V. Has been active in the furtherance of the objects of the BUF.
With what was written above about Domvile’s association with Mosley, it follows that Domvile was happy to support the objects of the BUF. This was mainly in respect of its policies on the British Empire which were to defend and further its interests around the world. That Domvile was closely supportive of furthering the objects of the BUF was clearly seen in the secret meeting to agree a ‘purity campaign’ that he would lead with another fascist, Captain Pitt-Rivers. This was a campaign to ensure that the objects of the BUF were not harmed by the wrong elements being admitted to the organisation. Furthermore, his writings in Action as Canute were designed to promote views which were central to the BUF.
VI. Has since the outbreak of war discussed with Sir Oswald Mosley and other prominent members of the BUF the coordination of Fascist activities and the achievement of Fascist revolution in this country.
Domvile made a great play about closing down the Link on the outbreak of the war in 1939, with the king’s enemies being his enemies. However, this did not prevent him continuing to meet with Mosley, Pitt-Rivers, Gordon-Canning and others to ‘discuss the progress of the war’. The king was never a problem for Domvile; it was always the government he had problems with. Again, background is important. Oswald Mosley had long tried to get to power through the Conservative and Labour Parties. He even had tried to organise his own Party to achieve this. All these avenues failed and he became an isolated figure from the mainstream of politics. As a Fascist, Mosley believed in the idea of Corporatist government and the abandonment of traditional democracy. The strong hand of leadership by Mussolini and Hitler was attractive as a style suited to ensure the implementation of this form of Government.
We know from Domvile’s writing that he also liked the idea of Corporatist government as he outlined in The Protocols and the Push for World Government. Once again, Domvile was outlining the conspiracy of the ‘One World Order’. He saw this as a threat to the Empire. Arguing that ‘The Government was committed to a policy whose details it was not prepared to communicate to the public,’ he also derided the idea of Trade Unions as Communist-inspired and went on to describe what he felt was best for the workers; this was the idea of ‘National Guilds’. This was allied to the control of industry by its Guild workers with the ideas of ‘Social Credit’ and would flow through all parts of society including schools. These ideas are similar ideas to those underlining Hitler’s arguments in National Socialism and the 25-point Programme of the Nazis. Hitler himself had also argued against Communism and Capitalism. Indeed, Hitler and the Nazis believed in the medieval corporatist society and that a Germanic tribal society of peasants should serve as paradigms for the Third Reich. The whole idea of Corporatism is seen in these views and Domvile’s rant against Government is also seen in the final passage of the document:
‘The former [his ideas] is LIBERTY. The latter [government ideas] is capitalistic regimentation of the worst order, and Englishmen will never lie down behind an iron curtain and allow their Crippses, Attlees and Churchills to spout deceptive words about liberty and prosperity while hammering on the shackles of nationalised slavery in a carefully calculated level of rationed poverty for us all.’
Therefore, Mosley and Domvile would be ideal bedfellows for each other in their ideas for an alternative Government; both would have welcomed a form of Anglicised Fascist rule under royalty in Britain. We saw from Domvile’s comments about the return of Edward VIII as a sign of this. Indeed, Mosley’s own words after his arrest are clear. ‘I will continue to do my best to provide people with the possibility of an alternative government.’ Domvile had also allowed Whittleton to take over the Acton branch, and Whittleton had argued for a move from democracy to a government that would oppose Jewry. In his Canute articles in Action, Domvile continually attacked the Government and even suggested that Mosley and other Fascists should be brought into the government’s council.
In this last point is how a ‘Fascist Revolution’ in this country would have been a possibility. Hitler had been agitating for years against the elected German government, just as Mosley had done against the British government. Eventually, Hitler was invited to join the German government to bring peace to the country. This is probably what Mosley had always wanted for Britain and had failed to do through the normal political channels. We know that many secret meeting had been held with Domvile, Mosley, Ramsay, Pitt-Rivers and other Fascist leaders in the country. There is no doubt from what has been written by these people and by what MI5 discovered through agents that they indeed would have welcomed a change of government. Their government would have immediately sought peace with Germany and allowed Hitler to pursue his own plans, whilst they pursued the idea of Empire. The question was always how they would bring about their schemes and the evidence suggests that it would be by infiltration of Government rather than violence. It would appear that this was the substance of the secret meetings that Domvile attended.
Guilty or Not Guilty?
With all this in mind we can turn to the detention of Domvile and consider whether it was a step that had to be taken. Before that however, the whole idea of detention of anyone without trial and due process has to be looked at as a matter of principal. When the regulation came to parliament there was considerable concern about detention without trial. On 31 October 1939, Mr Dingle Foot spoke for many MPs in the House:
‘I come now to the detention of suspects. Nobody can dispute that in these regulations the suspect may be imprisoned without trial for an indefinite time. It is true that there is an advisory committee before whom he can state his objections, but I do not think any hon. Member, certainly no hon. or right hon. Member from the Treasury Bench, will say that that is a proper substitute for trial in a court of law.’
Sir J Anderson in the same debate stated:
‘The Regulation 18B is designed to enable the Secretary of State to take action which is essential in the public interest in regard to persons who are not technically enemy aliens. There are many such persons, British subjects, who are entirely alien in sentiment and are British subjects only by reason of a technicality.’
