Defence Regulation 18B
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Defence Regulation 18B was the most famous of the Defence Regulations used by the British Government during World War II. It allowed for the internment of people suspected of being Nazi sympathisers.
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Preparations for war
The Defence Regulations existed in draft form, constantly revised, throughout the inter-war period. In early 1939 it was decided, since a war might break out without warning or time to pass an Act of Parliament to bring in emergency regulations, that the Regulations should be split into two codes. Code A would be needed immediately war broke out and could be passed in peacetime, while Code B (containing the more severe restrictions on civil liberties) would be brought in later.
In order not to alert the public to the existence of Code B, Code A was simply numbered consecutively. Defence Regulation 18 concerned restrictions on movement of aircraft. It was originally intended that Code B would be imposed by an Order in Council, with retrospective indemnity being granted by an Act of Parliament should anyone dispute the actions of the authorities.
When tension rose over Poland, the House of Commons was recalled from its summer recess on August 24, 1939 to pass the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act which gave authority to bring in the Defence Regulations. Code A was brought into effect that day, and Code B followed on September 1. Foreigners (enemy aliens) were detained using powers under the Royal Prerogative while 18B was used mainly for British nationals.
18B in force
The initial arrests were few and confined to those believed to be hard-core Nazis: by September 14, there were only 14 people interned. Several of these were German or Austrian by birth but naturalized British subjects. The total would have been higher had not William Joyce been tipped off by an MI5 officer (probably Charles Maxwell-Knight) of his impending internment, allowing him to flee to Germany. A group of Labour and Liberal MPs attempted to annul Code B in Parliament on October 31, 1939 but were persuaded to withdraw their motion in favour of consultation which produced a slightly amended wording.
Expansion in May 1940
The authorities dramatically revised their approach to the British far right in the late spring of 1940. The brief seizure of power by Vidkun Quisling in Norway, a politician whose career superficially resembled that of Oswald Mosley, raised the possibility of a Fifth column deposing the government. The fall of the low countries and the invasion of France led to a very real fear of invasion. Then on May 20, 1940 a raid on the home of Tyler Kent, a cypher clerk at the US Embassy, disclosed that Kent had stolen copies of thousands of telegrams including those from Winston Churchill to Franklin Roosevelt. Kent was an associate of Archibald Maule Ramsay, an openly anti-semitic MP.
This opened the possibility that Ramsay might have used the privilege of Parliament to reveal the telegrams, about which Churchill had not told the Cabinet, thereby possibly endangering his government. It would also reveal Roosevelt was trying to help Churchill while proclaiming his support for neutrality in public. The Cabinet decided in favour of widespread detentions of the far right on May 22, which required an amended version of the Regulation - 18B (1A). One of the first to be arrested, in the early morning of May 23, was Oswald Mosley. Popular reaction was strongly in favour, with one reader writing to The Times to note with satisfaction that news of Mosley's arrest had been carried in the fifth column. By December 1940, there were more than a thousand detainees in custody.
Life for 18B detainees
A person subject to 18B would be arrested without warning. Some were in the forces and arrested while on parade. They would be taken first to police cells, and then to prison. The first detainees were sent to HM Prison Wandsworth for men and HM Prison Holloway for women; the men were later moved to HM Prison Brixton. With the expansion in numbers in 1940 came a shortage of prison accommodation and some derelict wings of prisons (including Stafford and Liverpool women's prison) were brought back into use to house 18Bs.
Eventually it was decided to hold the detainees in camps. The winter quarters of Billy Smart's circus provided one camp at Ascot racecourse, and uncompleted council housing at Huyton near Liverpool was used from March 1941. Finally the authorities solved the accommodation problem for 18Bs as well as detained enemy aliens by setting up camps on the Isle of Man. A new Act of Parliament was needed to authorise the transfer. The men stayed at Peveril Camp, Peel, with the women at Rusden Camp, Port Erin. A small number of designated 'leaders' remained in Wandsworth prison throughout for greater security. In a few cases, husbands and wives were both interned, and were later allowed to live together.
Detainees could be subject to dehumanising treatment but once transferred to camps the regime was relatively liberal with free association and the opportunity for some entertainments, even including trips to the cinema.
Legal process and challenging detention
There were two justifications for an order to intern: "acts prejudicial to the public safety" and "hostile origin or associations".
A detainee could challenge their detention by way of an appeal to an Advisory Committee headed by Norman Birkett. The committee would be presented with a statement of the reasons why detention had been proposed, drawn up by MI5, which the detainee was not permitted to see. The Committee could recommend continued detention, release under condition, or unconditional release. The Committee's recommendations went to the Home Secretary, who was not bound to accept them; MI5 often lobbied him not to accept a recommendation to release.
Some detainees attempted to take further action through the courts. Challenges were brought on the basis of Habeas corpus, but refused on the ground that the Home Secretary had taken his decision to intern on the basis of reports which must be kept secret; the Court satisfied itself that he had reasonable cause to sign a detention order.
The most significant case was Liversidge v. Anderson, brought by Robert W. Liversidge who was a successful Jewish businessman and therefore a highly atypical 18B detainee. He brought a civil action for damages for false imprisonment but did not apply for Habeas corpus. The ultimate ruling in his case has since been adjudged to have been wrongly decided. It was that where it is required in law that a Minister "has reasonable cause to believe" something before acting, the Court can only inquire into whether he really did believe it, and not whether the things causing this belief were true. Lord Atkin wrote a celebrated dissent from this judgment.
Archibald Maule Ramsay, as the only MP detained, had the matter referred to the House of Commons Committee on Privileges for a ruling as to whether the detention of an MP was a breach of the Privilege of Parliament. It decided it was not.
Death of 18B
After the Battle of Britain the immediate invasion scare was over. The number of detainees slowly decreased as the less harmful were let out. From a peak of about 1,000 in 1940, by summer 1943 there were fewer than 500 in detention. Oswald Mosley, suffering from phlebitis, was released on November 23, 1943 to a great deal of public criticism. The Council for Civil Liberty (predecessor of Liberty), demanded his continued imprisonment along with all other active fascists.
The invasion of France on D-Day again lifted pressure on invasion and by the end of 1944 only 65 detainees remained, most of which had been naturalized German-born citizens. At the time of the death of Adolf Hitler there were 11 and on V-E day only one. 18B was abolished a few days after.
References
- 'In the highest degree odious' by A.W. Brian Simpson (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1992) ISBN 0-19-825775-9