This interesting cutting from the Haining archive tells some
of the story of the short-lived Liberty League. Less than three years after the
Russian Revolution had erupted, leading figures in public life, alarmed by the
progress of its ideas in the West, got together to initiate a counter campaign
that would challenge Bolshevism in the UK and throughout the empire. The new
force for good was ‘The Liberty League’ and on 3rd March 1920 an
open letter declaring its objectives and signed by H. Rider Haggard, Rudyard
Kipling, Lord Sydenham, H. Bax-Ironside, John Hanbury Williams, Algernon
Maudslay and Lt –Col G Maitland-
Edwards, was published in the Times. The
signatories began by defining Bolshevism and its aims.
Bolshevism is the
reverse of what mankind has built up of good by nearly two thousand years of
effort. It is the Sermon of the Mount writ backward. It has led to bloodshed
and torture, rapine and destruction. It repudiated God and would build its own
throne upon the basest passions of mankind.
There are some misguided people of
righteous instincts in this country who believe in Bolshevism; there are others
who have been influenced by secret funds;there are many who hope to fish in its bloodstained waters…If it is allowed to conquer it will mean in the end the destruction of individual rights, the family, the nation, and the whole British Commonwealth, together wit the handing over of all we hold sacred into the power of those who stand behind and perhaps have fashioned this monstrous organization…
If this evil is to be beaten, the signatories argued, it
would require 'counter organisation' and funding:
The first we hope to
be able to supply; the second we ask you to help us obtain. We desire in a
clean and open fashion to fight what we believe to be a great and terrible
evil,
by means of letting light into its dark places. We believe in the old adage---that the Truth is great and will prevail; but we believe also that this light should not be hid under a bushel. We are certain that at bottom the British workman is sound and upright and that he does not desire to see in England, that ancient home of liberties, such conditions as prevail in Russia.
by means of letting light into its dark places. We believe in the old adage---that the Truth is great and will prevail; but we believe also that this light should not be hid under a bushel. We are certain that at bottom the British workman is sound and upright and that he does not desire to see in England, that ancient home of liberties, such conditions as prevail in Russia.
The letter ended by asking all ‘right-minded men and women
throughout the Empire ‘ to help the Liberty League oppose the threat by
creating ‘ counter-Bolshevism propaganda’ .
Today, if we substitute ISIS for Bolshevism, we get some
idea as to the depth of feeling back then towards what seemed to be a
nihilistic movement. However, if we look closely at the background of the
signatories, anti-semitism may also have been an influence. The novelist Rider
Haggard, the man responsible for drafting this letter was, like his fellow
signatory Lord Sydenham, a known anti-semite. Both men, and perhaps others
signatories, were convinced that most of the Bolsheviks were Jews; Sydenham
asserted that 90% of them were. Some signatories had also had personal
experience of the atrocities of the Russian Revolution. Algernon Maudslay was
in charge of the Red Cross in Russia while John Hanbury Williams had been close
enough to the murdered Tsar to later write a book on him. One should also
recall that The Aliens Act of 1905, which Sydenham supported, together perhaps
with other signatories, was an attempt to control the flow of Jews from eastern
Europe. In 1920 all signatories would have had memories of anarchist activities
in London, which culminated in the Siege of Sydney Street just nine years earlier.
Two of the criminals involved were thought to be Jewish anarchists. So again,
the fear of dangerous immigrants has some parallels with the situation today.
The Liberty League was very short-lived. As with many
similar organizations that ask for funds and perhaps received more than they
expected, it was accused of financial irregularities. By May 1920 the League
had been dissolved and in its place rose the British Legion, which of course is
still flourishing. [ R.M.Healey]
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