This curious item appears in today's Guardian . Mosely may have had no qualms at being called a fascist or an anti-semite but the merest suggestion that he mistreated animals, would bring a storm of protest. Records released into the National Archive today show he wrote furious letters demanding an apology, after magistrates chided him for neglecting the pigs at his Wiltshire farm.The former leader of the British Union of Fascists (who had had spent three years interned as a threat to national security) was charged in1945 with over-crowding and under-feeding his pigs. Although magistrates threw out the case without hearing Mosley's defence. He had been anxious to prove his pigs suffered from a worms infestation which gave them their emaciated appearance, and had expert witnesses to support him. Mosley flew into a rage when the chairman told him: "The bench do not consider the prosecution has proved its case. We do, however, consider you should have been fully aware of the state in which the pigs were, and should have taken earlier steps to see they were properly cared for and better housed."
The Daily Herald described the reaction: "Striding towards the bespectacled, elderly Colonel Kingsmill, the former fascist leader shouted: 'Am I to be subject to stricture because of your observations, against which I have no right of appeal?'" Soon afterwards, he fired off letters to the Home Office and lord chancellor. The file released by the National Archive contains a brief response explaining the home secretary had no power in the matter.
