The Arrest of Fascists
In these days of desperate crisis the country cannot afford to take the least risk in regard to persons, aliens or British, whose loyalty to this country is suspect. There was general gratification that the Home Secretary had not shrunk from ordering the arrest of a Member of Parliament, Captain Ram- say, who had exposed himself to action under the Defence Regulations. Equally general is the opinion that the Govern- ment was right in arresting Sir Oswald Mosley and eight other Fascists, on the ground that their organisations have had asso- ciations with the enemy and may be a public danger. The deten- tion of these persons does not necessarily mean that they are guilty; but with the record before us of the appalling mischief done by Fifth Columnists in Norway and Holland, the country simply cannot afford to let potentially dangerous people be at large. It is not a question of freedom of opinion, but of freedom to act in co-operation with the enemy. It is for the same reason that many perfectly innocent aliens must be interned because it is impossible always to distinguish between the guilty and the innocent. The first of all dudes now is to preserve the country, and that must be relentlessly performed even when it imposes hardship upon individuals.
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