Reaction
Whilst the scheme was enthusiastically supported by the highly conservative Daily Mail it was denounced as a form of fascism not only by the Communist Party of Great Britain but also by the otherwise anti-communist Daily Express, which compared the OMS to the Ku Klux Klan and the Blackshirts. An early speech by one of the group's leaders was deemed unfit for broadcast by the BBC who feared that it would compromise their impartiality. Brigadier-General William Horwood, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police also refused to work with what he believed to be a fascist organisation and by the end of 1925 the government had informed General Sir Robert McCalmont that in the event of any general strike the OMS would be disbanded and their membership taken over entirely by the government. Nonetheless the OMS did have the confidence of some provincial police forces and branches of the Conservative Party despite its inauspicious start.
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Famous quotes containing the word reaction:
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