21 SEPTEMBER 1934, Page 6

Circumstantial details reach me of a visit paid recently by

a C.I.D. officer to a women's college in London with a view to discovering whether any of the students was a Communist. No questions were asked about whether any of them was a Fascist—or a Conservative or a Liberal. It is perfectly legitimate for anyone in this country to be a Communist, or a. Republican. But there is no more reason for police enquiries about whether a woman undergraduate is a Communist than about whether , she is a vegetarian. Insidious extensions of the powers, or assumed powers, of the police imply real danger to the liberty of the subject.

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