Moral Rearmament Exposed (Some Anti-Labour Tendencies—1)

The first of two articles on 'Moral Re-Armament' deals with the supporters and finance of this organization. Next week's will show how Moral Re-Armament operates in the Trade Union movement.

According to Moral Re-Armament, 'where God guides, He provides.' If so, the good Lord will require plenty of well-placed investments to do all the providing M.R.A. requires.

With headquarters in 12 countries—their London office is in swanky Hay's Mews, Mayfair—M.R.A. is extremely wealthy. Its brainwashing centre at the Mountain Hotel, Caux, Switzerland, costs over £1,300 a day to run. It also owns the Hotel Maria and the Grand Hotel at Caux.

Militant shop stewards, socialists, communists and trade union officials are regularly offered free jaunts to Switzerland and the Mackinac M.R.A. centre in America. There, they live expense free in the most lavish and sumptuous surroundings. Mountain Hotel, with its sweeping panorama on to the Swiss Alps and beautiful Lake Geneva, is a gourmet's delight. The hotel's cellars are plentifully stocked with the best of foods; donated by considerate industrialists. The V.I.P.s' dining room provides guests with silver service.

Accounts strictly private

Some years ago a Scottish business man presented M.R.A. with the Westminster Theatre—a gift that is estimated to have sliced his bank account by £132,500.

In contrast to its open-handedness with 'God's provisions,' M.R.A. keeps a tight grip on its financial records. Their accounts are strictly private and not available for public inspection. Nor does M.R.A. publish financial statements.

No wonder. Despite all its blarney about 'uniting all men above their differences of class, race and nation.' M.R.A. is in business to maintain private enterprise. Mr. Buchman's real providers are the industrialists. Employers see M.R.A. as a good, sound, investment. The company that M.R.A. keeps and the record of its activities, demonstrate that.

Associates of M.R.A.

Ever since its founder, American-born, 82-year-old Frank Buchman, formed the Oxford Group—M.R.A.'s forerunner—he has worked with the most reactionary and anti-working class elements.

Pre-war, Buchman was an admirer of Hitler. Arriving in New York on August 26, 1936, he told reporters: 'I thank heaven for a man like Adolf Hitler.'

Tom Driberg related in the House of Commons debate of July 5, 1946, how Buchman used to say to English visitors to Germany: 'You ought to know Heinrich. He is a great lad.'

That was in 1936, when for three years Heinrich Himmler's Gestapo had been herding thousands of trade unionists and Jews into concentration camps.

No change

Have Buchman and his crew changed in the post-war years? Hardly. Amongst their supporters they now number Premier Kishi of Japan, a minister of Commerce and Industry in the Japanese war-time government. Another enthusiast of M.R.A. is Mr. Sumitomo. Employer of over half a million textile workers, Sumitomo is known as 'the Japanese Rockefeller.' Members of the powerful Mitsui combine and the Shibusawa family, both long-time exploiters of Japanese labour and supporters of Japanese militarism are chums of Buchman.

Felixberto Seranno, Foreign Secretary of the Philippines, recently presided over a meeting of the South East Asia Treaty Organizations and then went to an M.R.A. Assembly. 'Guns and God' is presumably Seranno's motto.

Shah of the Persians, Mohammed Reza Pahle vi, is claimed to subscribe to the M.R.A. creed. Persia with a population of 18,994,821 has 159 hospitals with 11,000 beds. Only 40 per cent. of the population are literate. Yet this believer in 'absolute unselfishness' spent £20,000 on his third wife's diamond-studded wedding gown.

Chiang Kai-shek and his former military commander-in-chief, General Ho Ying-chin are two other adherents of M.R.A.

Dr. Adenauer has sent messages of support to M.R.A. In 1953, the German Republic conferred the Order of Merit on Buchman. Perhaps Buchman may be embarrassed about his pre-war eulogizing of Hitler, but he has never been known to criticize Adenauer's penchant for surrounding himself with ex-Nazis.

One of Adenauer's Ministers without Portfolio was Robert Tillmans, a one-time private secretary to the notorious Nazi, Friedrich Flick. A close personal aide of Adenauer is Robert Pferdmenges, a man who made his fortune by 'aryanizing' the Jewish Cologne Banking House of Oppenheim.

A friend of Henry Ford

Buchman received his first invite to California from multi-millionaire, William W. Manning, president of the Manning coffee and restaurant chain. An old buddy of Buchman was strike-busting, union-hating Henry Ford.

Harry Truman, ex-president of the U.S.A. and once the protégé of racketeer Tom Prendergast is a proudly publicized appreciator of M.R.A.'s work.

Nixon, America's Vice-President, and Senator Mundt were co-authors of an anti-Civil Rights Bill that was so vile even the American Congress would not stomach it. However, along with General Douglas MacArthur they are known to be admirers of M.R.A.'s four absolutes—'love, unselfishness, purity and honesty.'

Included in the M.R.A. clan in Britain is James Haworth, once a member of the Labour Party executive. Addressing an M.R.A. gathering in France, Haworth said: 'If we British had not been so bound up in ourselves and our attitudes of superiority, we could have created a spirit of friendship with General de Gaulle.'

Friends together

Like his fellow Labour Party members, M.P.s MacGovern and Oswald, Haworth finds no difficulty in rubbing shoulders at M.R.A. sessions with John S. Craig, secretary of the £20 million concern of Colvilles Steel. Investment banker Stanley Hoar, James Coltart, managing director of Kemsley Newspapers Ltd., Tory M.P.'s Patrick Wolridge Gordon and Sir Hamilton Kerr are other M.R.A. fans that McGovern and Oswald consort with.

In France, General Jean Valluy, N.A.T.O.'s Central European commander, and General Edward Jouhand, Chief of Staff of the French Air Force agree with M.R.A. Buchman's statement that 'the only sure victory lies in the compelling answer backed by the sure right arm of military control' must have assured the two generals that M.R.A.'s principles still do not exclude imperialist generals from earning a living.

The above are the advocates and spokesmen for M.R.A.—employers, Fascist politicians, militarists, Tory statesmen and extreme Right-wing Labour leaders.

(To be continued.)