British Empire Union
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The British Empire Union was created in the United Kingdom during World War I, in 1916, after changing its name from the Anti-German Union, which had been founded in 1915. Sir George Makgill was the BEU's Honorary Secretary and Lord Edward Illiffe was its treasurer.
The BEU was anti-socialist and thought that the Labour Party would "Bolshevise Britain" and argued for a paramilitary force to combat it. It was also associated with the antisemitism of Leopold Maxse.
It held anti-German demonstrations in Hyde Park and elsewhere and is thought to have had around 10,000 members across fifty branches by the end of 1918. The BEU advocated 'wholesale internment' and received over 1,250,000 signatures on petition for this cause, which it presented to the Prime Minister. It also disrupted meetings of pacifist and civil liberties groups and produced anti-German posters.
The BEU also protested to the BBC about Patrick Hamilton's play Rope.
It cooperated with the Economic League.
[edit] External links
- "Once a German - Always a German!" poster
- Spies at Work, Chapter 2 - links between British Empire Union and Economic League
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