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The Brethern – A Wink, a Nod,or a Shake of the HandTHE POINT OF A CLUB IS NOT WHO IT LETS

IN, BUT WHO IT KEEPS OUT. THE CLUB IS

BASED ON TWO ANCIENT BRITISH

IDEAS:THE SEGREGATION OF CLASSES, AND

THE SEGREGATION OF SEXES; AND THEY

EVEN REMAIN INSISTENT ON KEEPING

PEOPLE OUT, LONG AFTER THEY HAVE

STOPPED WANTING TO COME IN. ANTHONY SAMPSON

‘ANATOMY OF BRITAIN ‘

If secrecy is to be considered afactor in British politics and

commerce then without doubtFreemasonry is one of its principalvehicles. Freemasonry is the largestsemi-covert organisation of the westernbourgeoisie, with over six millionmembers worldwide sharing a vision ofa unified world order bound togetherthrough a series of interlockingMasonic alliances. Among the world’smost influential institutions is theUnited Grand Lodge of England, themother lodge of Craft Freemasonry,with its headquarters at Freemasons’Hall in Great Queen Street nearCovent Garden. It is here that thewealthy and influential members ofthe British Establishment meet inconditions of ritual secrecy, ostensiblyto listen to lectures on Masonic historyand to discuss charitable and otherMasonic business. In practice, theMasonic brotherhood constitutes aclandestine network for the defence ofthe status quo and establishedprivilege, in other words — a mutual-aid society for the British ruling class.

Of course just as a mutual-aidsociety for gaolers will be different inaims and functions from a mutual-aidsociety for prisoners (one providingclubs and the other hacksaws), so themutual-aid society of society’sprivileged power elite will be different

from the mutual-aid societies whichprovide assistance among those whosedeprivation of the good things in life isthe essential condition for thepreservation of the privileges of thefew.

Since the benefits of privilege,preferment and patronage, as opposedto their outward trappings, arenecessarily largely hidden, so theefforts, the necessarily combinedefforts, of those who would defendtheir privilege are also hidden; that isto say, they are more than discreet,being secret and even conspiratorial.As US historian Carl Oglesby observesin his book The Yankee and CowboyWar :

Clandestinism is not the usage of ahandful of rogues, it is a formalisedpractice of an entire class in which athousand hands spontaneously join.Conspiracy is the normal continuation ofnormal politics by normal means.

Freemasonry is one of principalstructures that allow the joining of thehands to be a little more than whollyspontaneous.

Few aspects of contemporary life —political, judicial, military,commercial, administrative or lawenforcement are untouched by thecorrupting hand of Freemasonry. Also,rarely does the press speak, other thanin veiled terms, of the role ofFreemasons in business and politics,even though their presence is often akey to decoding affairs. Indeed, onoccasion the media itself is implicatedin specific scandals involvingdisinformation spread by a masonicnetwork at the heart of the judiciary,magistracy and the press — thePoulson Affair, the Birmingham Sixcase and the Stalker Inquiry, to namebut a few. In addition, the closed-shopenvironment which is created whereverthe Brotherhood establishes a footholdis a constant source of acrimomonyand division in both public and privatesectors.

How many people’s careers havebeen routinely blighted by the curse ofMasonic patronage and preferment,with particular jobs and positionsreserved for a ‘Brother’?

by Stuart Christie

Officers of the Grand Lodge of England meeting and greeting outside Freemasons’ Hall, Great Queen Street, Covent Garden

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FREEMASONRY

WHAT IS FREEMASONRY?

Freemasonry is a particularlyBritish creation which first

emerged with the formation of theGrand Lodge of England in 1717 andspread throughout Europe from 1721onwards. Essentially, it consists of threedegrees or grades: Entered Apprentice,Fellow Craft Mason and MasterMason. The central theme of allMasonic ritual is the building ofSolomon’s temple and the soap operaincidents involved in its construction,such as the murder of the principalarchitect Hiram Abiff and thecontinuing search for the secret of thelost Keystone. The sinister daftness ofit all illustrates the essential madnessand badness of power elites as well asproviding a diversionary spectacle forthe curious outsider.

In addition to the three Craft degreesof Freemasonry, which are open to allmales who profess a belief in anAlmighty Being including Jews,Muslims, Hindus, Roman Catholics(1),etc. there are additional side or Higherdegrees such as the Knights Templar(no relation to the originalecclesiastical Middle East Task Force)and the Ancient and Accepted(Scottish) Rite 33º who, despite theword Scottish, are exclusively White,Anglo-Saxon and Protestant. Theseside-degrees are higher only in thenumerical sense, ostensibly, as theGrand Lodge of England practisesFreemasonry only within the threeCraft degrees and does not officiallyadmit the existence of any superiorMasonic authority. The side-degreesare conferred by patronage only on aspecially approved and strictly limitednumber of candidates totalling at mosta few hundred brothers, all drawn

exclusively from the intimatefriendship circles of the British rulingclass.

