MARGINAL COMMENT
By HAROLD NICOLSON
IWAS told the following story. It is about a shopkeeper in a 1 Devonshire village. He had inherited from his father and grand- father a small shop, which by his own efforts he had enlarged ; he had bought the adjoining cottage and expanded his store into two departments connected by an arch in the wall. In the original shop he sold groceries, slices of bacon, tinned peas and gay packets of vegetable seeds from the nursery-garden ; in the additional shop he sold stationery, toys, a few children's books, a garden-hat or two, some rolls of cloth, a few cheap socks and ties. Each of his two departments had a door upon the village street. If one went in by the grocery door a bell rang and he passed through the arch from the drapery business ; if, on the other hand, one entered by the drapery door another bell tinkled and he would leave his margarine and be prepared to sell dry goods. There are thousands of such shops scattered over England ; there are thousands of such trades- men who for generations have lived frugal, honest and useful lives. He was known throughout the countryside ; he was liked and trusted ; he was the good citizen. One afternoon this summer the bell tinkled in his dry-goods department and he left his margarine to find an unknown customer shaking the rain from a dripping water- proof. The customer explained that he had walked across the moors ; that he had been caught in a heavy shower ;That although his clothes were dry enough, his feet were very wet indeed. He had to take the train back to Winchester and feared that if he had to sit for two hours in a train with dripping socks he might contract rheumatic fever or worse. Might he buy a pair of dry socks and rubber shoes? " Certainly, sir," said the shopkeeper, " that is if you have the right coupons." The man laughed and said that he had foreseen this question. He had left his coupons at home. He would leave his name and address and would without fail send on the necessary coupons by return of post. The shopkeeper, being accustomed to sympathise with fellow-citizens in distress, agreed to this arrange- ment. The customer, having obtained the socks and shoes, then revealed himself as an agent of the Board of Trade. The shopkeeper was prosecuted, reprimanded and fined.
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When I was told this story I did not believe it. It had about it all the aroma of circumstantial detail with which Dame Rumour scents her haggard frame. It seemed to me to bear a close resemblance to all the red-tape stories, or all the Haw Haw stories, in which people think of a number, double it, and then take away the number they first thought of. I explained patiently that I had for twenty years been a civil servant ; that I had had constant experience of the work- ings of Government Departments ; and that I knew that such things could not happen in this island. In the first place, the permanent officials would not allow such methods to be adopted ; in the second place, the Minister responsible would know that if such tricks were played on the public there would be trouble in Parliament and trouble in the Press. I was positive that the incident, as related, simply could not have occurred in just that sort of way. Departments of His Majesty's Government did not, would 'not and could not employ agents provocateurs for the purpose. of enticing honest citizens into breaches of their own regulations. Such things might happen in Ger- many, in Italy or even in France ; they could not happen here. I as- sured my informant that he had been misled. A week later, however, an almost exactly similar incident was brought to my attention by a solicitor in my own constituency. I inquired ltito the circumstances 'With Care. There was no doubt .about it. An official of the Board of Trade had entered a shop purporting to be an ordinary customer ; be had not merely asked for an object, he had actually wheedled the shop assistant into supplying him with that object in an irregular way. He then disclosed his true identity and launched a prosecution. * * * *
The Board of Trade would of course deny with righteous and out- raged indignation that they employed agents provocateurs. They would claim that their investigators had strict instructions never by hint, pressure or suggestion directly to encourage any shopkeeper, or any assistant, to commit a breach of regulations. They would contend that it is their business and function to see that the law is observed and that no black market is allowed to interfere with the equitable distribution of commodities. But could they openly aver that none of their agents at any time has entered a shop purporting to be an ordinary customer when in fact he was not an ordinary customer but an investigator in disguise? They might admit that a few instances of such deception may have occurred, but that it was difficult to persuade ordinary customers to give evidence in pro- secutions and that all illicit dealings must be stopped. "You see," they would say—smiling their civil smile—" You see there is a war on." I am aware of that. I am aware that we are fighting a desperate battle to maintain the standards of conduct which in nine centuries we have in this country been at great pains to establish. And I am aware that practices such as these are the denial of this standard.
There is a question of fundamental principle involved. It is not only, or most importantly, a moral principle ; it is a vital principle of governance. We speak readily about "democracy," identifying it untidily with the vague concept of " liberty." But the structure of democracy is not to be judged by its frontage or its decorations"; it stands or falls by its foundations. And the rock of that foundation is the confidence accorded to the Government by the governed ; it is the trust felt by the ordinary citizen in the justice of the administra- tion. Once that trust is shaken (as it was shaken in France) the fruit of democracy drops worm-eaten to the ground. It may well be true that many of our retailers, either with deliberate malice, or more frequently from the ignorance or stupidity of inexperienced employees, commit breaches of the regulations. It is certainly true that the Board of Trade have the duty to see that the existing law is observed. I admit even that they are justified in employing inspectors, or investigators, to tour the country and to report how far the regulations are being evaded. But nothing on this earth will convince me that it is an act of wise governance to permit the officials of a Government Department to pretend that they are ordinary customers when in fact they are nothing of the sort. It may well be that by such methods the Board of Trade secure many more con- victions than would otherwise be possible. It may well be that by such methods the administration of the Act is rendered more "- efficient." But we are not fighting for " efficiency " ; they have that in Germany ; we are fighting for a way of life based upon mutual confidence between the Government and the governed. And any- thing which destroys that confidence is inimical to the purposes for which we fight.
I cannot believe that the Prime Minister, whose sense of adminis- trative conduct bums with so clear a flame, would approve of Government officials snaring innocence by acting lies. I can see one of his " personal minutes " hurtling from his harquebus: " If this be true it must cease at once." But there are other, and less drastic, remedies which can be applied. Magistrates can be very careful to discourage evidence obtained by means not consonant with the old traditions of our civil service and our police force. The Press can be alert to expose and to condemn all instances of agent provocateur methods. And the ordinary citizen, having thoroughly authenticated evidence of such methods, having clearly assembled the facts, can ask his Member of Parliament to see to it that in the stress of war we do not allow these ways to rot our system unopposed. I do not write only as an old Liberal, saddened to see the ancient parapets of our liberties crumble one by one ; I write as one who knows that adminis- tration will in future play an increasing part In Our private lives and that if for one moment we allow public trust in our administrators 10' be undermined " then we shall mar Utterly this fair garden we might win."
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