On Tuesday Captain Ramsay introduced a Private Member's Bill under
the ten-minutes rule, to prevent aliens participating in assemblies " for the purpose of propagating blasphemous or atheistic doctrines or any other activities calculated to interfere with the established religious institu- tions of Great Britain." Captain Ramsay's case was that the Communists were insidiously penetrating what he described as " that respectable Victorian society," the World Union of Freethinkers, which is proposing to hold an Inter- national Congress in London in September. He deplored the fact that the " innocents " in these rationalist organisa- tions had no Sir Walter Citrine to warn them of the " wrath to come." Mr. Edmund Harvey (Independent Member for the English Universities), in a speech which vibrated with a passionate appeal for religious freedom, reminded the House that the early Christians were aliens to those to whom they carried the Gospel, that St. Augustine of Canterbury and St. Paulinus of York came to this country as aliens, preaching a doctrine contrary to the religious institutions of the country. He recalled the persecution of the Quakers, and maintained that " Truth needs no other weapon than itself." It is a mistake to think that the House of Commons is not deeply susceptible to the influence of effective and systematic lobbying from without. Such a lobby had been well organised, and the Bill was given its first reading by 165 to 134 votes. An elderly and venerable Member, known universally for his deep Christian sincerity, was heard to remark : " This is the worst thing this Parliament has done."
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