those Blackshirts’.
32 Baker, Ideology of Obsession, 197, 198.
33 Announced in Candour, vol. 1, no. 27, 30 April 1954; see also ‘Is a new party needed’, Candour, vol. 1, no. 21, 19 March 1954.
34 ‘Great progress in Africa: new loyalist branches formed’, Candour, vol. 7, 19 July 1957, 195.
35 Roger Eatwell, Fascism: A History (London: Pimlico 2003), 334.
36 Jaap Van Donselaar, Fout na di oorlog: Fascistisches en racistisches organisaties in Nederland 1950–1990 (Amsterdam: Bert Bakker 1991), 16; Christian Fleck and Albert Müller, ‘Front-stage and back-stage: the problem of measuring post-Nazi antisemitism in Austria’, in Stein Ugelvik Larsen (ed.), Modern Europe after Fascism, 1943–1980s (Boulder: Social Science Monographs 1998), 436–54.
37 Roger Eatwell, ‘Towards a new model of generic fascism’, Journal of Theoretical Politics, vol. 4, no. 2, 1992, 161–94 (174). See also Cas Mudde, The Ideology of the Extreme Far Right (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press 2000), 20.
38 John Bean, Many Shades of Black: Inside Britain's Far Right, 2nd edn (Burlington, IA: Ostara Publications 2011), 100.
39 Ibid., 99.
40 Ibid., 112.
41 A. K. Chesterton, The New Unhappy Lords: An Exposure of Power Politics (Boring, OR: CPA Book Publisher 1970), 216.
42 Ibid., 29.
43 Ibid., 22–3.
44 A. K. Chesterton, ‘Our battlefields defined’, Candour, vol. 1, no. 13, 23 January 1954. See also Chesterton, The New Unhappy Lords, 19.
45 [A. K. Chesterton], ‘Welcome to new readers’, Candour, vol. 1, no. 17, 19 February 1954.
46 Chesterton, The New Unhappy Lords, 78.
47 Ibid., 33–9.
48 Ibid., 40–7.
49 Ibid., 44.
50 Chesterton in Candour, 13 January 1961, 9, quoted in George Thayer, The British Political Fringe: A Profile (London: Anthony Blond 1965), 63.
51 Chesterton in Candour, 5 September 1958, quoted in Baker, Ideology of Obsession, 144.
52 A. K. Chesterton, Stand by the Empire: A Warning to the British Nations (London: Steven Books 2004), 10–11.
53 ‘Faulconbridge’ [i.e. A. K. Chesterton], ‘Sound the alarm’, Candour, vol. 1, no. 1, 30 October 1953.
54 John Newsinger, The Blood Never Dried: A People's History of the British Empire (London: Bookmarks 2006), 178.
55 A. K. Chesterton, ‘The Israeli-British alliance’, Candour, vol. 5, no. 159, 9 November, 1956.
56 A. K. Chesterton, ‘That vote of confidence’, Candour, vol. 5, no. 164, 14 December 1956.
57 ‘Continuing the battle for British survival’, Candour, vol. 7, 20–7 December 1957, 217, 218.
58 A. K. Chesterton, quoted in Hugh McNeile and Rob Black, The History of the League of Empire Loyalists and Candour (London: The A. K. Chesterton Trust 2014), 59.
59 A. K. Chesterton, ‘Right royal, heroic, Rhodesia’, Candour, vol. 17, no. 447, November 1965, 1.
60 A. K. Chesterton, ‘Why the devil is at the helm: a message for Christmas’, Candour, vol. 17, no. 448, December 1965, 1.
61 Chesterton, The New Unhappy Lords, 120.
62 Ibid., 130.
63 Baker, Ideology of Obsession, 197.
64 ‘Loyalists speak out for Rhodesia’, Candour, vol. 17, no. 447, November 1965, 62.
65 ‘Wilson's platform invaded, loyalists speak out for Rhodesians’, Candour, vol. 17, no. 448, December 1965, 75.
