26 JULY 1940, Page 13

INTERNED ENGLISHMEN

read so much in The Spectator and other enlightened journals about the refugee internee aliens that I have been wondering whether these journals really represent English thought. I know that the people of England have not lost sight of the fact that in Brixton and Liverpool prisons, and perhaps elsewhere, there are about a thousand Englishmen held without charge or trial, and treated in every respect as felons—a thing which, all my life? I have believed to be impossible in this country. I have always believed that the right of immediate trial was the greatest benefit conferred by English nationality; and have been told that that right was one of the things for which we are fighting. Sir John Anderson, on May 9th, promised the House that no action would be taken against any person issuing propaganda until a warning in writing had been issued to that person. No such warning was issued in any case. Some of these men, there- fore, are imprisoned for holding opinions—or expressing the opinions they hold—a fact that puts us back several hundred years in our social