But whatever are the causes of this neurosis, it is surely undesirable that a race which exhibits it should be allowed to control the destinies of the British Empire or indeed of any country. If "all the Jewish women in Palestine are hysterical," presumably many of their menkind suffer from the same disability, which certainly does not promise well for the luckless Arab who is to live beneath their sway. How much of the trouble that has occurred already in Palestine may be attributed to this cause it is impossible to know. The increasing number of Jews in positions of authority in England presents, however, a far greater subject for alarm.
Jews and Arabs are at any rate both Semites and may be expected to have certain ideas in common, but to place a highly civilized Aryan race under Semitic control is another matter. The time has come for every Briton to ask himself whether he seriously desires to see the traditions of his country, those great traditions of honour, integrity, and justice which have made the name of England great, replaced by Oriental standards. I do not say that there are no honourable and upright Jews, but I do maintain that the spirit of fair play which is the essence of the British character is not the characteristic of the Jewish race in general. The complete absence of this spirit shown in the attempts of agitators to suppress free speech during elections cannot be attributed to English working-men--whose "sporting" instinct is highly developed--and testifies to the alien character of the so-called Labour movement. If England loses the spirit of fair play, she will have lost her most priceless national heritage.
Conservatism, which has always stood for these great traditions, allows itself to be hypnotized by the memory of Disraeli and accepts his dictum that "the natural tendency of the Jews is to Conservatism"--hence the advisability of placing Jews in control of its interests. The late Mr.
Hyndman saw further when he warned us that "those who are accustomed to look upon all Jews as essentially practical and conservative, as certain, too, to enlist on the side of the prevailing social system, will be obliged to reconsider their conclusions."[861] The causes of the recent _debacle_ of the Conservative Government are still obscure, but the fact remains that it was precisely at a moment when Conservative organization had pa.s.sed largely into Jewish hands that Conservatism met with the most astounding disaster in the whole of its history. If the manner in which Conservative propaganda was conducted at this moment was an example of Jewish efficiency, it might be well to consider whether on a future occasion the task should not be confided into the hands of simple Britons.
_The only effectual way of combating Socialism is to show up the alien influences behind it_. As long as the working man believes it to be the outcome of a genuine British labour movement, he will turn a deaf ear to all warnings and anti-Socialist propaganda will merely serve to drive more recruits into the Socialist camp. But let him once suspect that he is being made the tool of foreign intrigue, and all his national feeling will a.s.sert itself. We have only to ask him whether he wants his work taken from him by the import of alien goods, his housing accommodation appropriated by alien immigrants, finally to make him understand who are the people behind the scenes advocating a policy so disastrous to his true interests, in order to gain his support. The Secret Service has overwhelming evidence on this last point, which under a Conservative Government might have been made public, but unseen influences in high places have ordained its suppression. The slogan "Britain for the Britons," that would form the strongest counterblast to the false slogans of Socialism, has been barred from Conservative platforms and the very word "alien" avoided lest it should offend Jewish susceptibilities. Thus out of deference to the Jews, Conservatism allows its most powerful weapon to rust in its armoury.
In reality these tactics avail nothing to the Conservative cause. The great weight of Jewry will never be thrown into the scale of true Conservatism; only in so far as Conservatism abandons its patriotic traditions and compromises with the forces of Internationalism will it win any considerable Jewish support. We have but to follow the commitments on current politics in the Jewish press in order to realize that the only standard by which the Jews judge of any political party is the measure in which it will confer exclusive advantages on their own race. The Jewish question, therefore, does not turn on whether the Jews shall be accorded everywhere equal rights with the rest of mankind, but whether they shall be placed above the law, whether they shall be allowed to occupy everywhere a privileged position.[862] Nothing less will satisfy them, and any attempt to oppose this claim will always be met by them with the cry of "persecution." Further, this position of privilege represents to a section of Jewry merely a stage on the road to world-domination. For if, as we have seen by doc.u.mentary evidence, this plan has always existed in the past, is it likely that it has been abandoned at the very moment which seems most propitious for its realization? The trend of present events and the tone of the Jewish press certainly do not warrant any such conclusion.
