Striking hard at “fifth column” activities, the authorities today arrested Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists, together with other B.U.F. leaders and Capt. A.H.M. Ramsay, Conservative M.P. who is regarded as the leading anti-Semite in Commons.
Arrest of Mosley followed a raid on headquarters of his organization and a search of his home. The raid was conducted by Scotland Yard operatives who detained ten persons, questioned 20 others, searched the premises and seized documents and books.
Others arrested with Mosley were Alexander Raven Thompson, who recently was sentenced to a six-week jail term or £25 fine for using insulting anti-Semitic language during a Fascist meeting, N. Francis-Hawkins, director-general of the B.U.F., and six other leaders of the organization.
Mosley, Ramsay and the others were detained under the newly amended emergency defense regulations. Ramsay has frequently accused the Jews of controlling the press and of financial plotting.
According to the Evening Standard, police entered Mosley’s home through a window when they found the doors locked, and removed a large quantity of papers and documents. It also reported that John Beckett, former Mosley lieutenant who is now secretary of Lord Tavistock’s British Council for Christian settlement, has been detained.
Home Secretary Sir John Anderson revealed in Commons that detention orders had been issued under last night’s amended regulations. Replying to a demand to ban the Fascist and Communist organizations and intern their members, Sir John declared that the situation was now under consideration and it would be contrary to the public interest to reveal measures in advance.
Sir John announced that, because of the paramount considerations of national safety, there was no question of individual review of cases of interned aliens except where it could be shown that it was definitely and directly in the public interest. He said it was hitherto unnecessary to order wholesale internment of women in category B, comprising aliens whose movements are restricted, but the whole question of further measures was receiving close attention.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
