Part 26 (1/2)

Loge ”Les Renovateurs”: ”Exploitation des Richesses nationales et des grosses Entreprises an profit de la collectivite.” Conference de notre F? Goldschmidt, Orat? adjoint sur la meme question.

[Ill.u.s.tration: News paper clippings]

Loge ”Les Zeles Philanthropes”: ”La Transformation de la Societe Actuelle s'impose-t-elle?” Conference par le T? C? F? Edmond Cottin.

Loge ”Paix-Travail-Solidarite”: ”Role de la Franc-Maconnerie dans la politique actuelle” par le F? F?

Loge ”Les Trinitaires”: ”Le Socialisme Francais” par le T? Ill. F?

Elie May.

Ten? Collective des L? ”Emmanuel Arago” & ”les Coeurs Unis indivisibles”: ”Comment propager notre Ideal Maconnique dans le Monde profane.” Conference par le F? Jahia, de la R? L? Isis Monthyon.

Loge ”Isis Monthyon et Conscience et Volonte”: ”La Terreur et le Peril Fasciste en Italie, le Fascisme et la F?-Mac? Italienne,”

impressions de notre F? Mazzini, de retour, apres un sejour prolonge en Italie.

It will be seen by the last of these extracts that Grand Orient Masonry is the enemy of Fascismo, which saved Italy in her hour of peril.

Indeed, the Italian Masons pa.s.sed a resolution which was directly opposed to Fascist views, especially with regard to the religious policy of Mussolini, who has restored the crucifix to the schools and religious teaching to the curriculum. The Fascist _Giornale di Roma_ declared that the principles announced by the Masons in this resolution were those which threatened to submerge the State and nation. Consequently Mussolini declared that Fascisti must either leave their lodges or leave Fascismo.[684]

In Belgium Freemasonry has taken the same political and anti-religious course. In 1856 the directing committee of the Belgian Grand Orient declared: ”Not only is it the right but the duty of the lodges to supervise the actions in public life of those amongst its members whom it has placed in political posts, the right to demand explanations....”[685] When in 1866 at a funeral ceremony in honour of the deceased King Leopold I the Grand Orient of Belgium displayed the maxim, ”The soul which has emanated from G.o.d is immortal,” the Freemasons of Louvain entered a violent protest on the ground that ”Free-thinking had been admitted by the Belgian lodges in 1864 as its fundamental principle,” and that the Grand Orient had therefore violated the convictions of its members.[686]

In Spain and Portugal Freemasonry has played not merely a subversive but an actively revolutionary and sanguinary role. The anarchist Ferrer, intimately concerned with a plot to murder the King of Spain, was at the same moment entrusted with negotiations between the Grand Orient of France and the Grand Lodge of Catalonia.[687] These murderous schemes, frustrated in Spain, met, however, in Portugal with complete success.

The Portuguese revolutions from 1910 to 1921 were organized under the direction of Freemasonry and the secret society of Carbonarios. The a.s.sa.s.sination of King Carlos and his elder son had been prepared by the same secret organizations. In 1908 a pamphlet modelled on the libels published against Marie Antoinette was directed against Queen Amelie and her husband. A month later the a.s.sa.s.sination took place. Amongst the leaders of the new Republic was Magalhaes Lima, Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Portugal.[688]

The authors.h.i.+p of these disorders was, in fact, so clearly recognized that honest Freemasons forsook the lodges. An English Mason, unaware of the true character of Portuguese Freemasonry, when in Lisbon in August 1919, made himself known to several moderate Portuguese Masons, who, while glad to welcome him as a brother, refused to take him to a lodge, declaring that they had severed all connection with Masonry since it had pa.s.sed under the control of a.s.sa.s.sins. They also added that the a.s.sa.s.sination of Senor Paes, the President in December 1918, was the work of certain Portuguese lodges. A special meeting had previously been held in Paris in conjunction with the Grand Orient of France, at which it had been decided that Paes was to be removed. This decision reached, the earliest opportunity of putting it into force was sought--with fatal results. The a.s.sa.s.sin was imprisoned in the Penitentiary but liberated by the revolution of 1921, and no attempt has been made to recapture him. The murder of Dr. Antonio Granjo in October 1921 was traced to the same agency. In the pocket of the murdered man was found a doc.u.ment from the ”Lodge of Liberty and Justice”(!) warning him of the decision taken against him for having ordered the police to protect the British tramway company.[689]

The present Portuguese Government, indeed, makes no secret of its masonic character and prints the square and compa.s.s on its bank-notes.

