Sir: I have taken no part in the controversy over
Lord Ravensdale's offensive book about his father, as I regard this as a per- sonal and family matter. However, as Sir Oswald Mosley's secretary for many years (up to the day of his death) and a fellow vic- tim of the infamous Defence Regulation 18B, I feel qualified to answer yet again the Ian Waller canard (8 January) that Mosley (or any of us) was 'jailed as a threat to the nation'.
The Establishment refuses to place in the Public Records Office reports of pro- ceedings before 18B Appeals Committees, but one such report has never been denied. Mosley appeared before a committee under the chairmanship of Lord Birkett, who assured Mosley that he could 'entirely dismiss' the suggestion . that we were 'traitors who would take up arms and fight with the Germans if they landed'. Mosley then asked Birkett if we were detained 'because of our campaign in favour of a negotiated peace'. Birkett replied: 'Yes, Sir Oswald, that is the case.' A fuller report of this conversation may be found in Hansard for 10 December 1940.
Jeffrey Hamm
Action Society, 76a Rochester Row, London SW1
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