David Irving

[Photo by Michael Hentz, for The New York Times]

 

Letter to the Editor of
The Sunday Telegraph

 

[Published]

The Editor,
The Sunday Telegraph,
Fleet Street,
London EC4

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London, October 25, 1983

Sir,
I F OUR Immaculate Left hope that the files will reveal the names of Establishment figures supporting Sir Oswald, they will be disappointed. These files certainly include lists of names - according to MI5 he had 8,000 members, and their funds were believed to come from Germany, as they "fell off to practically nothing" around September 1939 - but no great names are even hinted at.
In fairness to Mosley it might be added that in 1943 MI5 did not consider membership of his party sufficient to be regarded as "a subversive element." Why then was Mosley interned in May 1940? You, Sir, hit on the solution by implying that it was because of the danger that his advocacy of a negotiated peace would attract support. (Beaverbrook, then a Cabinet minister, and Cecil King, to name two Fleet Street worthies, advocated this in private, though they were more prudent than Mosley and did not say so openly at the time.)
Churchill was obsessed with Mosley, as is plain from his remarks to King George VI, to his ambassador in Paris, to the American ambassador in London, and to others in May and June 1940.
However, MI5 reported that July, "The British Union of Fascists has been harried out of existence," its leaders imprisoned, the remainder intimidated or "squelched".
The rest, as the saying goes, is history.

Yours faithfully,
David Irving

© Focal Point David Irving 1998