66 McNeile and Black, The History of the League of Empire Loyalists and Candour, 61–2.
67 See Candour, vol. 6, nos 182 and 183, 1957, and Candour, vol. 10, no. 292, 1959.
68 Richard Hilton, Imperial Obituary: The Mysterious Death of the British Empire (Chulmleigh, Devon: Britons Publishing Company 1968), 104.
69 Ibid., 81.
70 Ibid., 103.
71 Ibid., 107.
72 Ibid., 106–7.
73 Ibid., 106.
74 For a relevant and interesting exploration of the link between the Tory party and the far right in this period, see Mark Pitchford, The Conservative Party and the Extreme Right, 1945–1975 (Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press 2011), 10–68.
75 Letter from Mr Adamson to G.D., 11 May 1955, and draft reply to Sir Fergus Graham: Conservative Party Archive, Bodleian Library, Oxford (hereafter CPA), vol. 1803, CC03/4/75.
76 Letter from the Rt Hon. Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith, G.B.E. to Sir Stephen Piersenne, T.D., 25 October 1956: CPA, vol. 2419, CC03/5/88.
77 Letter from C.O.O. to Chairman Central Office, 5 July 1957: CPA, vol. 2419, CC03/5/88.
78 Letter from the Rt Hon. Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith, G.B.E. to Sir Stephen Piersenne, T.D., 25 October 1956: CPA, vol. 2419, CC03/5/88.
79 Martin Walker, The National Front (Glasgow: Fontana/Collins 1977), 30.
80 Letter from John Winning (Central Office Agent for Yorkshire) to Chief Organisation Officer, 30 June 1958: CPA, vol. 2419, CC03/5/88.
81 Letter from C.O.O. to Chairman Central Office, 5 July 1957: CPA, vol. 2419, CC03/5/88.
82 See Candour, vol. 6, 1957.
83 John Tyndall, Spearhead, 1971, quoted in Baker, Ideology of Obsession, 198.
84 Britain: World Power or Pauper State (Croydon, NF Policy Committee 1974).
85 Graham Macklin, ‘Transatlantic connections and conspiracies: A. K. Chesterton and The New Unhappy Lords’, Journal of Contemporary History, vol. 47, no. 2, 2012, 270–90 (277).
86 See Candour, vol. 15, 1961.
87 Webster, quoted in Macklin, ‘Transatlantic connections and conspiracies’, 276.
88 See Candour, vol. 4, 1956.
89 Macklin, ‘Transatlantic connections and conspiracies’, 277–8.
90 Ibid., 277.
91 ‘The New Unhappy Lords by A. K. Chesterton (5th edition): foreword to the new 5th edition by Andrew Brons’, 2013, available on the British Democratic Party website at http://britishdemocraticparty.org/the-new-unhappy-lords-by-a-k-chesterton-5th-edition/ (viewed 20 September 2016).
92 Macklin, ‘Transatlantic connections and conspiracies’, 271.
93 In the wake of Suez and following a tour by Chesterton and a Miss Greene in Africa, several new branches opened and Candour reported that membership had grown to between 8,000 and 10,000. See ‘Great progress in Africa: new Loyalist branches formed’, Candour, vol. 7, no. 195, 19 July 1957. However, while the official history of the LEL as released by the A. K. Chesterton Trust gives the 8,000 and 10,000 figures, it argues this must have included supporters as well as full members as the South African branch had just 26 members in 1957, the Transvaal branch just 18 and the Kenya branch just 167. See McNeile and Black, The History of the League of Empire Loyalists and Candour, 63.
94 Graham Macklin, ‘The British far right's South African connection: A. K. Chesterton, Hendrik van den Bergh, and the South African intelligence services’, Intelligence and National Security, vol. 25, no. 6, 2010, 823–42 (841).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Joe Mulhall
Joe Mulhall completed his PhD at Royal Holloway, University of London in 2016. He has been a Visiting Lecturer at Royal Holloway and a Research Assistant at Harvard University. He is now Senior Researcher at Britain's largest anti-racism organization HOPE Not Hate. Email: Joe.Mulhall.2012@live.rhul.ac.uk