Arthur Henry Lane
Arthur Henry Lane also known as A. H. Lane and Arthur H. Lane (May 1868 - 16 June 1938) was a British Lieutenant Colonel and author of several anti-Jewish books, The Alien Menace: Statement of the Case (1928) and The Hidden Hand: A Plain Statement for the Man in the Street (1938). Lane was a member of the Unity Band party,[1]The Britons[2] and a founding member of the Militant Christian Patriots.[3]
Biography
Lane was born in Hull, Yorkshire, in May 1868 and, having qualified as a Member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, entered the Army Veterinary Department as a Lieutenant in November 1893. Seconded to the Egyptian Army in the period June 1894 to April 1897, he was appointed to the rank of Bimbashi and was present in the expedition to Dongola, including the action on 19 September 1896 (Queen’s Medal; Khedive’s Medal).
Lane next witnessed active service in South Africa in 1899-1902, where he served as Senior Veterinary Officer in 8th Division and was present in the actions at Biddulphsberg and Wittebergen (Queen’s Medal & 2 clasps; King’s Medal & 2 clasps). And much of his work during the conflict is described in the Boer War supplement to the Veterinary Record. Among other achievements, he was credited with setting up the first Mobile Veterinary Detachment:
‘Lieutenant A. H. Lane was permitted by General Rundle to arrange measures for sweeping up the animal wastage left in the track of a force, and a Mobile Veterinary Detachment resulted, which marched in the rear of the column, collected and took along with it all the horses which had been abandoned by the force, and destroyed the unfit. When later in the operations it was found that leaving the burgher his horses provided him with the means of resistance, orders were given to clear the farms of stock. The scope of this detachment then widened, and it was directed to include the collection of horses from the various farms, so that a man might be provided with a fresh mount before his own became past recovery. The value of this is self-evident, and before long other column commanders adopted it.’
Lane also had charge of the Remount Depot at Harrismith, ‘where his previous experience in handling large bodies of horses in the U.S.A. while ranching proved of the greatest utility’, and carried out an inspection of all cattle in the Mafeking area following a report that some of them were infected with rinderpest. He was able to give the all clear and the authorities in Bulawayo admitted that they had made a misdiagnosis.
Advanced to Captain in March 1902, he returned to the U.K. in the summer of 1903, and remained employed on the home establishment until being placed on retired pay as a Major in December 1913. Recalled on the advent of hostilities in August 1914, he was appointed a Veterinary Officer in the Lowland Division, and went out to France in June 1916, where he served in a similar capacity in 60th Division and won a mention in despatches (London Gazette 4 January 1917, refers). Owing to ill-health contracted on active service, however, he relinquished his commission in June 1917, and was granted the honorary rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Lane died in June 1938.
A Life of Service
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With the passing of Colonel Lane the Free Press has suffered an irreparable loss, and unknown to itself the Empire has lost an ardent defender, whose unique knowledge of the Alien question placed him in a class by himself.
About three days after the completion of his latest work, The Hidden Hand he was taken ill and died after a very short illness on June 16th, at the age of 70. The cause to which he devoted his entire energies and outlook for years will never again know such a man. His most important book, The Alien Menace will stand always as a reference work for anyone who is sufficiently patriotic to investigate what it is that is sapping the life-blood of Britain. It ran into five editions.
Colonel Lane's great ambition was to unite all patriotic people and he held many meetings at his hospitable house on Campden Hill with this object in view. Whether at home or on the lawns at Ranelagh, where he loved to entertain his friends, he was a delightful and gallant host. He neither spoke nor heard a word of gossip or scandal, and money was a thing he never considered except as a means of service to his country or fellow-citizens. He never turned a deaf ear to any appeal he considered it is duty to help.
Underneath his lovable foibles and dictatorial manner he secretly yearned for a primitive simplicity of life. He saw through the shams of civilization, and observing the character and morals of our liberal aristocracy he was convinced that they were moving towards their own destruction. He loved children, although he had none, and to the end looked at the world with the bright blue eye of a man who never grew old at heart, and who was never weary or disillusioned; yet he had an acute shrewdness which detected insincerity and conceit of which he was ever impatient and openly contemptuous.
It is a matter for regret to those whom he has left behind to carry on his work, that in his eager desire to awaken people to the dangers of the moral disintegration of England, he distributed gratis hundreds of copies of his Alien Menace, a book which now is rapidly becoming unobtainable as a result.