To sum up, then, I do not think that the Jews can be proved to provide the sole cause of world-unrest. In order to establish this contention we should be obliged to show the Jews to have been the authors of every past social convulsion in the history of modern civilization, to discover their influence behind the heretical sects of Islam, as behind the Bavarian Illuminati and the Anarchists of Russia. In the absence of any such conclusive evidence we must therefore recognize the existence of other destructive forces at work in the world.
But this is not to underrate the importance of the Jewish peril.
Although the existence of an inner circle of Masonic "Elders" remains problematical, Jewry in itself const.i.tutes the most effectual Freemasonry in the world. What need of initiations, or oaths, or signs, or pa.s.swords amongst people who perfectly understand each other and are everywhere working for the same end? Far more potent than the sign of distress that summons Freemasons to each other"s aid at moments of peril is the call of the blood that rallies the most divergent elements in Jewry to the defence of the Jewish cause.
The old complaint of the French merchants already quoted would thus appear to be justified, that "the Jews are particles of quicksilver, which at the least slant run together into a block." One must therefore not be deceived by the fact that they often appear disunited. There may be, and indeed is, very little unity amongst Jews, but there is immense solidarity. A Jew named Morel, referring to the persecution of the converted Rabbi Drach by the Jews, observes:
What can the wisest measures of the authorities of all countries do against _the vast and permanent conspiracy of a people_ which, like a network as vast as it is strong, stretched over the whole globe, brings its force to bear wherever an event occurs that interests the name of Israelite?[863]
It is this solidarity that const.i.tutes the real Jewish Peril and at the same time provides the real cause of "anti-Semitism." If in a world where all patriotism, all national traditions, and all Christian virtues are being systematically destroyed by the doctrines of International Socialism one race alone, a race that since time immemorial has cherished the dream of world-power, is not only allowed but encouraged to consolidate itself, to maintain all its national traditions, and to fulfil all its national aspirations at the expense of other races, it is evident that Christian civilization must be eventually obliterated. The wave of anti-Jewish feeling that during the last few years has been pa.s.sing over this country has nothing in common with the racial hatred that inspires the "anti-Semitism" of Germany; it is simply the answer to a pretension that liberty-loving Britons will not admit. Those of us who, sacrificing popularity and monetary gain, dare to speak out on this question have no hatred in our hearts, but only love for our country. We believe that not only our national security but our great national traditions are at stake, and that unless England awakens in time she will pa.s.s under alien domination and her influence as the stronghold of Christian civilization will be lost to the world.
CONCLUSION
We have now followed the course of a.s.sociations working throughout nineteen centuries to undermine social and moral order and above all Christian civilization. We have also seen that although on the one hand the unholy spirit of destruction and on the other the natural spirit of revolt against oppression have always existed independently of any organization, it is to secret societies using and organizing these forces that the revolutionary movement has owed its success. Further, we have considered the possibility that behind both open and secret subversive societies there may exist a hidden centre of direction, and finally we have observed that at the present time many lines of investigation reveal a connexion between these groups and the Grand Orient, or rather with an invisible circle concealed behind that great masonic power. At the same time this circle is clearly not French in character since everywhere the activities of World Revolution are directed against France and England but seldom against Germany and never against the Jews. It would not be an exaggeration to say that no subversive movement in the world to-day is either pro-French, pro-British, or "anti-Semitic." We must conclude then that if one Power controls the rest it is either the Pan-German Power, the Jewish Power or what we can only call Illuminism.
This last hypothesis is one that deserves serious consideration. In the light of our present knowledge it does not appear impossible that if an inner circle of World Revolution exists it consists of a purely International group of men whose aim is that of Weishaupt--the destruction of the present system of society. That such an aim can be seriously entertained is shown by the fact that it is openly proclaimed by a whole school of writers and thinkers ranging from gentle Idealists to ferocious Anarchists who, whilst widely differing as to methods and the ultimate ends to be attained, are agreed on the common purpose expressed by Rabaud de Saint-etienne in the words: "Everything, yes, everything must be destroyed, since everything must be re-made."
