D. R. Davies: XIV The Mire of Politics

Mitrinovic's 'New Europe' movement reads today like an early version of the European Union, advocating a European Federation based on regions rather than states, nations or otherwise. An artist by training, the charismatic Serb advocated the creation of a 'House of Industry' and a 'House of Culture' alondside the House of Commons. Davies became National Organiser of the movement and editor of the movement's journal, 'New Britain.' Mitrinovic exercised such control over the journal, however, that Davies was no more than an office-boy. Davies addressed numerous meetings at the movement's launch. It was during this time, in March 1934, Davies wife, Edith, died.

And yet there was something terribly wrong with 'New Britain.' Was it a politcal party or a lobby-group? Mitrinovic seemed not to know, and ultimately the movement foundered, rudderless. In September 1938, Davies ended his association with Mitrinovic, influenced by Ruth McCormick, his new wife, a deeply religious woman. Now a practical atheist, Davies drifted into Socialism, which he had come to see as the only barrier to the rise of fascism. He joined the Socialist League, one of a number of Socialist organisations that had sprung up after Labour Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald's decision to form a National Government that included Conservatives and Liberals. Sir Stafford Cripps, a Christian lawyer and former Labour Cabinet Minister. A number of other Labour MPs, including future Prime Minister Clement Attlee, were members of this movement, yet they would drift away as the movement became immersed in Marxism.

Davies became a 'convert' to Marxism, which he later freely admitted became his 'holy revelation.' He read all of the works of Marx and came to believe that Marx's works were truth for all time. The rise of Fascism in Europe, and particularly the attempt by the Spanish armed forces, led by General Francisco Franco to overthrow the Socialist government of Spain, brought a greater interest in foreign affairs. This brought involvement with the openly Communist vicar of St. Clement's, Barnsbury, Father Bill Iredell, a man who closed his services with the clenched fist salute of Communism.

Davies was by now a full member of the Church of Communism. The Office of the Hampstead Spanish Aid Committe (a Communist Front) was based in his Hampstead flat. When his daughter, Diana, was born, there was no baptism or blessing, but "a gathering to receive the babe into the human family." His wife, Ruth, still a professing Christian, was not impressed.

In 1937, Davies travelled to Spain to see the Civil War at first hand, in the company of the infamous 'Red Dean' of Canterbury, a Church of England Cleric who received the Stalin Peace Prize (!) for his unstinting support for Communism. It was with this delegation that Davies was to lose his faith. Not his faith in God, for that was already vanished, but his faith in man.