Why Not Think

Glasgow: The Strickland Press, 1945. First edition. Plain, saddle-stapled wrappers printed in black; 12 pp. The Duke of Bedford expounds on the futility of continuing the war (WWII) while expressing pro-German sentiments: "Just as the Germans, instead of being granted a share of the world's economic resources proportionate to their needs and numbers, are to be herded and confined within even narrower territorial limits than before, so the Japanese are to be compelled to live or starve within the too-restricted limits of their rocky islands." The Duke of Bedford, previously Lord Tavistock, was a noted ornithologist and naturalist who became an ardent supporter of Social Credit. His economic reformist tendencies informed his pacifism, which is the subject of this pamphlet. In 1939 he became a founding member of the British People's Party, a Social Credit-influenced, anti-war group, which included prominent ex-members of the British Union of Fascists. He went to great lengths to negotiate for peace with Germany during the war and never renounced his pro-German tendencies. He died in 1953 at age 64 of a disputed self-inflicted gunshot wound. Bizarrely, his pamphlets were published by The Strickland Press, founded by the British anarchist-communist, Guy Aldred (1886-1963), who received posthumous patronage from the eccentric 'anarchist baronet', Sir William Strickland (1851-1938). Anti-war efforts certainly made strange bedfellows. Horizontal creases for mailing, some toning to wrappers, else Fine.