THE FIFTH COLUMN.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 60, Issue 211, 14 June 1940, Page 6

THE FIFTH COLUMN.

MEASURES IN BRITAIN. ROUND-UP OF ALIENS. LONDON, May 23. Among those, caught in the recent swoop on aliens was a- German and French language master at Eton, where he had been teaching for three years, and six masters and II hoys, aged 16 and 17, at a fashionable school in Scotland. One boy was an Austrian and 10 were. German Jewish refugees. One master was a former officer in the German cavalry, and had recently bee,«. charged ■with having entered a prohibited area in the .Firth of Forth., Police are attending Communist, Fascist and pacifist meetings throughout Britain with orders to arrest speakers trying to undermine the war effort. The crowd became hostile at a Lancashire by-election meeting at which Sir Oswald Mosley, the British Fascist leader (since arrested) advocated stopping the war on British terms. The crowd howled down Mosley and a stone was thrown at the platform. Mosley jumped down, charged through the crowd and struck a man on the jaw. Police', using their Luncheons, rescued him, and he left in a car. The crowd then smashed the' loudspeaker. - Following the order of the Home Secretary, Sir John, Anderson, prohibiting the possession of firearms, ammunition, or explosives by aliens, unless they have special permits, police,. without warning, seized all stocks of arms and ammunition from gunsmiths in certain areas, throughout the country, in conformity with Home Office instructions. ' . Police vans droye up to shops in the city and West End, and carried out rifles, sporting guns, revolvers and ammunition 3 while steel-helmeted police guarded the entrances. From a city firm of machine-gun makers they took a truckload of armaments. Another move against Fifth Columnists was an order to search all Dutch ships, of which scores have arrived in British ports since the> invasion of the Netherlands. All Dutch ships in the Thames have been visited and the crews questioned. Some seamen were taken off under arrest. A blunt declaration that Communists are downright traitors and should be treated as such is contained in a special circular from French members attending the Anglo-French Trade Union Council. The circular adds that the French delegation denounces most strongly the agitation which, Communists and their auxiliaries are conducting in Britain in an effort to break down friendly British and French trades union collaboration.

The purpose of this nropnganda is to undermine the national nower and resistance of both countries, the circular says.