Search Results

The new regulation was analysed by L. S. Brass, the assistant legal adviser to the Home Office, who identified five categories of potential detainees; logically there were really eight. But Home Office policy was to distinguish merely two basic categories—those of ‘hostile associations (and/or origin)’, and those involved in ‘acts prejudicial’. Standard forms of order indicated which was involved, but gave no additional information. There was a problem of transition. The committee had heard twenty-four cases, recommending continued detention in only thirteen, and release in six, four subject to restrictions, figures which suggest that confidence in Military Intelligence Section 5 (MI5) was already waning. When the new Regulation 18B came into force, Alexander Maxwell and Sir Ernest Holderness thought that Sir John Anderson should review all existing orders. This chapter examines executive detention during the period of the ‘phoney war’, when the Home Office made very modest use of its powers, much to the irritation of MI5.

In 1941, a number of detainees had recourse to the courts, including Captain Charles H. Bentinck Budd, Arthur C. H. Campbell, Ben Greene, John Mason, and Captain George H. L.-F. Pitt-Rivers. There were possibly others; some actions were formally begun, as by Oswald Mosley and Maule Ramsay, but were never actually pursued. In addition, J. R. Smeaton-Stuart after his release tried to collect damages for false imprisonment. Of these litigants, Greene and Liversidge went to the House of Lords. Mason's arrest was of some political significance since he was a communist shop steward. He was detained as being ‘involved in attempts to slow down war production’ and therefore guilty of ‘acts prejudicial’. The officials also knew that a further embarrassing case was in the pipeline, that of Campbell. He had been in the British Union until 1937.

In August and September 1943, conferences took place to decide what was to become of Regulation 18B when World War II in Europe ended. Norman Kendal seems to have wanted to retain it permanently, while Military Intelligence Section 5 wanted to be able to detain for ‘acts prejudicial’ in Japanese espionage cases until Japan was defeated. This was grudgingly accepted both by the Home Office and the Emergency Legislation Committee. By early 1944, it was settled that at the end of hostilities in Europe all detainees connected with the European war would be released. In the event it was decided not to retain 18B in any form, and it was abolished by an Order in Council passed the day after VE Day. Winston Churchill's views probably played a part in this. Regulation 18B, however, remained in force until 1947 under the Emergency Laws (Transitional Provisions) Act of 1946, and under it Oswald Mosley and four other persons were prevented from travelling abroad.