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Defence Regulation 18B: Emergency Internment of Aliens and Political Dissenters in Great Britain During World War II*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2014

Aaron L. Goldman
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Journal of British Studies , Volume 12 , Issue 2 , May 1973 , pp. 120 - 136
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1973

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Footnotes

*

A version of this paper was read at the Missouri Valley Historical Conference in Omaha, Nebraska in March, 1972.

References

1. Marwick, Arthur, The Deluge: British Society in the First World War (Boston, 1965), pp. 36-37, 139Google Scholar.

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4. Kidd, , British Liberty, pp. 68–78Google Scholar.

5. Ibid., p. 195. On August 25 one hundred regulations were brought into force by Order in Council. On September 1, nineteen further regulations were added. For a list of Powers (Defence), 1939, Vol. 1, pp. 715-19. For a good explanation of the major defense regulations see Kidd, British Liberty, Ch. 7, “Wartime Emergency Legislation,” pp. 193-241.

6. “Civil Liberties in Great Britain and Canada During War,” Harvard Law Review, Vol. 55 (1942), 1007Google Scholar. (Hereafter H.L.R.). See S.R.O. Defence (General) Regulations 1939, pp. 824, 826.

7. “Civil Liberties in Britain,” H.L.R., 55 (1942), 1011Google Scholar. Two publications, The Daily Worker and The Week were prohibited from publishing under these regulations in 1941, and the London Daily Mirror was also threatened with suppression. There was considerable antagonism stirred by the banning of these organs of opinion. Suppression had taken place without warning, and Home Secretary Herbert Morrison was denounced for not having proceeded under Regulation 2C which would have allowed warning, prosecution and trial. Finer, Herman, “The House of Commons, The British Cabinet and the War,” Political Science Quarterly, September, 1941, p. 356Google Scholar.

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9. Ibid., p. 1015. Under the pressure of M.P.s like Dingle Foot, who was also a Vice President of the National Council of Civil Liberties, the Home Secretary agreed to amend some regulations on November 23, 1939 to make the wording less offensive to civil libertarians. On May 22, 1940, however, they were amended again to greatly increase the Home Secretary's powers. See Kidd, , British Liberty, pp. 196–97Google Scholar and Finer, , “House of Commons,” P.S.Q., Sept. 1941, p. 355Google Scholar.

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13. Among those arrested in July, 1940 were two Communist Deputies from the last elected Czechoslovak Parliament, Gustav Beuer, a leading figure in the committee which cared for Czech, Slovak and Sudeten anti-Nazi refugees, and Karl Kreibich, whose daughter was imprisoned by the Nazis. Montagu, Ivor, The Traitor Class (London, 1940), p. 92Google Scholar. See also Great Britain, Parliamentary Debates (House of Commons) Fifth Ser., Vol. 364, August 14, 1940Google Scholar, Col. 773.

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21. Calder, , People's War, p. 131Google Scholar. For a detailed description of conditions in the camps see Lafitte, Francois, The Internment of Aliens (Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England, 1940), pp. 91–120Google Scholar.

22. Commons, Vol. 363, July 18, 1940Google Scholar, Col. 435; Vol. 363, July 23, 1940, Col. 586; Vol. 364, August 8, 1940, Col. 429; Vol. 364, August 20, 1940, Cols. 1104-05; Vol. 364, August 22, 1940, Col. 1573.

23. Commons, Vol. 363, July 23, 1940Google Scholar, Cols. 594-95; Vol. 364, August 8, 1940, Cols. 428-31.

24. A Legal Observer, “The Enemy Alien Problem,” The Spectator, March 15, 1940, p. 355Google Scholar. The German intelligence network in Britain was in fact notoriously poor, and little if any reliable information reached Berlin from inside Britain. See Thompson, p. 144.

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27. Commons, Vol. 365, November 5, 1940Google Scholar, Col. 1176.

28. Ibid., Vol. 367, December 3, 1940, Col. 464. Morrison also revealed that 8,000 persons had already been released from internment and that 19,500 remained, of whom there was evidence they were unfriendly. There remained about 15,500 cases to be investigated and he hoped this would be done without undue delay. Commons, Vol. 367, December 3, 1940Google Scholar, Cols. 451-52.

29. Ibid., Vol. 362, July 4, 1940, Col. 1036; Vol. 364, August 8, 1940, Col. 430.

30. Mosley, , Backs to the Wall, pp. 75–78Google Scholar. See also Gowing, Margaret, Britain and Atomic Energy, 1939-1945 (London, 1964), pp. 53–54Google Scholar. The activities of these alien scientists were greatly restricted. They had to have permission to own large maps, cars and bicycles. They could not live in certain areas, their movement was curtailed and they were subject to curfew. This impeded their work because they had to travel to different universities and work late. Ultimately, the Ministry of Aircraft Production secured dispensations for the atomic scientists.

31. Thayer, George, The British Political Fringe: A Profile (London, 1965), pp. 38–39Google Scholar.

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35. Ibid., p. 401.

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40. “The Home Office and the Fifth Column,” New Statesman and Nation, July 6, 1940, p. 2Google Scholar. See also Thayer, p. 40. The work of the Link was carried on by the British Council for Christian Settlement in Europe which was pro-Nazi, but drew in pacifists because it claimed to be for peace. After Mosley was arrested it too collapsed.

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44. Allen, Elizabeth A., It Shall Not Happen Here: Anti-Semitism, Fascists and Civil Liberties (London, 1943), p. 15Google Scholar.

45. Ibid., p. 16.

46. “Civil Liberties in Britain,” H.L.R., 55 (1942), 1017Google Scholar. See also Carr, Cecil T., “Crisis Legislation in Britain,” Columbia Law Review, December, 1940, p. 1320Google Scholar on the confidentiality of information upon which the Home Secretary acted. The courts found that if his sources of information were disclosed it might be prejudicial to the state.

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48. See Emergency Powers (Defence) Act, 1939, Report by the Secretary of State as to the actions taken under Regulation 18B of the Defence Regulations, 1939. See also Statutory Rules and Amendments, p. 816.

49. “Civil Liberties in Britain,” H.L.R., 55 (1942), 1016Google Scholar. See also Commons, Vol. 371, May 8, 1941Google Scholar, Cols. 987-88. Morrison refused to allow a prisoner to see his dying mother and informed him of her death only four days afterward. He would give no reason for this action. See also Commons, Vol. 346, May 11, 1939Google Scholar, Cols. 681-82; Vol. 363, July 25, 1940, Cols. 990-91; Vol. 368, January 22, 1941, Cols. 201-02.

50. “Civil Liberties in Britain,” H.L.R., 55 (1942), 1013Google Scholar, and “Administrative Discretion and Civil Liberties in England: The Liversedge, Greene and Duncan Cases,” Harvard Law Review, Vol. 56 (April 1943), 806CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

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57. Domvile, , Admiral to Cabin Boy, pp. 112–17Google Scholar.

58. Emergency Powers (Defence) Act, 1939, Defence Regulation 18B, Cmd. 6162, pp. 2-3. In January 1940 the Home Secretary presented to Parliament instructions which enumerated the conditions under which 18B detainees were to be held. Among other things, these included food, clothing and recreation. The paper specifically noted that people held under 18B were detained for custodial purposes only and not for punative reasons. The conditions of their confinement were to be “as little as possible oppressive.”

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61. Ibid., p. 197.

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