Britain did not go to war to defeat fascism

KATHLEEN FITZGIBBON (Letters, August 29) says, “Miss [Elizabeth] Bowen and de Valera, whatever their differences, were both aware that the common enemy [in WWII] was fascism”.

It is true de Valera achieved political power democratically against the fascist movement in Ireland but Britain, on the other hand, did not go to war in 1939 against fascism as such.

Churchill had been, notoriously, an admirer and friend of Mussolini and he declared that a British Hitler might be necessary in certain circumstances. Britain went to war against its former ally in 1939 not to defeat fascism as such but to assert its position as the predominant world power. Other world powers, such as the US, remained neutral until their own interests were at stake.

From 1945 to the present, Britain has made effective propaganda use of Nazi crimes, in order to give itself licence for continual warfare around the world. While Elizabeth Bowen’s favourite Irish person was the fascist-minded John Dillon, Churchill himself was in favour of world conquest and genocide of inferior races — provided it was done by or for Britain or its allies. Here is his testimony to the 1937 parliamentary commission of Lord Peel, to decide the fate of Palestine:

“I do not admit that the dog in the manger [the Palestinian Arabs] has the final right to the manger, even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit, for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America, or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to those people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher grade race, has come in and taken their place. I do not admit it. I do not think the Red Indians had any right to say, ‘The American continent belongs to us and we are not going to have any of these European settlers coming in here.’ They had not the right, nor had they the power.”

Pat Muldowney

Magee College

University of Ulster

Derry