abhor anti-Semitism; I heard him express his disgust on several separate

occasions when confronted with anti-Semitic sentiments. And the allegation that

his lordship never allowed Jewish people to enter the house or any Jewish staff

to be employed is utterly unfounded - except, perhaps, in respect to one very

minor episode in the thirties which has been blown up out of all proportion. And

as for the British Union of Fascists, I can only say that any talk linking his

lordship to such people is quite ridiculous. Sir Oswald Mosley, the gentleman

who led the 'blackshirts', was a visitor at Darlington Hall on, I would say,

three occasions at the most, and these visits all took place during the early

days of that organization before it had betrayed its true nature. Once the

ugliness of the blackshirts' movement became apparent - and let it be said his

lordship was quicker than most in noticing it - Lord Darlington had no further

association with such people.

 

In any case, such organizations were a complete irrelevance to the heart of

political life in this country. Lord Darlington, you will understand, was the

sort of gentleman who cared to occupy himself only with what was at the true

centre of things, and the figures he gathered together in his efforts over those

years were as far away from such unpleasant fringe groups as one could imagine.

Not only were they eminently respectable, these were figures who held real

influence in British life: politicians, diplomats, military men, clergy. Indeed,

some of the personages were Jewish, and this fact alone should demonstrate how

nonsensical is much of what has been said about his lordship.

 

But I drift. I was in fact discussing the silver, and how Lord Halifax had been