Sut—The article of your Special Correspondent, published in The Spectator
of January 22nd, criticising the treatment of the 18 B detainees, laid down a serious challenge to all sincere believers in democracy. The B detainees are being held in " protective custody " because their policy involves not only opposition to, but also active sabotage of the war effort. Such a policy is dangerous to the whole cause of the democracies and justifies their detention as potential enemies of our prosecution of the war, as potential Fifth Columnists who certainly deserve no better treatment than the foreign internees in the Isle of Man and lsewhere.
Despite their complaints of the strict censorship, these t8 B detainees still manage very successfully to broadcast their dissatisfaction with prison life and to have their so-called hardships publicised as those of a minority suffering from " democratic " legislation under a system of government which they are only too anxious to attack. If living conditions in their places of detention are really bad, this is a matter to be dealt with in connexion with the general welfare of all internees and prisoners. The claims of " detained " British Fascists and pro-Fascists to preferential treatment can have no justification in the name of democracy at a time when the soldiers and peoples of the United Nations, in both free and occupied countries, are engaged in a life and death struggle against Fascism and all that it stands for.—Yours faithfully, ANTI-FASCIST.
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