On Lieutenant Colonel John Creagh Scott's 'Hidden Government'

The booklet 'Hidden Government' by Lieutenant Colonel John Creagh Scott is something I have had sitting in my 'to read' pile for a little while now. The other day I finally got round to reading it and expected much the same early twentieth century commentary about 'The Hidden Hand' which Nesta Webster, William Guy Carr and the Britons Publishing Society more broadly put out in considerable volume. (1)

To some extent that is true of the 'Hidden Government' published as it was in 1954. It is very much a child of its time and that is fair enough.

Now that's a revolutionary thought: isn't it?

People are allowed to make mistakes and errors in their thought and/or facts if they simply worked on the best information they had available.

What a heretical idea!

Creagh Scott falls into this categorically admirably as his sources - most of which I own copies of – are excellent. They include Victor Kravchenko's account of his defection to the West from Stalin's Russia, Hilaire Belloc's wonderfully balanced 'The Jews' as well as then recent academic treatises on the history of the jews written by Albert Hyamson, Alexander Marx and Max Margolis.

What really makes Creagh Scott stand out from the crowd so-to-speak is not his content, which if you've read enough early to mid twentieth century conspiracy literature. Then you've pretty much read it all. Where he really shines is in his wonderful facility with the English language and the knack - which I lack – of making a convincing point in a concise and yet highly amusing way.

A good example of this is when he discusses the behaviour of the jews in the last years of the Russian Empire.

To wit:

'After all, its contents of conspiracy, to bear such bitter fruit in the Revolution, were not likely to endear themselves to the government of the day. At that time, Jews were not exactly the spoiled darlings they later became under the Soviet regime.' (2)

I also particularly loved the following gem, which sums up the paradox of jewish behaviour over the centuries and particularly that of Israel since its creation.

I quote:

'The cry of "anti-Semitism" is the stock-in-trade of the Zionist. It is at once his chief defense and his closest consolation. It has become his "badge of suffering" which he proudly wears like a medal. Whenever he needs or wishes to excuse his conduct or explain to himself his unpopularity with the Gentiles, he murmurs to himself, or screams to the world, the charge of "anti-Semitism". For, being a Jew, it would never occur to him that he, himself, might be the offending party.' (3)

Remember that was written in the early 1950s and it becomes all the more amazing in its clarity and succinct nature as it is as true today as it was then.

It also worth remembering that Creagh Scott himself, as was common at the time and before (for example Martin Luther in 'On the Jews and their Lies' and Henry Ford in 'The International Jew' made similar allowances), also left room for 'good jews' to exist and explicitly stated that he believed that a rift had been forming between Zionist and anti-Zionist jews since the 1920s/1930s. (4)

So while Creagh Scott could be classed as a Christian anti-Zionist who was also opposed to Judaism (he was violently opposed to the Old Testament (5) in the same intellectual vein as noted anti-jewish thinker Theodor Fritsch): (6) he was not actually anti-Semitic, but just laying out the facts of the situation as he saw them.

All in all Creagh Scott is a rough and uncut diamond. His thoughts and arguments aren't particularly relevant today, but his clear insight and way with words still retain their undeniable rhetorical power.

References

(1) For a short synopsis of the life of the Britons Publishing Society please see Gisela Lebzelter, 1978, 'Political Anti-Semitism in England 1918-1939', 1st Edition, MacMillan: Basingstoke, pp. 49-67

(2) John Creagh Scott, n.d., [1954], 'Hidden Government', 1st Edition, Sons of Liberty: Metairie, p. 9

(3) Ibid., p. 24

(4) Ibid., p. 18

(5) Ibid., p.71

(6) Cf. Theodor Fritsch, 1911, 'Der Falsche Gott: Beweis-Material gegen Jahwe', 2nd Edition, Hammer Verlag: Leipzig