My Life

My Life - Oswald MosleyThese older men, without any exception known to me, were in the same situation ofbeing experienced soldiers of the first war. When we were finally imprisoned, everymedal given for gallantry in the British army was being worn in the prison yard atBrixton, except the V.C. One of our members had won the Victoria Cross, but eventhat government had not the effrontery to arrest him. At the time of our imprisonmentwe reckoned that four out of five of our district leaders—usually men in the earlythirties—were in the forces, and very few of them were ever detained. The authorities,of course, knew perfectly well they were not the kind of men that propagandarepresented them to be.Those who were eventually arrested were mostly the older men of the previous warwho had conducted the peace campaign, and their wives. The regulation under whichwe were arrested, 18B (lA), gave the Home Secretary power to detain members of anorganisation if 'the persons in control of the organisation have or have hadassociations with persons concerned in the government of, or sympathies with thesystem of government of, any Power with which his Majesty is at war'. I rememberone member who was a farmer in Wales and had never left his home county, where hejoined in the peace campaign, saying he thought it a bit odd that he should beimprisoned on the grounds that I had met Hitler three years before the war. I repliedthat it was odder still that not only I but my supporters should be imprisoned on thesegrounds when Mr. Chamberlain and many other Englishmen had met Hitler long afterI had. On the same principle, presumably, if it had been a case of war with America,every member of our movement could have been imprisoned because I had been on afishing trip with Roosevelt some years before.The real reasons were subsequently revealed in the House of Commons (December10,1940) without challenge from any quarter, by Mr. R. R. Stokes, M.P., afterwards aMinister in a Labour Government:'After sixteen hours cross-examination in the private committees to consider 18Bcases, Mr. Norman Birkett indulged in this conversation with Sir Oswald Mosley,which I think ought to be quoted and put on record, whatever one's feelings. SirOswald Mosley said to Mr. Birkett:"There appear to be two grounds for detaining us—(1) A suggestion that we are traitors who would take up arms and fight with theGermans if they landed, and(2) that our propaganda undermines the civilian morale."Mr. Birkett replied: "Speaking for myself, you can entirely dismiss the firstsuggestion."Sir Oswald Mosley: "Then I can only assume that we have been detained because ofour campaign in favour of a negotiated peace." Mr. Norman Birkett: "Yes, Sir Oswald,that is the case." ; Hansard, December 10, 1940.An 18B Advisory Committee was set up by the Government to examine cases ofpeople imprisoned under the regulation without charge or trial. Lord Jowitt, the LordChancellor, stressed this point in the House of Lords on December 11,1946: 'Let us befair to those people who were imprisoned under Order 18B, and let us remember thatthey have never been accused of any crime; not only have they not been convicted of336 of 424