January 2009

Last month I touched on the Hidden Hand, an alleged German conspiracy during the First World War, supposedly undermining the British war effort from within. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately!) my sources don't include some of the more extreme publications pushing this conspiracy theory, but I have looked at the Daily Mail, which has published the occasional intemperate article over the years. Here are some examples of Germanophobic scaremongering from the summer of 1917.

On 13 June 1917, London was hit by the worst air raid of the war. 162 people were killed and 432 wounded when a handful of Gotha bombers attacked the city in broad daylight. There was no warning and little sign of any air defences, which was a bit of a shock given that London's first air raid took place more than two years earlier. Naturally people were angry, and looked for somebody to blame. On 21 June, the City of London's Common Council met (following a deputation to the Home Secretary) to discuss what should be done in response, or rather what they should request the government to do in response. One idea was to give warnings to the public when enemy aircraft approached London, so that they could take cover. Another was to intensively bomb German cities in reprisal. But the proposal to which the Daily Mail devoted the most space was that enemy aliens should be interned.

Cuthbert Wilkinson, one of the councillors, seemed to have the most to say. He brandished a letter before his peers, the contents of which would 'simply astonish you all' if he were to read them out; the government had been informed but was unable to act because of 'the difficulty of absolute substantiation'. But

There are dozens and dozens of cases of enemy aliens working, and no doubt plotting, among us. If we could only get one out of every dozen it would be something, but apparently we can't! And they laugh at us!

For example, he mentioned a large London hotel, which

was managed and run by men who once were Germans and now are British. It is frequented by a large number of soldiers returning from the front. Conversation is open and unrestricted here -- and you may be sure that the ears of the enemy alien are not closed!

Just what the connection between enemy aliens and air raids was is not actually made clear, though a leading article in the same edition said something about 'the unrequited onslaught of the Huns upon the poor bodies of the little London children'. The Daily Mail thought the call for internment was 'quite in accord with the ancient spirit of the City', so often 'quicker to express the common sense of the people that their elected representatives in the House of Commons'.
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