Colonel Lane was the son of a clergyman, and was born in Yorkshire. His early life and career were spent in straitened circumstances. After three years on a cattle ranch in America he was gazetted to the Army in 1893. Of his distinguished military career he gave few personal details, but as early as 1896 he was specially mentioned by Lord Kitchener, with whom he was serving in Egypt. In 1897 he was transferred to the Remount Department, and was sent on a mission to the Argentine to buy horses and mules for South Africa. Later in the same year he returned to headquarters and in company with Lord Milner he travelled South Africa and reviewed the situation regarding horses in view of the threatening war in that country. His report was that most of the Argentine horses in Cape Colony had proved of little use; this was sent to the War Office by General Sir William Butler, who had taken over command. General Butler was a fine soldier, who was fully aware of the Jewish conspiracy to make war with the Boers; he warned the Government in London. Colonel Lane was with him for ten months and gave him valuable information about the large number of South African horses available, about the Boer rifles and other things. Everything which he reported proved true, but for some mysterious reason General Butler was ordered home and placed on the retired list, and Colonel Lane was blacklisted. The Staff Officer of Remounts at the War Office at the time was a Jew, Major Peters. Large contracts for the importation of some 40,000 Argentine horses were placed at his orders, together with the contracts for forage, etc., which according to Colonel Lane, the expert, could have been bought in South Africa. Most of the horses failed when pushed, and Colonel Lane alleged that this was one of the chief causes of the War lasting so long, as it depended largely on horses.
He served throughout the South African War without a day off duty, including two years on the staff of General Sir L. Rundle, who twice recommended him for award. He retired in 1913 in disgust at his treatment, but of course rejoined in August 1914. He served on the staff of the 60th (London) Division in France and Salonica. He had six war medals.
On returning to civilian life, this man of fine brain, who could have filled any public office with distinction had he desired to seek it, devoted his remaining years to unremitting work in exposing the conspiracy of silence about the real state of public affairs. In addition to his [[Alien Menace]] (11,500 copies) he wrote War Debts and Alien Immigra- tion (5,000 each) and in collaboration he also produced Our Perilous Position (8,000 copies), An Admirer of Lenin (Life of Lansbury) and The Firm of Webb (Sidney Webb), both of 5,000 copies. All these were published at his own expense.
In January last, Colonel Lane wrote to the Editor of the Free Press informing him that he had made arrangements that all his political books, papers, pamphlets, etc., should be handed over to the Editor on his (Col. Lane's) death.
A life of service has ended. England will never know his like
again. Democracies cannot produce men of the stamp of Lt.-Col. Arthur Henry Lane, and England is greatly the poorer for his death.
Written works
- The Alien Menace: a Statement of the Case (1928) revised and expanded 1934
- A Life of Service (1929)
- War Debts (1934)
- The Hidden Hand: A Plain Statement for the Man in the Street (1938)
Quotes
- "This criticism of Jewish influence is not anti-Semitic. The critics quoted above are, on the whole, friendly to the Jews, but they recognise that this persistent attempt to dominate and control the financial and political policies of the nations of the world and to make them serve the interests of a minority possessing much power, especially in world finance, must create friction and disturbances. This criticism would apply with equal force to Germans, Dutch, Italians, French, or any other race if they attempted by similar methods to impose their will upon other peoples and to make those peoples more or less subject to their domination. As stated in the Preface to this book, I do not approach this subject from a sectarian point of view but from the point of view of an Englishman who believes in "Britain for the British," and who strongly objects to Alien interference, irrespective of the faith or nationality of the Alien. If the Jews are mentioned frequently, especially in quotations from books, reports and other documents, it is because they have the fortune or misfortune, according to the point of view, to be more active and more successful than any other Aliens in influencing and controlling British affairs."[4]
- "Knowing what we do to-day of the power and ramifications of these International Financiers, who exploit all nations, can we say England is not under their control and direction!"[5]
Notes
- ↑ British Fascism, 1918-39: Parties, Ideology and Culture, by Thomas P. Linehan, page 134
- ↑ British Fascism, 1918-39: Parties, Ideology and Culture, By Thomas P. Linehan, page 45
- ↑ Patriotism Perverted, by Richard Griffiths
- ↑ Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Henry Lane, Chapter XII (Alien Influence in Politics), The Alien Menace, Boswell Publishing Co. Ltd. Fifth Revised and Enlarged Edition, 1934. pp. 124-125 (Originally published 1928).
- ↑ Lieutenant-Colonel Arthur Henry Lane, Chapter XI (The Hidden Hand), The Alien Menace, Boswell Publishing Co. Ltd. Fifth Revised and Enlarged Edition, 1934. p. 120 (Originally published 1928).
