“REPORTS FROM DEPARTMENTS”

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25445, 17 March 1948, Page 5

“REPORTS FROM DEPARTMENTS”

• “The Government’s decision that no known Communist Or Fascist is to be retained in employment ‘vital to the security of the State’ follows consultations between the Home Office, the War Office, Scotland Yard, and the Law Officers of the Crown,” says the “Daily Telegraph.” “Detailed reports compiled by these departments over the past year have convinced the Government that there is danger to the country’s security unless certain subversive elements are eliminated from the staffs employed in secret or specialised Government work.” According to the political correspondent of the “Daily Herald’- the number bf persons involved in the comb-out is nbt likely to be large. The classes affected, he says, may include the personal secretaries to Ministers, who see all confidential documents circulated to Cabinet or hold key positions in the defence departments, the Ministry of Supply, the Home Office and the Foreign Office. in a leading article the “Daily Herald” says: “The Government’s de-

cision will have the Labour movement’s unflinching support. The Labour movement stands for the right of political parties, however unpopular they may be, to express their opinions with complete freedom, and that right is not affected bv the Government’s decision. “Communists and Fascists may continue their propaganda in the most violent terms, but their policies are directed towards the overthrowing of the democratic system by which Britain lives. Such people must not be allowed to possess secrets which, if disclosed to other Powers, Would impair Britain’s safety,” Professor J. B. S. Haldane, who said he was at present working without payment on two Government scientific sub-committees, told the "Dally Express” last night that he certainly was a Communist, “as good a Communist as anyone,” but he did not get orders from Moscow. “If I did I would leave the Communist Party forthwith, but sometimes I wish we did get orders from Moscow, because I would like to know what they’re thinking," he said.