It is idle to say that so insane a project can present no danger to the world; the fact remains that an increasing number of people regard it with perfect equanimity. The phrase: "All civilizations have pa.s.sed away; ours will doubtless pa.s.s away likewise," is continually to be heard on the lips of apparently sane men and women who, whether they advocate such an eventuality or not, seem prepared to accept it in a spirit of complete fatalism and to put up no resistance. The point they ignore is that when civilization existed only in isolated spots on the earth"s surface it might pa.s.s away in one spot only to spring to life in another, but now that civilization is world-wide the dream of a return to nature and the joys of savagery conjured up by Rousseau and Weishaupt can never be realized. Yet if civilization in a material sense cannot be destroyed, it is none the less possible to take the soul out of it, to reduce it to a dead and heartless machine without human feelings or divine aspirations. The Bolsheviks continue to exist amidst telephones, electric light, and other amenities of modern life, but they have almost killed the soul of Russia. In this sense then civilization may pa.s.s away, not as the civilizations of the ancient world pa.s.sed away, leaving only desert sands and crumbling ruins behind them, but vanishing imperceptibly from beneath the outward structure of our existing inst.i.tutions. Here is the final goal of world revolution.
If, then, one inner circle exists, composed of Illuminati animated by a purely destructive purpose it is conceivable that they might find support in those Germans who desire to disintegrate the countries of the Allies with a view to future conquests, and in those Jews who hope to establish their empire on the ruins of Christian civilization--hence the superb organization and the immense financial resources at the disposal of the world revolutionaries. On the other hand it may be that the hidden centre of direction consists in a circle of Jews located in the background of the Grand Orient, or perhaps, like the early nineteenth-century Illuminati, located nowhere but working in accord and using both Pan-Germans and Gentile Illuminati as their tools.
On this point I think it would be dangerous at present to dogmatize. But that the problem is capable of elucidation I have no doubt whatever. If the Secret Services of the world had chosen to co-ordinate and make public the facts in their possession the whole plot might long since have been laid bare. A "Department for the Investigation of Subversive Movements" should have had a place in every ordered government. This might have been created by the recent Conservative Government in England, but the same mysterious influence that protected the enemy during the Great War has throughout prevented disclosures that would have enlightened the country on the real nature of the peril confronting it. In the present state of European politics the only course open to those who would save civilization is to act independently of governments, and form a counter-organization in each country with unofficial bureaux of information maintaining relations with each other, yet each retaining its national character.
As far as this country is concerned I am convinced that only a great national movement can save us from destruction--a movement in which men of all cla.s.ses and above all of the working-cla.s.s will take part.
Fascismo triumphed in Italy, because it was not, as it has been absurdly represented, a reactionary movement, but because it was essentially democratic and progressive, because by appealing to the n.o.blest instincts in human nature, to patriotism and self-sacrifice, it rallied all elements in a disorganized and disunited nation around the standard of a common cause.
One cannot bring about any great movement without first kindling a sacred fire in the hearts of men; one cannot move ma.s.ses of people merely by appealing to self-interest; they must have a cause to fight for, a cause that is not entirely their own. Socialism, whilst enlisting a large proportion of its following by appealing to their baser instincts, has nevertheless, by its false ideals and promises, been able to kindle a fire in many generous hearts, and to persuade deluded enthusiasts that they are working for the welfare of humanity. The only way to combat Socialism is to create counter enthusiasm for a true ideal.
Yet even Mussolini found that a purely secular ideal was not enough, and that the spirit of religious fervour was necessary to defeat the spirit of materialism and destruction. For behind the concrete forces of revolution--whether Pan-German, Judaic, or Illuminist--beyond that invisible secret circle which perhaps directs them all, is there not yet another force, still more potent, that must be taken into account? In looking back over the centuries at the dark episodes that have marked the history of the human race from its earliest origins--strange and horrible cults, waves of witchcraft, blasphemies, and desecrations--how is it possible to ignore the existence of an Occult Power at work in the world? Individuals, sects, or races fired with the desire of world-domination, have provided the fighting forces of destruction, but behind them are the veritable powers of darkness in eternal conflict with the powers of light.
APPENDIX
I
JEWISH EVIDENCE ON THE TALMUD
The denunciation of the Talmud by the Jew Pfefferkorn in 1509 and the ex-Rabbi Drach in 1844 have been quoted in the course of this book.
