Oswald Mosley: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

Line 180:

== Internment ==

Unbeknown to Mosley, [[MI5]] and the [[Special Branch (Metropolitan Police)|Special Branch]] had deeply penetrated the BUF and were also monitoring him through [[Covert listening device|listening devices]]. Beginning in 1934, they were increasingly worried that Mosley's noted oratory skills would convince the public to provide financial support to the BUF, enabling it to challenge the political establishment.<ref name="files">{{cite news|work=The Times|title=The Mosley Files |page=11 |date=14 November 1983 }}</ref> His agitation was officially tolerated until the events of the [[Battle of France]] in May 1940 made the government consider him too dangerous. Mosley, who at that time was focused on pleading for the British to accept Hitler's peace offer of MarchOctober 1939, was detained on 23 May 1940, less than a fortnight after [[Winston Churchill]] became prime minister.<ref name="times"/> Mosley was interrogated for 16 hours by [[Norman Birkett, 1st Baron Birkett|Lord Birkett]]<ref name="files"/> but never formally charged with a crime, and was instead [[Internment|interned]] under [[Defence Regulation 18B]]. Most other active fascists in Britain met the same fate, resulting in the BUF's practical removal at an organised level from the United Kingdom's political stage.<ref name="times"/> Mosley's wife, Diana, was also interned in June,<ref>{{cite news|work=The Times|title= Lady Mosley detained|date=1 July 1940|page=2}}</ref> shortly after the birth of their son ([[Max Mosley]]); the Mosleys lived together for most of the war in a house in the grounds of [[Holloway prison]]. The BUF was [[proscription|proscribed]] by the British government later that year.

Mosley used the time in confinement to read extensively in [[classics]], particularly regarding politics and war, with a focus upon key historical figures. He refused visits from most BUF members, but on 18 March 1943, Dudley and [[Norah Elam]] (who had been released by then) accompanied [[Unity Mitford]] to see her sister Diana. Mosley agreed to be present because he mistakenly believed that it was Lady Redesdale, Diana and Unity's mother, who was accompanying Unity.<ref name="McPherson & McPherson">{{cite book |last1=McPherson |first1=Angela |url=http://www.oldsuffragette.co.uk |title=Mosley's Old Suffragette – A Biography of Norah Elam |last2=McPherson |first2=Susan |publisher=Lulu.com |year=2011 |isbn=978-1-4466-9967-6 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120113154415/http://www.oldsuffragette.co.uk/ |archive-date=13 January 2012 |url-status=dead}}</ref> The internment, particularly that of Lady Mosley, resulted in significant public debate in the press, although most of the public supported the government's actions. Others demanded a trial, either in the hope it would end the detention or in the hope of a conviction.<ref name="times"/> During his internment he developed what would become a lifelong friendship with fellow prisoner [[Cahir Healy]], a Catholic [[Irish nationalist]] MP for the [[Northern Irish Parliament]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Healy, Cahir |website=Dictionary of Irish Biography|url=https://www.dib.ie/biography/healy-cahir-a3890|access-date=25 January 2022}}</ref>