FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
SIR,—Mr. A.'V. Alexander, the First Lord of the Admiralty, stated in the House of Commons on March zard: " The Naval Regulation which forbids officers and men to communicate to the Press any matter of information telating to the Naval Service, unless the permission of the Admiralty has been first obtained, extends also to anything of a controversial nature, affecting other departments of the public service or relating to matters of public policy."
This ruling denies to the personnel of the Navy any freedom of public expression on general political issues, and I read in the papers that there is to be a similar tightening up of Army and Air Force Regulations. So all the millions of men and women in the Forces are to sacrifice not only the high wages, the comforts and the amenities of civilian life, not only their lives if necessary, but also any say in the post-war world unless their opinion corresponds exactly with those in high places.
Unfortunately, restrictive Regulations are infectious, and we may soon see the personnel of the N.F.S. and Civil Defence Service similarly denied any freedom of expression ; and, if so, why not the employees of big corporations such as the L.C.C.? Is not this Fascism in the making?
It is most important for those in authority in this country not to make restrictions harsher than absolutely necessary, especially those relating to public expression of opinion, for to do so is to adopt the creed of the enemy and to forget for what we are fighting. Is not freedom of speech one of Roosevelt's Four Freedoms?—I am, Sir, yours
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