Development
Connections were quickly established with the Nordic League, an influential secret society chaired by Archibald Maule Ramsay. Rising far right figure A. K. Chesterton would go on to speak at a number of NSL functions and write for their publications, after leaving the BUF in 1938. Anglo-German Fellowship member and Conservative MP Jocelyn Lucas also developed clandestine links with the NSL. However the NSL also attracted Vincent Collier as a founder member, a propaganda officer in the BUF who also functioned as an agent for the Board of Deputies of British Jews.
In 1938 the NSL became associated with the British Council Against European Commitments, a coalition group chaired by Lord Lymington. Although Joyce quickly tired of this unusual mixture of high society fascists and pacifists Beckett was closer to their ideals and before long he left the NSL to join the British People's Party. Beckett had also become less convinced of following the lead of Nazi Germany in the aftermath of the Munich crisis. Meanwhile Scrimgeour died in 1938 and surprisingly left nothing to the NSL in his will resulting in the main source of funding being cut off. Alongside this, as was the case for most rival groups on the far-right, the BUF Blackshirts saw the NSL as enemies and were known to attack their rallies and meetings.
Read more about this topic: National Socialist League
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