The top three degrees of 33ºFreemasonry are themselves conferredonly after a unanimous vote ofapproval by the Supreme Council 33of the Ancient and Accepted Rite ofFreemasonry, which itself is recruited,incestuously, from among the GrandOfficers or Past Grand Officers of theGrand Lodge of England. These arethe pre-eminent Grand InspectorsGeneral, whose numbers are limited to75. The headquarters of this innerMasonic organisation is the GrandTemple of the Rose Croix (noconnection with the Rosicrucians) at10 Duke Street, St James’s.

When I first began researchingfreemasonry in the early 1980s it wasinteresting to note the strong militarypresence among the exclusively WASP33º: Major-General Sir Ralph Hone,KCMG, Major General Sir AllenAdair, GCVO, Brigadier Alex CosbyFishburn Jackson, ex-ADC to theQueen.

CAPTAINS AND KINGS

The principal figure in EnglishFreemasonry is the Grand Master

of the Grand Lodge of England, who isinvariably selected from the RoyalFamily and/or the English aristocracy.The present incumbent is H.R.H.Edward Duke of Kent. Once installed,the Grand Master then appoints theofficers of the Grand Lodge himself:there is no pretence at democracy,which would, after all, be out of placeamong so many aristocrats, captains ofindustry and masters of our fate.

Masonic officials are highly paid. Nodetails are available concerning thesalaries paid to the thirty-five full-timeemployees of the Grand Lodge, butthey must at least be commensuratewith the (in 1983) 20 million lire(approx. £10,000) plus lavish expensespaid for the part-time services of theGrand Master of the Italiancounterpart, the Grand Orient of Italy,

Signor Armando Corona.Additionally, Grand Lodge officialshave wide-ranging powers ofpatronage accorded to them by theConstitution.

The most powerful position of all isthat of Grand Secretary who isappointed by the Grand Masterhimself and who remains in office untilretirement.

Apart from the three degrees of CraftMasonry and the confusing number ofside-degrees there is a complex andlabyrinthine pecking order of rank andprecedence among the officers of theexclusive Grand Lodge, which coversover seventy grades of current and pastoffice-holders.

There is little publicly availableinformation on the structure,membership or workings of the GrandLodge, which actively discourages anyattempt at investigation beyond thenow slick PR veneer.

Back in the 1980s, I spoke to thethen Grand Secretary of the GrandLodge of England, CommanderMichael Higham RN who refused tobe interviewed or comment on any ofthe questions I put to him. Thingshave changed radically in attitudes toFreemasonry since then.

It was the negative publicitysurrounding Freemasonry followingthe publication of Michael Knight’sThe Brotherhood in 1984 that firstforced the United Grand Lodge ofEngland to go in for serious damagecontrol by publishing a leaflet on thepositive aspects of the ‘Craft’.

The next PR blow Freemasonryreceived — the worst since theBradford City Council and Poulsoncorruption scandal in 1970 —occurred in April 1988 when twoAsian businessmen from Leicester,Sidney and Shaun Callis, accidentallygate-crashed a boxing function of theVictory Masonic Lodge in Blackburn.The Leicester men were beaten up andthen prosecuted on trumped-upcharges of ‘assaulting’ eightpolicemen, but were acquited —presumably by a non-masonic jury.

1. Solemn excommunication for baptisedbelievers who become Freemasons is no longerautomatic according to the recently publishedCodex of Cannon Law in the Roman CatholicChurch. there is also a document from theCongregation for Doctrine and the Faith which,together with a series of official and semi-officialpronouncements, has more or less cemented thepeace between the Vatican and Freemasonry.

FREEMASONRY

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Lancashire police (ie, the tax-payers)eventually paid out £170,000 to thetwo men in an out-of-courtsettlement. What made the scandalmore chilling was the extent of theMasonic cover-up, which involved notonly the policemen, but also the hotelmanager, the accused’s solicitor and asenior official in the CrownProsecution Service who were allinvolved in attempting to secure theconvictions of the Callises forattacking their police assailants

Four years later, in 1992, as evidenceabout Masonic involvement in theWest Midlands Serious Crime Squad(disbanded in 1989 for corruption)began to emerge — partly as a resultof the investigation into the wrongfulconviction of the Birmingham Six,and the West Midlands forces’sinvolvement in smearing John Stalker,the Deputy Chief Constable ofGreater Manchester who had beeninvestigating the RUC’s ‘Shoot to Kill’policy — the Masonic PR machineswung into action again. This timewith the media (including Masonicjournalists) being invited to attend aMasonic meeting for the first time.

February 1998 saw the firstshowdown between parliament andthe Grand Lodge since 1951. In April1951, Fred Longden. a Labour MP,called for a Royal Commission ofInquiry into Freemasonry. HomeSecretary Herbert Morrison rejectedthe matter out of hand and the subjectwas not raised again until 1998.

In February 1998 the CommonsHome Affairs Select Committeechaired by Chris Mullin MPsummoned Grand Lodge Officers toprovide the names of senior judgesand police officers who wereFreemasons.

Among other matters, theCommittee was investigating theactivities of the West Midlands CrimeSquad, 96 of whom were alleged tohave been Freemasons. TheCommittee had statements frompolice officers that the Freemasonswithin the squad had been operating

with impunity as a ‘firm within afirm’. One of their favoured practiceswas apparently holding a plastic bagover a suspect’s head until they agreedto sign a confession.

Having assured the Committee thatthat he would release the names on astrictly confidential basis, thecontemptuous Grand SecretaryMichael Higham then reneged on hispromise and accused the MPs ofconducting a ‘fishing expedition’.

The Grand Secretary changed hismind after being warned that unlesshe provided the names he would becharged with contempt of parliament.

Highams retired three months laterand his successor, Jim Daniel, whotook over on 1 June 1998, turned outto be considerably more media-savvy.Grand Lodge now operates a hi-techmedia-friendly and PR spin-machinefrom its headquarters at 60 GreatQueen Street, London WC2, and asophisticated but not particularlyinformative website atwww.grandlodge-england.org.

JOINING THE BRETHREN

To become a Freemason is notdifficult. The requirements for a

prospective candidate are that he mustbe male, twenty-one, and in reputablecircumstances; he must profess a beliefin a God and be prepared to take anoath on a book of Sacred Law underno less a penalty than ritual murder,mutilation and being ‘disappeared’just like a victim of a Latin Americandeath squad or a CIA ‘extraordinaryrendition’ team.

The would-be initiate is alsoforbidden to countenance any actwhich may subvert the peace andgood order of society, must pay dueobedience to the law of the state andmust never be remiss in the allegiancedue to the sovereign of his native land.To the above list might be added apredilection for dressing up andperforming dramatic ritual. Themembers of the Lodge to whichinitiation is sought are balloted as tothe candidates’ acceptability to their

company, and membership is refusedif three black balls are cast against himin the voting.

The vast majority of the 350,000 orso Craft Freemasons who come underthe jurisdiction of the United GrandLodge of England are obliged by thelimitations of their friendship circlesand income to remain at the level ofthe Third Degree, that of MasterMason. The Higher degrees andofficership of the Grand Lodge are theprerogative of the rich and powerfuland not for the likes of working-classbrothers from Hackney, Hastings orSt Leonards.

The following advice given by theMasonic Record in June 1964,although couched in suitablydiplomatic language, reminded theFreemason of proletarian origin toremember his place:

He [the brother] must consider howmuch time he can devote toFreemasonry without detriment tofamily, business and his othercommitments. The more he progresses inFreemasonry the greater will be thedemands on his pocket and he mustdecide whether he can meet these extrafinancial obligations.

For those with time, money, friendsand influence the Masonic world istheir oyster and they can join as manylodges as they can afford and will havethem. Nor are the restrictionsimposed by the credit-rating of theless-privileged brethren the onlydrawbacks to Masonic advancement.

Aspiring, upwardly-mobileFreemasons who join with an eye todiscussing the price of beer with theDuke of Edinburgh, the Duke ofKent, Lord Cornwallis and otherdistinguished members of the Craftare in for a disappointment: there arelodges and lodges and, like Orwellsanimals, some brethren are moreequal than others.

As with the now notorious secret or‘covered’ lodges P1 and P2 in Italy, thelatter of which had a codedmembership of 2,400 brothersalthough only 953 names were

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disclosed (2) there are a number of the1612 lodges in London and the 5,865provincial lodges (in 47 MasonicProvinces) whose purpose is to bringtogether into single discreet bodiesbrothers who hold high public orprivate office and who wish to remainat a suitable distance from the hoipolloi of Freemasonry.

Thus, there are lodges whosemembers are recruited exclusively andselectively from among the ranks ofparticular power elites: Mayors andLord Mayors of London, the Bank ofEngland, chartered accountants,architects, the legal profession, themerchant navy, the armed services, theMetropolitan Police, broadcasting.There is even a Council of PublicSchool Lodges.

Success and promotion in any of theprofessions is eased by membership ofthe Craft. The Royal College ofSurgeons and Royal College ofPhysicians, for example, appear to bean exclusively Masonic preserve. In hisbook The Doctors (Gollancz, 1965),Paul Ferris quotes a senior physician assaying ‘No one would becomesurgeon to the Queen unless he was aFreemason.’ This tradition dates backat least as far as Queen Victoria when,under the patronage of the Prince ofWales, who was Grand Master ofEngland from 1875 until his accessionto the throne in 1901, when heassumed the title Protector of theCraft, the British Establishmentconsolidated its hold on Freemasonry.

The Prince of Wales (later EdwardVII) successfully used Freemasonry asa parallel policy-making and actionbody to influence the affairs of statefrom which he had been excluded byhis mother (herself, of course,

ineligible for membership, as awoman).

Freemasonry is particularly strongwithin the armed services, where it isseen as an extension of the fellowshipof the regiment. There are 42 lodgesin the British cavalry regiments alone,25 in the Royal Regiment of Artilleryand a number of Royal Marine lodges.The exclusive elite of the BritishArmy, the 22nd SAS and Artists Rifles(21st SAS), have a Lodge (Byfield)which meets on the second Mondayof every month at the Duke of YorksHQ in Chelsea. The Navy have theirown exclusive lodges such as RoyalNavy Lodge 2612, whose membersinclude such worthies as the Duke ofEdinburgh and former GrandSecretary, Commander MichaelHigham RN.

Hopeful squaddies and matelotslooking for rapid advancement orsimply good Masonic friendshipshould know, however, that since1815 naval and military lodges haveintroduced by-laws excluding allcivilians and stating that no sailorbelow the rank of Petty Officer or nosoldier below the rank of Sergeant iseligible for initiation into theBrotherhood. Masonic researcherJohn Dewar, author of theauthoritative study of contemporaryFreemasonry, The Unlocked Secret, wastold by a spokesman for a largeMasonic outfitter in Great QueenStreet that much of the firm’ssuccessful business rested on exportorders for regalia from NATO troopsin Europe, an indication as to theextent of Masonic strength among theofficer corps of the British and otherNATO armed services.

BLOODY OATH!

Less bloodthirsty oaths thanMasonic ones, but instead

administered by trade unionists in theearly part of the nineteenth century,were punished severely, as in the caseof the Tolpuddle Martyrs. Here aresome Masonic examples:

I, in the presence of the Great

Architect of the Universe, and of thisworthy, worshipful, and warrantedLodge, sincerely and solemnly promiseand swear, that I will always helpconceal and never reveal any part orparts, point or points of the secrets ormysteries of or belonging to Free andAccepted Masons in Masonry , under noless a penalty, on the violation of any ofthem, than that of having my throat cutacross, my tongue torn out by the root,and buried at a cables length from theshore, where the tide regularly ebbs andflows twice in twenty-four hours, So helpme, God, and keep me steadfast in thismy Great and Solemn Obligation of anEntered Apprentice Freemason. (Thecandidate then seals his oath by kissingthe volume of Sacred Law.) — Oath of Obligation administeredduring the Ceremony of Initiation

I, in the presence of the GrandGeometrician , under no less a penalty,than that of having my left breast laidopen, my heart torn therefrom, andgiven to the ravenous birds of the air, ordevouring beasts of the field as prey. Sohelp me Almighty God. — Oath of Obligation, SecondDegree

I, in the presence of the Most High,solemnly promise and swear, under noless a penalty, than that of being severedin two, my bowels burned to ashes ....and those ashes scattered over the face ofthe earth and wafted by the fourcardinal winds of heaven. — Oath of Obligation, Third Degree

I, in the presence of the True andLiving God , solemnly promise , underno less a penalty, than that of having myhead struck off.— Oath of Obligation, Holy RoyalArch Chapter (3)

And here are some of the laws whichmight have applied:

Every person, who shall in anymanner or form whatsoever administeror cause to be administered, or be

2. During the investigation into MicheleSindona’s Banca Privata Italiana, a conduit forMafia, fascist and Italian secret service money,police discovered a list of 953 members ofLodge P2, which included three cabinetministers, 30 generals, eight admirals, the headof the armed forces, the heads of twointelligence services as well as the senior civiliancollator of intelligence, 43 MPs, and policechiefs of Italy’s four main cities.

3. The rules were changed in 1986. Would-befreemasons no longer have to agree todisembowelment, have their tongues cut out, ortheir ashes wafted by the winds of heaven. Theoath remains valid for Freemasons who enteredthe Craft prior to that date.

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assisting at the administering of anyoath or engagement, purporting orintending to bind the person taking thesame to commit any treason or murder,shall, on conviction thereof by due courseof law, be adjudged guilty of felony. — Unlawful Oaths Act 1812

All persons who shall conspire,confederate and agree to murder anyperson, whether he be a subject of HerMajesty or not, and whether he bewithin the Queens dominions or not,shall be guilty of a misdemeanour andshall be liable to imprisonment for anyterm not more than ten years. — Offences Against the Person Act1861

In fact, Freemasonry, being anarm of the Establishment, has been

able to circumvent or ignore the lawof the land relating to secret societiesand conspiracy for two hundred yearsnow. Masonic lodges were specificallyexempted from the Unlawful SocietiesAct 1799 by the intervention of theFourth Duke of Atholl and the Earl ofMoira. They were equally able toignore other repressive statutes andlegislation directed against the nascentworking-class and radicalorganisations: the Seditious MeetingsAct 1817 and the Promissory Oaths Act1868 which specifically provided thatany society requiring members to takean oath when they join shall substitutea declaration for an oath.

Every Masonic lodge is required,however, to submit an annual returnof the names, addresses andoccupations of its subscribingmembers to the Clerk of the Peace forthe county in which the lodge is held.This information is not available tothe general public nor is it, apparently,collated by central government. Thefact that most Clerks of the Peace arelikely to be Freemasons themselveswill help ensure the informationremains among friends.

A CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY?

Although most of the lawsrelating to the taking of oaths

were cleared from the Statute Bookswith the Criminal Law Act 1967 theMasonic oaths even though they havefor the most part, since 1964, beenabbreviated for the benefit of thesqueamish to the euphemistic “everbearing in mind the ancient penalty”are clearly in contravention of theconspiracy laws so beloved of theEnglish judiciary for use against theorganised working class.

The prime justification for the useof the conspiracy laws is that it enablesthe law to intervene at an early stagebefore a contemplated crime hasactually been committed. LordDiplock defined conspiracy thus:[T]he offence lies not in the overt actsthemselves, but in an inferred anterioragreement to commit them, There canbe little doubt that a sacred promise tocountenance and agree to premeditatedritual mutilation and murder fallswithin the category of an agreement tocommit a crime.

In his summing up in theconspiracy trial of the ShrewsburyThree in 1974, Mr Justice Maisdirected the jury to consider thefollowing: …conspirators do not publish theiragreement or design. The whole object ofconspiracy is something secret, and so itis necessary to see whether thesurrounding circumstances and facts asfound by you are such that you can infera conspiracy and that an accused waspart of that conspiracy. I must tell youthat conspiracy, generally speaking, is amatter of inference. It is seldomexpressed in words still less in writing,and it can be inferred from conduct, bythe words and actions of those concerned,Now it is not necessary that allconspirators, or the accused here, shouldjoin the conspiracy at one and the sametime. It is not necessary that they shouldall join at the beginning, or that they alloriginated the idea. They neednt allknow the smallest detail but there mustbe knowledge of the general scheme, aman, as I say, who joins a conspiracyafter its formation, who lends his aid toit knowingly, in furtherance of itsobjects, is just as guilty as the man who

was there at the beginning. He can evenjoin during the implementation of theconspiracy.

Also, the permeation of the entirelegal profession by Freemasonry fromthe Lord Chancellor’s Office to themost far-flung provincial lawyer andJP or Sheriff the conspiracy makersand arbiters themselves will no doubtensure that Freemasonry remains alocked secret.

One consequence of the 1998 SelectCommittee’s report was a survey ofthe English and Welsh courts, whichdrew a response from 96 per cent ofjudges and 87 per cent of magistrates.Five per cent of judges and magistratesadmitted they were Freemasons while89 per cent of judges and 80 per centof magistrates said they had no linkswith the organisation. After months ofstandoff between parliament, GrandLodge and among Ministersthemselves, a register of Masonicjudges was introduced. It was the firstsuch register to cover any group ofcivil servants or other state employees;it also made the declaration ofMasonic status compulsory for allnewly-appointed judges. Needless tosay, those Freemasons, lawyers andjudges who subsequently cried‘discrimination’ or defendedfreemasonry in the judiciary on thegrounds that privacy must beprotected against unjustifiableinterference — all conveniently ignorethe conflict of interest whichFreemasonry imposes on its members.In other words, although so far onlyfive per cent of over 5,000 judges haveadmitted they are Freemasons (64declined to answer); this translatesinto no less than 247 judges who areknown to have taken an oathdemanding a higher degree ofobservance than their own judicialoath i.e. to support their brotherFreemasons to the detriment ofothers.

In November 1998 a Welsh barristerwrote to The Times: After 30 years at the Bar, it is my viewthat the influence of Freemasonry in thelaw is insidious and overwhelming. By

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contrast my own ‘religious beliefs,political views or sexual preferences'’aremanifest for all to see. The liberty of theordinary individual is too important tobe left to a judiciary with secrets to hide.

WHO’S WHO?

In national affairs of State andbusiness there is little doubt that

Freemasonry provides a seriousinstrument of influence for therelatively small number of people whowield real political and economicpower in Britain today: cabinetministers, senior civil servants, seniorpolice officers and leading members ofthe armed services, executives of localauthorities, judges, magistrates,journalists, prominent churchmen,industrialists and trade union leaders.

It is not only in national affairs thatFreemasons can exert their influence.The extent to which Freemasonry canexert a powerful grip on the life of acommunity has been illustrated by theinvestigations carried out in the 1970sby local radical papers such as Rebeccaand Tameside Eye. Journalists fromboth papers obtained membershiplists for Masonic Lodges in theirrespective areas. The investigation intothe Abergavenny Freemasons showedjust how ubiquitous and pervasiveFreemasonry can be within the powerstructure of local politics, commerceand privilege.

Abergavenny is a quiet market townwith a population of about 10,000and one Masonic lodge with about170 members. At the time of theinvestigation in the late 1970s manyof the Tories on the Conservative-controlled, 16-seat council wereFreemasons, including solicitors andthe managers of the three High StreetBanks, the Town Clerk, the DeputyTown Clerk, the Borough Treasurer,the Housing Manager, the Clerk tothe Magistrates, the owners of theAbergavenny Chronicle, the Master ofthe Talybont Hunt, the head of theAbergavenny police force, threesergeants and a detective constable, 17shopkeepers and 16 local

businessmen. If Abergavenny could besaid to have an Establishment it was tobe found at the monthly meetings ofthe local St Johns Lodge. TheTameside Eye investigation into thesixty lodges in the Greater Manchesterarea showed a similar picture of acohesive and all-pervasive networkunderpinning vested interest andprivilege.

It would be interesting to see what asimilar investigation into HastingsThornton Lodge 5556 threw up.

CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME

Freemasonry claims for itselfthe status of a private, exclusively

male club whose members arededicated to the ideals of universalbrotherhood and morality which findsits principal expression in itscharitable works. But in the UK, asopposed to Craft Freemasonry in theUS, the main benefactors of Masoniccharities are: the Royal MasonicBenevolent Institute (which owns ablock of a hundred flats at HarewoodCourt, Hove), the Royal MasonicInstitute for Girls, the RMI for Boysand the Royal Masonic Hospital. TheQueen is patron of all with theexception of the hospital.

Because they were seen as primarilyself-serving institutions — fallingmore into the category of FriendlySocieties — in the late 1970s theMasonic charities faced the possibilityof losing their registered Charitystatus. And so, following therecommendations of the BagnallReport in 1978, the United GrandLodge of England (UGLE) Board ofBenevolence became in 1981, theindependent Grand Charity, with itsown President, Council andCommittee.

Commander Higham, the thenGrand Secretary, authorised thetransfer that year of the assets of theFund of Benevolence which at thetime stood at £2,496,961 to the newlyregistered Grand Charity, the onlyregistered Masonic charity which doesnot mention a specific purpose in its

articles of association (e.g. for relief ofdistressed dependants of Freemasons).In fact the stated aims of the GrandCharity are sufficiently vague as to castserious doubt as to its claims to be acharity. The monies at its disposal cannow be distributed to: such charitableinstitutions, objects or purposes as thecouncil shall have at its absolutediscretion determine. The assets of theGrand Charity at the end of 1981stood at £2,638,447 while its incomefor the year was £834,589, includingover £500,000 in contributions fromthe Craft and £250,000 in dividendsand interest from stocks and bonds(Distillers, Imperial Group, Marksand Spencers, Rank HovisMcDougall, etc.).

For the year ended 30 November2004, total income was £7.02m withincome from lodges standing at£1.86m. The Grand Charity alsoreceived a total of £965,400 fromlegacies and donations., the balancebeing provided from investmentincome. Expenditure for the year2003-2004 was £5.7m of which£2.742m went to Masonic charitiesand individual Freemasons and£2.31m to charities in the widercommunity.

In November 2005 it wasdiscovered that the Midlands-basedLeamington Fund chaired by MichaelPrice, the provincial grandmaster ofWarwickshire freemasons responsiblefor 200 lodges and about 6,500masons, made a donation of £93,000to the Conservative party. No publicrecords exist for the LeamingtonFund, which is an ‘unincorporatedassociation’ and, as such, can makedonations without revealing who isbehind them.

INTERNATIONAL LINKS

For many years the GrandLodge of England disavowed the

European Grand Orient Lodgebecause of their alleged permeation byfreethinkers and revolutionaries. Itmay not be entirely coincidental thatthe Grand Lodge of England finally

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recognised the Grand Orient of Italyin 1972 at the height of extreme right-wing machinations in both the UKand Italy (in Italy these being mostclosely linked with the Italian GrandLodge and the secret lodges P1 andP2), thus bringing Italy back into fullmembership of the internationalMasonic community after 110 yearsin the wilderness.

The principal architect of thishistoric rapprochement was the thenGrand Master of the Grand Orient,Lino Salvini, an extreme right winger,a neo-fascist in fact, who immediatelyset about involving the Masonicmovement in a series of financial andpolitical intrigues which includedmoves to sabotage the proposedamalgamation of the three mainItalian trade unions. Thesemaneoeuvres had the financialbacking of Fiat and the Italianemployers’ federation, which donatein the region of 100 million lire a yearto Masonic coffers.

It is equally interesting that within24 hours of the discovery of thehanged body of Roberto Calvi on 17June 1982 — a death which occurredin an almost ritualistic setting underthe arches of Blackfriars Bridge withthe tidal waters of the River Thameslapping at his feet (P2 members wereknown as the Black Brothers) — theGrand Master of the Grand Orient ofItaly, Armando Corona, made ahurried trip to London accompaniedby his Grand Secretary, De Stefano, todiscuss Calvi’s death with officials ofthe Grand Lodge in England.

Calvi’s escape to England had beenorganised by fellow P2 member andneo-fascist financier Flavio Carboni,and the man who safehoused Calvi inLondon was a London-basedFreemason by the name of MichaelMorris. Carboni is currently (October2005) being tried in Rome, with threeothers, for Calvi’s murder.

WHOSE CONSPIRACY? As long as you know what the agreementis, then you are a conspirator. You

needn’t necessarily know your fellowconspirators, nor need you always beactive in the conspiracy. All you need toknow is the agreement. It can be effectedby a wink or a nod, without a wordbeing exchanged. It need have noparticular time limit, no particularform, no boundaries.” — Mr JusticeJames (later Lord James) summing upin the 1971 trial ‘Regina v Greenfield’.

Freemasonry is not a conspiracyin itself, nor is it the repository of

any hidden secret or arcaneknowledge. Neither is Freemasonryattractive to fascists of the old or newvariety, who view it with hostility,seeing in it the hidden hand ofBolshevik subversion and a tool of‘international finance capital’ (a codedreference to the Jewish worldconspiracy which they profess to seeall around them). Politically speaking,Freemasonry is a vehicle for theextremists of the centre.

For the majority of Freemasons theCraft permits them to get away fromtheir wives on a regular basis andrationalise it to themselves and othersin a good and worthy cause. TheMinister at London’s City Temple, theReverend Leonard Griffith, explainedhis misogyny to Masonic researcherJames Dewar:I think there is a man’s world and Ithink every man needs to get into thatworld occasionally and Masonry isperhaps one expression of this. Certainly,in the Churches I’ve always beendepressed by the fact that there seems tobe a much larger proportion of womenthan men. I like to be with men andperhaps that’s one reason why I enjoyattending a meeting of the MasonicLodge.

CONCLUSIONS

What inference can we drawconcerning the covert power

and influence which Freemasonrymay exercise among its members?There are, after all, many secret, semi-secret and exclusive societies and clubseither contending for power or

warding off attempts by outsiders toundermine their own position in thegreat pecking order.

Success in an authoritarian andcompetitive society as in totalitariansocieties depends on knowing moreabout the opposition and their plans,together with the ability tomonopolise that information and useit intelligently. ‘Conspiracy’, as CarlOglesby affirms, ‘is standard practiceamong all power groups, occult orotherwise. What they fail to recogniseis that ultimately secrets are moredangerous to those who hoard themthan to those excluded from theinformation cycle.’

Freemasonry is all things to men.Freemasons argue that the Craftconsists of enlightened anddisinterested persons who cherishhumanitarian and charitable goals andwho combine co-operatively to realisemutual aspirations. In realityFreemasonry cannot but provide aconduit for the bribery, corruptionand subornation that are endemic inany system of privilege. The secrecyand exclusiveness of the Craft createsan unbridgeable gap between theMasonic view of the world and thoseoutside the brotherhood, who, ineffect, do not exist for Freemasons,except inasmuch as they aid or hindertheir political or career ambitions.Count Windischgratz, an astuteobserver of human nature and theactivities of secret societies, wrote in1788:[T]hey are likely to encourage habits ofmind and behaviour destructive ofattention to the ordinary moral andsocial duties. The danger of degenerationfrom the high ideals of a secretbrotherhood will always be presentbecause of the difficulties of reconcilingthe secret obligations to the society withthe outside world. Claims to use theopportunities of secret organisations forthe preparation of the regeneration of theworld are always to be regarded asdubious, given men’s ordinaryweaknesses.

January ‘06 | THE HASTINGS TRAWLER 27

FREEMASONRY

The claim by Freemasons thatthe Craft provides brotherhood

is equally fictitious. The exclusivenessof the inner circles of the Higherdegrees and the hierarchical structureof the Grand Lodge itself based onrank, patronage, preferment,precedence and wealth have more incommon with the Mafia and theUnion Corse than with a universalbrotherhood.

Although Freemasons do constitutea powerful pressure group because oftheir positions in society it would ofcourse be very wrong and misleadingto see them as some sort ofomnipotent cabal controlling thecourse of human affairs.

Freemasons, like the RomanCatholic Catenian Association, MI5,the CIA, the Russian FSU, Opus Dei,the editorial board of The Economist orany other exclusive group, have asmuch idea as anyone else as to what isgoing on in the world. WhatFreemasonry can provide is anorganised and efficient sociometricnetwork capable of defending andextending the influence of those whoalready wield power.

The problem with finding evidenceof criminal manipulation of the Craftby Freemasons — as within anycohesive and tenacious combinationor friendship circle — is like fumblingfor something solid in a sea of tapiocapudding. Also, most conspiracytheories are invariably so looselydefined that all evidence which doesnot tie in with the thesis is usuallydismissed as part of the cover-up, butthe law is quite specific.

In his summing up in theShrewsbury Three conspiracy trial in1974, Mr Justice Mais told the jury:[A conspiracy] is seldom expressed inwords, still less in writing, and it can beinferred from the conduct, by the wordsand by the acts of those concerned…

The one solid conclusion we canreach is that Freemasons do constitutean important political, social andbusiness pressure group and have thepotential, at least, to exert a powerful

influence at national and internationalas well as local level. The entireproblem with Freemasonry is that it isan unaccountable means of influence— but not the only one!

The relationship between themembers of the Establishment issymbiotic and mutually supportive,and the Craft — at least up until thelate 1990s when its membershipstarted to fall — provided a parallelpower structure linking financial,administrative, judicial, military andother power elites whose vision of ahealthy world order depends onstrong Masonic alliances among right-thinking men. Unlike the past, people

who seek power and influence inBlair’s Britain no longer turn to thelodges, they turn to the Labour Partyinstead.

For those who believe in an openand accountable society it isimportant to be able to identify thepower-wielders and backroompolicymakers in our localcommunities. Mason-spotting is onesuch way of going about this. Lodgemeetings and Masonic functions areusually advertised in the local papers,while the more important events inthe Masonic calendar are coveredregularly in the newspapers such asDaily Telegraph. Freemasonsthemselves can be easily identified

going to and from the Masonic Hall,restaurant, hotel or pub where thelodge or function is being held bytheir dark suits and small cases inwhich they carry their regalia andjewels. Apart from the regular lodgemeetings, Freemasons also celebratecertain saints’ days and attend speciallodge functions on or close to thosedays: St John the Evangelist, 27December (1st Sunday afterChristmas); St George’s Day, 23 April(1st Wednesday after); St John theBaptist, 24 June. St Barbara, StThomas and the Four CrownedMartyrs are among other saints withparticular significance to members ofthe Craft.

The photographer working with theWelsh investigative magazine Rebeccashowed great initiative when shemanaged to smuggle herself into theannual meeting of the South WalesProvinces Eastern Division GrandLodge while it was in full session andtake photographs. She was grabbed bythe Lodge Tyler a Masonic bouncerwhose function is to guard the lodgewhile in session (historically the role ofthe Tyler included organising andcarrying out the ritual murder ofMasonic traitors and apostates) butshe managed to throw the camera to awaiting colleague and save the film.

As there is no publicly availableregister of the membership of thisparticular secret society and it isunlikely the Clerks of the Peace willagree to make their lists available forinspection, then only actions such asthe above are likely to identify themembership of one of the centralpillars of privilege in clandestineBritain. Only by opening their booksto inspection will the many‘misconceptions’ surroundingfreemasonry be cleared up and removethe suspicion of a devotion toadvancing members’ interests in secret— unless, of course, that is the wholepoint in the first place.

Stuart ChristieStuart Christie’s ‘Granny Made Me An Anarchist’ ispublished by Scribner (Simon & Schuster), inpaperback, at £7.99 (ISBN 0743263561)

© Peter Macdiarmid