Defence Regulation 18B

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.

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.

Related Topics:
1940 - Vidkun Quisling - Norway - Oswald Mosley - Fifth column - France - May 20 - Tyler Kent - Winston Churchill - Franklin Roosevelt - Archibald Maule Ramsay - Anti-semitic

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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.

Related Topics:
May 22 - May 23 - Oswald Mosley - The Times

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