Graetz however, in his _History of the Jews_, quotes an earlier incident of this kind.[864] In the thirteenth century a converted Jew and former Talmudist Donin who, on his baptism, a.s.sumed the name of Nicholas, presented himself before the Pope, Gregory IX, "and brought charges against the Talmud, saying that it distorted the words of Holy Writ, and in the Agadic portions of it there were to be found disgraceful representations of G.o.d," that it contained many gross errors and absurdities, further that "it was filled with abuse against the founder of the Christian religion and the Virgin. Donin demonstrated that it was the Talmud which prevented the Jews from accepting Christianity, and that without it they would certainly have abandoned their state of unbelief." Again "he stated that the Talmudical writings taught it was a meritorious action to kill the best man among the Christians[865] ...
that it was lawful to deceive a Christian without any scruple; that it was permitted to Jews to break a promise made on oath." These Graetz describes as lying charges.
The Jews were accordingly ordered by the Pope to hand over all their copies of the Talmud to the Dominicans and Franciscans for examination, and if their judgment should corroborate the charges of Nicholas Donin, they were to burn the volumes of the Talmud (June 9, 1239).
In France Graetz goes on to relate that "the priest-ridden and weak-minded Louis IX"--that is to say, Saint Louis--pursued the same course. "The Talmud was put on its trial. Four distinguished Rabbis of North France were commanded by the King to hold a public disputation with Nicholas, either to refute the imputations levelled against the Talmud, or to make confession of the abuse against Christianity and the blasphemies against G.o.d that it contained."
It is impossible to imagine a fairer decision, and the queen-mother, Blanche de Castille, was careful to a.s.sure the first witness summoned that if the lives of the Rabbis were in danger she would protect them and that he was only required to answer the questions that would be asked of him. Now, there would have been nothing simpler than for the Rabbis to admit honestly that these offensive pa.s.sages existed, that they had been written perhaps in moments of pa.s.sion in a less enlightened age, that they recognized the indelicacy of insulting the religion of the country in which they lived, and that therefore such pa.s.sages should henceforth be deleted. But instead of adopting this straightforward course, which might have put an end for ever to attacks on the book they held sacred, the Rabbis proceeded to deny the existence of the "alleged blasphemous and immoral expressions" and to declare that "the odious facts related in the Talmud concerning a Jesus, the son of Pantheras, had no reference to Jesus of Nazareth, but to one of a similar name who had lived long before him." Graetz, who admits that this was an error and that the pa.s.sages in question did relate to the Jesus of the Christians, represents the Rabbis as being merely "misled"
on the question. But the King, who was not misled by the Rabbis, ordered all copies of the Talmud to be burnt, and in June 1242 these were committed to the flames.[866]
The Talmud, however, continued to exist, and it was not until 1640 that, as we have already seen, the offending pa.s.sages against Christ were expunged by the Rabbis as a measure of expediency. Now that they have been replaced, no further attempt is made to deny that they refer to the founder of Christianity. As far as I am aware they are not included in any English translation of the Talmud, but may be found in an English version of Dr. Gustav H. Dalman"s book, _Jesus Christus im Talmud_ (1891).
II
THE "PROTOCOLS" OF THE ELDERS OF ZION
Contrary to the a.s.sertions of certain writers, I have never affirmed my belief in the authenticity of the Protocols, but have always treated it as an entirely open question.[867] The only opinion to which I have committed myself is that, whether genuine or not, the Protocols do represent the programme of world revolution, and that in view of their prophetic nature and of their extraordinary resemblance to the protocols of certain secret societies in the past, they were either the work of some such society or of someone profoundly versed in the lore of secret societies who was able to reproduce their ideas and phraseology.