But whilst in Spain and Portugal Freemasonry manifested itself in Anarchist outrages, in the east of Europe the lodges, largely under the control of Jews, followed the line of Marxian Socialism. After the fall of the Bela Kun regime in Hungary a raid on the lodges brought to light doc.u.ments clearly revealing the fact that the ideas of Socialism had been disseminated by the Freemasons. Thus in the minutes of meetings it was recorded that on November 16, 1906, Dr. Kallos had addressed the Gyor Lodge on Socialist ideals. ”The ideal world which we call the masonic world,” he declared, ”will be also a Socialist world and the religion of Freemasonry is that of Socialism as well.” Dr. Kallos then proceeded to acquaint the members with the theories of Marx and Engels, showing that no help was to be found in Utopias, as the interests of the proletarians were in absolute conflict with those of other cla.s.ses, and these differences could only be settled by international cla.s.s warfare.

Nevertheless with that fear of the proletariat which has always characterized the democrats of revolutionary Freemasonry, Dr. Kallos declared later that ”the social revolution must take place without bloodshed.”[690] The Karolyi regime was the direct outcome of these illusions, and as in all revolutions paved the way for the more violent elements.

Still further east in Europe the lodges, though revolutionary, instead of following the International Socialist line of Hungarian Freemasonry, exhibited a political and nationalist character. The Young Turk movement originated in the masonic lodges of Salonica under the direction of the Grand Orient of Italy, which later contributed to the success of Mustapha Kemal. Moreover, as we approach the Near East, cradle of the masonic system, we find the Semitic influence not only of the Jews but of other Semite races directing the lodges. In Turkey, in Egypt, in Syria now, as a thousand years ago, the same secret societies which inspired the Templars have never ceased to exist, and in this mingling of the East and West it is possible that the Grand Orient may draw reinforcement from those sources whence it drew its system and its name.

Amongst the strange survivals of early Eastern sects are the Druses of Lebanon, who might indeed be described as the Freemasons of the East; their outer organization closely resembles that of the Craft Degrees in Western Masonry, yet such is their power of secrecy that few if any Europeans have ever succeeded in discovering the secret doctrines. That their tendency is largely political admits of little doubt; in fact men intimately acquainted with the Near East have declared that the influence they exercise over the politics of that region is as far-reaching as that of the Grand Orient over the affairs of Europe and that they form the breeding-ground of all political ideas and changes.

Though small in numbers this mysterious society is composed of past masters in the game of intrigue, who, whilst playing apparently a minor part at political meetings, secret or otherwise, or even remaining completely silent, contrive to influence decisions with startling results.

British Masonry

We shall now consider the further ways in which British Masonry differs from the Grand Orient.

In the first place, whilst working the same degrees, its rituals, formulas, and ceremonies, as also the interpretation it places on words and symbols, are different in many essential points.

Secondly, British Masonry is essentially an honest inst.i.tution. Whereas in the Grand Orient the initiate is led through a maze of ceremonies towards a goal unknown to him which he may discover too late to be other than he supposed, the British initiate, although admitted by gradual stages to the mysteries of the Craft, knows nevertheless from the beginning the general aim of the Order.

Thirdly, British Masonry is primarily philanthropic and the sums it devotes to charitable purposes are immense. Since the war the three princ.i.p.al masonic charities have collected annually over 300,000.

But the point to be emphasized here is that British Masonry is strictly non-political, not merely in theory but in practice, and that it enforces this principle on every occasion. Thus before the recent General Election, the Report of the Board of General Purposes, drawn up by Grand Lodge on December 5, 1923, recalled to the notice of the Craft that ”'all subjects of a political nature are strictly excluded from discussion in masonic meetings,' this being in accordance with long-established masonic tradition ... it follows from this that Masonry must not be used for any personal or party purpose in connexion with an election.” It further emphasized the distinct caution ”that any attempt to bring the Craft into the electioneering arena would be treated as a serious masonic offence.”

At the same time a fresh injunction was made with regard to the Grand Orient of France: