Psychology, Racism & Fascism: An On-line Edition
Mankind Quarterly
1.
The editors
The Mankind Quarterly is a journal with an impressive scholarly appearance. On its cover it claims to be: "An international quarterly journal dealing with Race and Inheritance in the fields of Ethnology, Ethno- and Human Genetics, Ethno-Psychology, Racial History, Demography and Anthropo-Geography".
Each issue of The Mankind Quarterly boasts an extensive list of academics who act as Honorary Associate Editors, Assistant Editors and members of the Honorary Advisory Board. One of the members of the Honorary Advisory Board is Professor H.J. Eysenck. Nor is Eysenck the only 'respectable' British academic psychologist to be associated with The Mankind Quarterly; Richard Lynn, Professor of Psychology at the University of Coleraine, is at present one of the Honorary Associate Editors. American psychologists, with established reputations, include Professor Frank McGruk (Honorary Associate Editor) and Professors Shuey and Porteus (members of the Honorary Advisory Board).
PROFESSOR R. GAYRE
Since it was established in 1960, The Mankind Quarterly has had the same overall editor -- Professor R. Gayre, M.A., D.Phil., Pol.D.Sc., D.Sc., a physical anthropologist trained at Edinburgh University. He was formerly Professor of Anthropology at the University of Saugor in India, but now is resident at Edinburgh, where The Mankind Quarterly is published. As well as editing the magazine Gayre has been one of its most prolific contributors of major articles and book reviews. Hardly an issue passes without some contribution from its editor.
Throughout his long academic career, Gayre had never wavered in his belief in the importance of race. An early book Teuton and Slav on the Polish Frontier(31) starts with the assumption that in human affairs "racial fundamentals are all-important" (p.12). Gayre's book is essentially a recommendation for re-drawing Germany's national boundaries in order to "improve the racial homogeneity" of Germany; in this way, according to Gayre, "Germany would become considerably more Nordic" (p. 12).
To this end, Gayre leans heavily on Günther's work. In Teuton and Slav Gayre reproduces page after page of photographs purporting to depict ideal 'racial types' from Günther's Rassenkunde Europas. Gayre constantly refers to "Professor Hans F.K. Günther's authoritative work on German racial science" (p. 30). He also mentions a visit he paid to Günther's laboratory in Berlin in 1939.
Gayre's contacts with British fascists came to light when five members of the Racial Preservation Society were prosecuted in 1968 at Lewes under the Race Relations Act for publishing racialist material. At the time of the offence the Racial Preservation Society was an independent body, but by the time of the trial it had officially merged into the National Front.(32) The defendants were themselves members of the newly formed National Front.
Gayre was called as an expert witness for the defence. In his evidence to the court he described blacks as being "feckless" and he maintained that scientific evidence showed that blacks "prefer their leisure to the dynamism which the white and yellow races show". Largely on the basis of Gayre's 'expert' testimony the defendants were acquitted.
Besides Gayre there were two other 'expert' witnesses for the defence. One was Dr John Mitchell, a medical practitioner, who had been court-martialled during the Second World War for his pro-Mosley and pro-fascist sympathies. After the war, Mitchell was involved with the openly Nazi Greater Britain Movement. In 1978 he emerged as one of the financial backers for the National Front's purchase of its new headquarters. The other expert witness was Joy Page, whose main expertise appears to be her longstanding involvement with racist organisations like the Immigration Control Association.
Gayre not only testified on behalf of the defence, but he also donated £25 to the defence fund. He later justified this action by saying: "I think one should be able to discriminate on the grounds of race and colour". Moreover, he was of assistance to the then chairman of the National Front, A.K. Chesterton, in compiling a booklet about the trial: Not Guilty: an account of the historic race relations trial at Lewes Assizes in March 1968.(33) This booklet is still on National Front booklists. A recent publication of the Young National Front, How to combat Red teachers, states: "This little booklet . . .. should be in the pocket of every young patriot as a handy source of the facts which demolish sociological multi-racialist propaganda on race" (p. 2).
One of the defendants at the Lewes trial was Alan Hancock, a former member of Oswald Mosley's Union Movement. Hancock was also a member of the Northern League. In fact, he organised the Northern League's annual meetings in 1969, 1970 and 1971. These meetings are normally only open to members and specially selected guests. Those present included a motley collection of open Nazis, like Colin Jordan, members of the clandestine Nazi paramilitary organisation Column 88, ex-SS men, and Martin Webster of the National Front.(34) Also invited to these meetings was Professor Gayre.
The Northlander, the official publication of the Northern League, reported that Gayre declined the invitation in 1970 in "a kind letter", regretting that he had a previous commitment. Nevertheless, The Northlander reported that Gayre added in his letter "there are racial differences and they are genetic and I think we should say so."(35)
The following year The Northlander reported that the closed meeting received "best wishes and messages" from, among others, Professor Gayre. Certainly The North lander has on several occasions referred warmly to Gayre. For instance in August 1968 it described Gayre as "one of the oldest good friends of the Northern League" and the writer described a "nice and interesting day with him and his family". Again in the February/April issue of 1972 there is a reference to "our good friend . . . the Scottish laird Col. Prof. Dr Gayre". In the August/October issue of The Northlander it is stated that "we send our best wishes to Prof. Gayre" who is described as "our good connection and friend".
Gayre is not only a 'good connection' of European fascists. He also has good connections in Southern Africa. He is an enthusiastic supporter of apartheid and has paid regular visits to South Africa and Rhodesia. On several occasions he has attended the Congress of the South African Genetic Society. The President of the Society, Professor J.D.J. Hofmeyr, is also on the Honorary Advisory Board of The Mankind Quarterly.
Gayre has also contributed to a South African journal which is written predominantly in Africaan, although it does publish English contributions: Tydskrif vir Rasse-Aangeleenthede (Journal of Racial Affairs). This journal is published by the South African Bureau of Racial Affairs and consists entirely of pseudo-scientific propaganda supporting apartheid. Gayre's article in 1964 (Vol. 15, pages 141-154) is entitled 'The races and peoples of Southern Africa: Some notes on their ethnic movements and distributions'; it describes a trip to the Transkei. He was accompanied on this trip by Hofmeyr, A.J. Gregor (who was at that time an Assistant Editor of The Mankind Quarterly: see below) and Professor C.D. Darlington (who is on the editorial board of Neue Anthropologie, see below). Hofmeyr is also a regular contributor to the Journal of Racial Affairs.(36)
Hofmeyr's political views are extreme even by South African standards. He has contributed to the extreme right-wing magazine South African Observer. For instance he wrote in praise of race prejudice in February 1962: "Race prejudice is just as fundamental to the perpetuation of a race as feeding, propagation and other phenomena."
In common with many overtly fascist publications, South African Observer mixes its unabashed racism with anti-semitic notions of a 'Jewish world conspiracy'. It is well to the right of the ruling Nationalist Party. Frequently it criticised former South African Prime Minister, John Vorster, for accepting "the Zionist-communist equality doctrine".
Gayre has also mixed with this sort of company on his many visits to South Africa. In March 1971, for example, he addressed the National Forum in Durban, which provides a forum for some of South Africa's most dedicated racists.
PROFESSOR R. KUTTNER
Robert Kuttner is an American biochemist, who has worked at a number of universities in the United States, including Stanford University. He is currently Assistant Editor of The Mankind Quarterly and over the years has been a regular contributor on a number of different topics. A short biographical note in The Mankind Quarterly noted that Kuttner had "interests in psychology, race history and political science".(37) This anodyne statement conceals the full impact of Kuttner's interests.
In June 1966 the American far Right paper American Mercury announced a change of editorship. Previously it had been edited by the John Birch Society supporter General Edwin A. Walker. The paper's contents had been a mixture of anti-Communist propaganda, following the Birchite line that America and indeed the whole world was in the grips of a Communist conspiracy, and veiled racism and anti-Semitism. With the change of editorship American Mercury moved even further to the Right and became explicit in its racism and anti-Semitism.
Among the new editors were A.J. App, Ivor Benson and Robert Kuttner. Ivor Benson is a South African who was Ian Smith's speech-writer for a time after Rhodesian UDI: he resigned because of Smith's 'moderation' and has continued to publish racist and anti-semitic extremist articles and books.(38) A.J. App has a long history of publishing anti-semitic material. The titles of his pamphlets tell their own story: Can Christianity survive when the Jews control the media and money?; Kosher food racket exposed; The six million swindle: a straight look at the Third Reich; 'Holocaust': a sneak attack on Christianity etc. App's pamphlets are published and distributed by 'The Liberty Bell', an American fascist publishing company whose lists include works by Hitler, Goebbels and US Nazi George Rockwell.
In the first issue of American Mercury of which Kuttner was an editor, there is a typical piece by App entitled 'That elusive six million'. Here App denies that the Nazis murdered six million Jews: "The Nazis spared the over-whelming percentage of Jews", wrote App. Also in this issue is a piece by Revilo P. Oliver, who was expelled from the John Birch Society for his open anti-Semitism.(39) This issue also includes a tribute to Col. Earnest Sevier Cox, who is described as "the English-speaking world's foremost racial historian" (p.21). Cox was a leading Ku Klux Klan member. He was also in the Northern League.
In welcoming its new editors American Mercury announced that "we have therefore become the heir to Northern World and Folk and Right". These were anti-semitic and racist publications which glorified the 'Nordic race'.
Kuttner has continued publishing his material in openly racist magazines such as American Mercury. For instance he is a contributor to a similar magazine called Spotlight. A recent contribution of his to Spotlight ('The Celts' April, 1977) was reprinted in the Northern League's The Northlander (June/December 1977).
OTHER EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS
Until his death in 1973 Professor Henry E. Garrett was an Associate Editor of The Mankind Quarterly, Garrett was formerly Professor of Psychology at the University of Colombia and was a past president of the American Psychological Association. He was author of a number of standard textbooks in psychology: Statistics in psychology and education; Psychological tests, methods and results; General psychology; Great experiments in psychology.
Garrett became an editor of American Mercury at the same time as Kuttner. He had also contributed to the magazine whilst it was edited by General Walker and, of course, he continued his contributions afterwards. Like Kuttner too, he was a member of the National Coordinating Committee in America of an organisation called 'Friends of Rhodesian Independence'. Here Garrett and Kuttner co-operated with other extremists such as Revilo Oliver.
In the 1950s Garrett was a notorious campaigner against integration in the Southern States of America. He was active in the Citizens' Councils which sprang up in the South to defend white supremacy. Pamphlets written by Garrett attacking integration were widely disseminated by these Councils.(40)
Professor Corrado Gini, an Italian sociologist, was also a former Associate Editor of The Mankind Quarterly. He was a fascist sympathiser in Mussolini's Italy; he was a speaker at the Convegno per la Cultura Fascista, which Mussolini described as a "memorable event in the history of Italian fascism."(41) A.J. Gregor, in his book The Ideology of Fascism has suggested that Corrado Gini provided Italian fascism with its philosophy of race.(42) Gregor, himself a former Assistant Editor of The Mankind Quarterly, was also a regular contributor to Mosley's magazine European.(43)
Professor R. Ruggles Gates was a former Associate Editor of The Mankind Quarterly. Like a number of the older members of the journal's editorial board(44) he was a contributor to the pre-war German journal Zeitschrift für Rassenkunde (Deputy Editor: Hans Günther). A review of Gates's book Human Ancestry in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology referred to Gates's views as not just "racist" but "super-racist".(45)
Several of The Mankind Quarterly's contributors are members of The Northern League. For instance Dr. F.J. Los was a regular contributor of major articles and book reviews. His speciality was the pre-history of European and biblical peoples. Until his death in 1974 Dr. Los was one of the most frequent writers in The Northlander.(46)
The Northlander (February/April 1972) recommended to its readers the "interesting essay of our N.L. member, the Icelandic author K. Magnussen in the very good 100% scientific journal The Mankind Quarterly". This was not, in fact, the first contribution from Magnussen to The Mankind Quarterly.(47)
Another contributor to The Mankind Quarterly is perhaps not so extreme in his politics, but is certainly more well-known for his views on race. The Mankind Quarterly in 1970 published a lengthy article by Enoch Powell entitled 'Population figures in the United Kingdom'.
One last example shows the nature of some of The Mankind Quarterly's contributors. In 1961 The Mankind Quarterly published an article entitled, appropriately enough, 'Racial Psychology' (Volume 2, pp.10-14). The author was Ilse Schwidetzky, who had been one of the most frequent contributors to Zeitschrift für Rassenkunde, especially during the war years.
Moreover it was Schwidetzky who had written many of the reviews of the most extreme pro-Nazi and anti-semitic publications to appear in Zeitschrift für Rassenkunde. To give just one instance: in Zeitschrift für Rassenkunde 1942, Vol.13 p.342, Schwidetzky reviewed the journal Weltkampf: die Judenfrage in Geschichte und Gegenwart ('World Struggle: the Jewish Question Past and Present'). This was the official journal of Alfred Rosenberg's Frankfurt Institute for Research into the Jewish Question.
Thus, from its earliest issues The Mankind Quarterly has provided a platform for former colleagues and present heirs of Nazi racial theorist Hans Günther.
2.
The contents
THE NORTHLANDER is not alone in recommending The Mankind Quarterly. A.K. Chesterton concluded his book The New Unhappy Lords with a list of journals which he recommended to readers.(48) The journals are standard fascist and anti-Semitic publications including the National Front's Spearhead, Ivor Benson's National Forum Bulletin, Chesterton's own magazine Candour and The Cross and the Flag, one of the most vitriolically anti-Semitic American publications. The only academic-style publication is The Mankind Quarterly. The New Unhappy Lords is a standard on National Front booklists, and is in fact on the booklists of almost all English-speaking Nazi groups.
The Mankind Quarterly is also listed in Censored, a far Right bibliography of publications which "are distasteful to the Left - Liberal - equalitarian - Welfare Statist establishment".(49) Censored's list also includes Ku Klux Klan and explicitly pro-Nazi publications. It describes The Mankind Quarterly as a "unique journal of anthropology, racial and cultural history; not slanted to suit 'liberal' propaganda or reverse racism".
Such recommendations are unlikely to be made were the content of The Mankind Quarterly not attractive to racists and fascists. Nor would fascist publications have reprinted articles. For instance Spearhead has twice reprinted articles from The Mankind Quarterly (Spearhead October 1970 and November 1976). The Northlander August/October 1969 reprinted a short piece by Garrett, which had originally appeared in The Mankind Quarterly. In this piece Garrett had insinuated that Martin Luther King was a Communist.(50)
More recently, too, The Northlander, August 1978, reprinted an article from The Mankind Quarterly: 'The threat of genetic decay' by Nathaniel Weyl. This article claimed that racial intermarriage and 'egalitarian ideology' would "bring into existence future generations so mediocre and spiritless that they will serve as pliant instruments of the gargantuan state".
The racial bias of The Mankind Quarterly has always been evident. The very first issue of the journal made this plain; its introductory editorial statement declared that "the journal has become the more necessary since during the last two decades there has been a decided tendency to neglect the racial aspects of man's inheritance for the social" (Vol. 1, p.4).
Throughout its career, The Mankind Quarterly has published articles favourable to apartheid. Some of the most blatant material comes from the editor himself. Gayre has written a series of articles with such titles as "Proposals for separate ethnic development in Rhodesia" (The Mankind Quarterly, 1967); "Practical considerations which are fundamental in Bantu affairs in Rhodesia and for an understanding of Negroid-Caucasian problems generally" (1969); "Negrophile falsification of racial history" (1969).
(Gayre's Zulu with a 'Jewish nose')
A few quotations from Gayre's The Mankind Quarterly articles will suffice to show their position. In April 1966 Gayre specifically wrote in favour of "the principle of separate development in Southern Africa"; in a chilling phrase. Gayre explained that "administratively everything is made much easier by separate development" ('Dilemma of inter-racial relations', 1966, p.194). He argued against integration in schools because it "unjustly confines the Negro children to scrambling along behind and trying to keep up with white children" (p.195). He also maintained that "The Negroes have never shown interest in invention and creative work" (1966, p.195).
It is small wonder that The Mankind Quarterly receives commendations from open racists and fascists, when it contains statements from its editor such as: "There is no example of a Negro nation that has in any way contributed to Western cultural civilization or to modern man" (1969, p.85).
The standard of Gayre's articles can be judged by a piece published in July 1962. Gayre describes a trip he took to the "Bantu homelands of Northern Transvaal", accompanied by the Public Relations Officer for Bantu Administration at Pretoria. The purpose was to look at the racial characteristics of the 'Bantus'. As a result of his inspections Gayre comes to the conclusion that the 'Bantus' are not a pure race: there is a small amount of non-black blood flowing in their veins. One of the proofs offered by Gayre is a photo of an elderly Zulu with a nose "which is distinctly Jewish" (The Mankind Quarterly, 1962, p.112). In an earlier article, Gayre had recommended readers interested in the "genetics of nasal inheritance" (1960, p.112) to consult Kultur und Rasse, published in Berlin, 1939.
The pro-apartheid bias of The Mankind Quarterly is even more apparent in its book reviews. South African and Rhodesian propaganda publications are frequently given warm reviews. For instance, in 1965 there is a review of The Rhodesian Ministry of Internal Affairs Annual (pp.59-60). In October 1966 Mr White Man, what now?, by G.M. Mes, with a foreword by the Hon. Mr. Justice J.F. Ludorf (published in Johannesburg) was reviewed.
The review of Rhodesia: the jewel of Africa by R.C. Haw (published in Salisbury, Rhodesia) states that the author "leaves little doubt that the Rhodesian cause is overwhelming" (1966, p.124). The same issue of The Mankind Quarterly contained a review of The battle for Rhodesia, by Douglas Reed, an anti-Semitic Strasserite; the reviewer commented that the "majority of articulate opinion among the Bantus is favourable to evolutionary development along the lines mapped out for them by the present Rhodesian government" (1966, p.125).
South African and Rhodesian propaganda is not the only type of propaganda to receive favourable reviews in the pages of The Mankind Quarterly. From time to time fascist publications are reviewed warmly.
For instance, Gayre's connections with the Racial Preservation Society are renewed in the pages of The Mankind Quarterly. The following Racial Preservation Society publications by H.B. Isherwood have been reviewed. Religion and the racial controversy: the false propaganda of the Church (reviewed 1971, p.20); Race and nationhood (reviewed July 1975), Racial kinship (reviewed October 1976).
In his review of Race and kinship, Gayre wrote: "Anything from the pen of Mr H.B. Isherwood must command scholarly respect". The August 1978 edition of the National Front magazine Spearhead published a letter from H.B. Isherwood which states, inter alia, "I think Spearhead for June is excellent". The June edition of Spearhead had been one of the most blatantly anti-Semitic issues for a good number of years; it had even included an attributed quotation from the notorious Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.(51)
A couple of months later H.B. Isherwood took up his pen again. Spearhead in October 1978 published another letter, in which Isherwood described the National Front as "a patriotic movement".
H.B. Isherwood is also a member of the Northern League. His works have also been published by the Britons Publishing Company(52) which, has been issuing for more than 50 years some of the most offensive, anti-Semitic and pro-Nazi material to be published in the English language. Its perennial standard is the Protocols of the Elders of Zion which it has republished over eighty times throughout the years.(53)
In January 1967, The Mankind Quarterly reviewed H.B. Isherwood's Racial integration, published by Britons Publishing Company. In the July/September 1967 issue of The Mankind Quarterly Gayre reviewed another Britons Publishing Company book. He concluded his review: "There is very much in this scholarly and illuminating book that is of great value for our times, and the reader must buy it and read it for himself (p.55).(54)
In the 1969 issue, Gayre recommended another Britons Publishing Company publication, The religious attitudes of the Indo-Europeans by Hans Günther. Gayre has obviously lost little of his admiration for the Nazi racial theorist. He started his review: "No one could be better fitted to discuss the ideas and religious concepts of the Indo-Europeans than the late Professor Günther" (p.143).(55)
Gayre is not the only admirer of Günther on The Mankind Quarterly. Bertil Lundman of Uppsala University in Sweden is on the Honorary Advisory Board and like Ruggles Gates published his early research in Zeitschrift für Rassenkunde. An article in The Mankind Quarterly by Lundman, 'Race, language and the history of peoples' (1962), follows the spirit of Günther with its praise of the Teutons for being of "excellent racial stock" (p.272).
The following year Lundman went further in The Mankind Quarterly. At the end of an article entitled 'The racial history of the Near East' he included a list of recommended reading: "About the Jews there are older works by H.F.K. Günther . . . with interesting illustrations" (p.187, The Mankind Quarterly, 1963).
Given this sort of content, it should not be surprising that political racists and fascists should find The Mankind Quarterly so attractive. Because of the explicitness of many of the contributions in the journal, the 'respectable' scientists would find it hard to explain their involvement on the grounds that they were unaware of what The Mankind Quarterly was about. In fact any such excuse must be seen as even less credible since concern about The Mankind Quarterly has been publicly voiced in academic circles.
Its initial publication in 1960 provoked considerable controversy. Several academic journals expressed grave misgivings about The Mankind Quarterly. For instance Current Anthropology published an article by Juan Comas, '"Scientific" racism again' (1961, Vol. 2, pp.303-314) attacking the racism in the first issue of The Mankind Quarterly. Comas's article was distributed by Current Anthropology to 50 leading scholars for comment. Many of the resulting comments were published in Current Anthropology. Discussion of Comas's article and of The Mankind Quarterly ran to more than 20 pages; the reactions of most of the scholars not directly associated with The Mankind Quarterly was almost uniformly hostile.
Another anthropology journal, Man, also reviewed the initial publication of The Mankind Quarterly. Its verdict was unequivocal: "It is earnestly hoped that The Mankind Quarterly will succumb before it can further discredit anthropology and do more damage to mankind".(56)
Perhaps the most revealing comments to emerge from this controversy came from two academics who were initially involved with The Mankind Quarterly. Professor Ehrenfels had an article in the very first issue. However he wrote to Current Anthropology in 1962 complaining that his article had been censored by the editor. Gayre had deleted two paragraphs which were critical of apartheid in South Africa and Rhodesia.(57)
The reactions of Professor Skerlj of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Ljubljana have also been publicly recorded. The first edition of The Mankind Quarterly listed Skerlj as a member of the Advisory Board. However one issue of the magazine was sufficient to convince him of its nature and he immediately wrote a letter of resignation to Gayre. He asked that this letter be published in The Mankind Quarterly. When this request was refused, Skerlj wrote to Man, who published an account of his experiences with The Mankind Quarterly (November 1960, pp.172-173).
Skerlj's comments are worth reproducing:
Some of those views appearing in the first issue, which has just reached me, seem to show such little concern for facts and to be so distorted by racial prejudice that I cannot allow them to stand without the most vigorous protest. They are quite incompatible with my conscience as a scientist and an affront to the bitter memories I have of the anguish suffered during World War II by the peoples of Europe and of my own country in particular - not to mention what I personally saw and experienced while a prisoner in Dachau.
Skerlj also mentioned the letter he received from the Associate Editor Ruggles Gates. In this letter Gates suggested that Skerlj would never have been asked to be a member of the Advisory Board of The Mankind Quarterly had Gates known that Skerlj had been a prisoner in Dachau.