The so-called refutation of the Protocols which appeared in the _Times_ of August 1922, tends to confirm this opinion. According to these articles the Protocols were largely copied from the book of Maurice Joly, _Dialogues aux Enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu_, published in 1864. Let it be said at once that the resemblance between the two works could not be accidental, not only are whole paragraphs almost identical, but the various points in the programme follow each other in precisely the same order. But whether Nilus copied from Joly or _from the same source whence Joly derived his ideas_ is another question. It will be noticed that Joly in his preface never claimed to have originated the scheme described in his book; on the contrary he distinctly states that it "personifies in particular a political system which has not varied for a single day in its application since the disastrous and alas! too far-off date of its enthronement." Could this refer only to the government of Napoleon III, established twelve years earlier? Or might it not be taken to signify a Machiavellian system of government of which Napoleon III was suspected by Joly at this moment of being the exponent? We have already seen that this system is said by M.
de Mazeres, in his book _De Machiavel et de l"influence de sa doctrine sur les opinions, les moeurs et la politique de la France pendant la Revolution_, published in 1816, to have been inaugurated by the French Revolution, and to have been carried on by Napoleon I against whom he brings precisely the same accusations of Machiavellism that Joly brings against Napoleon III. "The author of _The Prince_," he writes, "was always his guide," and he goes on to describe the "parrot cries placed in the mouths of the people," the "hired writers, salaried newspapers, mercenary poets and corrupt ministers employed to mislead our vanity methodically"--all this being carried on by "the scholars of Machiavelli under the orders of his cleverest disciple." We have already traced the course of these methods from the Illuminati onwards.
Now precisely at the moment when Joly published his _Dialogues aux Enfers_ the secret societies were particularly active, and since by this date a number of Jews had penetrated into their ranks a whole crop of literary efforts directed against Jews and secret societies marked the decade. Eckert with his work on Freemasonry in 1852 had given the incentive; Cretineau Joly followed in 1859 with _L"Eglise Romaine en face de la Revolution_, reproducing the doc.u.ments of the Haute Vente Romaine; in 1868 came the book of the German anti-Semite Goedsche, and in the following year on a higher plane the work of Gougenot Des Mousseaux, _Le Juif, le Judasme, et la Judasation des Peuples Chretiens_. Meanwhile in 1860 the _Alliance Israelite Universelle_ had arisen, having for its ultimate object "the great work of humanity, the annihilation of error and fanaticism, the union of human society in a faithful and solid fraternity"--a formula singularly reminiscent of Grand Orient philosophy; in 1864 Karl Marx obtained control of the two-year-old "International Working Men"s a.s.sociation," by which a number of secret societies became absorbed, and in the same year Bakunin founded his _Alliance Sociale Democratique_ on the exact lines of Weishaupt"s Illuminism, and in 1869 wrote his _Polemique contre les Juifs_ (or _Etude sur les Juifs allemands_) mainly directed against the Jews of the _Internationale_. The sixties of the last century therefore mark an important era in the history of the secret societies, and it was right in the middle of this period that Maurice Joly published his book.
Now it will be remembered that amongst the sets of parallels to the Protocols quoted by me in _World Revolution_, two were taken from the sources above quoted--the doc.u.ments of the Haute Vente Romaine and the programme of Bakunin"s secret society, the _Alliance Sociale Democratique_. Meanwhile Mr. Lucien Wolf had found another parallel to the Protocols in Goedsche"s book. "The Protocols," Mr. Wolf had no hesitation in a.s.serting, "are, in short, an amplified imitation of Goedsche"s handiwork"[868] and he went on to show that "Nilus followed this pamphlet very closely." The Protocols were then declared by Mr.
Wolf and his friends to have been completely and finally refuted.
But alas for Mr. Wolfe"s discernment! The _Times_ articles came and abolished the whole of his carefully constructed theory. They did not, however, demolish mine; on the contrary, they supplied another and a very curious link in the chain of evidence. For is it not remarkable that one of the sets of parallels quoted by me appeared in the same year as Joly"s book, and that within the s.p.a.ce of nine years no less than four parallels to the Protocols should have been discovered? Let us recapitulate the events of this decade in the form of a table and the proximity of dates will then be more apparent:
1859. Cretineau Joly"s book published containing doc.u.ments of Haute Vente Romaine (parallels quoted by me).
1860. _Alliance Israelite Universelle_ founded.
1864. _1st Internationale_ taken over by Karl Marx.
" _Alliance Sociale Democratique_ of Bakunin founded (parallels quoted by me).
" Maurice Joly"s _Dialogue aux Enfers_ published (parallels quoted by _Times_).
1866. 1st Congress of Internationale at Geneva.