Whilst in a time of war the government was able to detain enemy aliens, British subjects were always immune from such threat. Now the government felt it right that even British subjects who showed sympathy with an enemy should come under the same scope. There were attempts to get the government to seek a judge’s order to endorse such detentions but this was defeated. In the end, despite all opposition the Regulations were passed. The concern was for the safety of the Realm and to ensure that those considered as a threat to the country in war time could be removed from circulation and any possibility of supporting the enemy avoided. So in this wider view, many were considered a danger and thus detained. However, because there was no judicial review, it is true that many were incarcerated who should never have been detained and who would never have harmed their country. Therefore, if there is a view that any detention of a citizen of a country without due legal process is wrong, then Domvile should never have been detained.
However, with the detention legislation in place, we can look at the more specific case of Domvile and the decision to detain him. There is no doubt that Domvile held pro-Nazi, anti-Semitic, and Fascist views. It is also clear that he would have welcomed a change of government that would make peace with Germany. There is no evidence that suggests he would have involved himself in a violent overthrow of authority, but rather would look to a peaceful transition.
Furthermore, would the former admiral who had served his country assist the enemy in time of war? MI5’s view was that Domvile was a ‘bit of a fool, who liked a drink and had mistresses’. They believed he liked the kudos of his title and rank and wanted to be seen to be important. They also considered whilst Domvile would not aid a German invasion, if one occurred and was successful he might possibly become involved in a post-invasion administration. This has credibility, if the Nazis
would maintain the idea of the restoration of the Duke of Windsor. Having reviewed the documents and material relating to Domvile, one gets the impression that this old admiral would be happy to be involved in a bloodless and very British coup, one in which the king was in charge of an Empire and with a country that was free of foreign influences, particularly Jewish. A country that did not have the inconvenience of democracy but was governed by Corporatism were both capitalism and unions were tightly controlled - a country where everyone knew their station in life. Ultimately it could be deduced from the Secret Service records and the many comments that Domvile in himself was not a problem, but that it was the use others might make of him that was the issue.
It does appear that often he would be deceived by those around him, like Carroll and his admiration for Mosley which blinded him to that man’s manipulation. From all evidence it appears that whilst he had contact with Germans and he may have felt important, they in turn do not seem to have held him in any great significance; that was also the conclusion of MI5. One does get the impression of a man who held the prejudices of his peers around him at the time, and who let his concern for the Empire blind him to everything else. There is no doubt that he did go down the route of friendship with Germany as an ideal, but allowed himself to be hijacked by people with a totally different agenda. As matters progressed, he appears to have more and more been consumed with the idea of conspiracy and allowed his own prejudices to develop and for them to be encouraged by men like Carroll, Mosley and Ramsay.
Domvile unfortunately appeared naïve in his dealings with these more dangerous men who would have delighted in either of them being the Emperor in Domvile’s Empire. Domvile was seduced by the Nazi and Fascist propaganda. Goebbels himself said, ‘The essence of propaganda consists in winning people over to an idea so sincerely, so vitally, that in the end they succumb to it utterly and can never again escape from it.’
This is indeed what appears to have happened to Domvile. None of this excuses Domvile from taking responsibility for his actions, but in the end he was a dangerous and deluded old fool, who for his own sake, the authorities believed needed to be given a berth in Brixton.
Even though he continued after the war to be involved in far Right politics, it was always as a name, and the detention without trial was his badge of merit and passport into the hearts of the extremists of the far Right. In the end, there is no doubt that Domvile’s views are repugnant to any decent civilised mind and should be challenged and rejected but it is unlikely he would have done anything deliberately to harm his country. Indeed, Domvile, the Munich Man, asked the question, ‘I wonder what our descendants a hundred years hence will have to say about it?’ referring to the Munich Agreement. What Hitler said of those that made the agreement is telling. ‘I saw my enemies in Munich, and they are worms.’ Surely, therefore, the answer to Domvile’s question is written by the blood of the 85 million worldwide who died in the Second World War and those whose bodies went up in the smoke of Auschwitz and the other death camps of Europe. There is no doubt in most military minds that the appeasement of Hitler allowed him to develop his strategies and a stronger response right from the beginning would have changed history. Even Neville Chamberlain eventually noted, ‘It is perfectly evident surely now that force is the only argument Germany understands.’ Indeed, MI5 had sent a report to Chamberlain saying that he should ‘not delay for a minute to prepare ... for a total war’ which unfortu-nately he ignored.
We turn to Domvile’s friend Goebbels to show us the how Domvile was fooled into joining with those in Britain who espoused Nazism and Fascism and wanted their own dictatorial government:
‘We enter parliament in order to supply ourselves, in the arsenal of democracy, with its own weapons. If democracy is so stupid as to give us free tickets and salaries for this bear’s work – that is its affair. We do not come as friends, nor even as neutrals. We come as enemies. As the wolf bursts into the flock, so we come.’
Bibliography and Sources
Resources consulted
Griffiths, Richard, Travellers of the Right, Oxford University Press, 1983.
Lockhart, Sir Robert Bruce, The Diaries of Sir Robert Bruce Lockhart, Volume 1, Macmillan, 1973.
Luther, Martin, The Jews & Their Lies, 1543 Christian Nationalist Crusade 1948 ed.
Reid Gannon, Franklin, The British Press and Germany, Clarendon Press, 1971. Sutton, Claud, Farewell to Rousseau, Christophers, 1936.
Tennant, E W D, True Account, Max Parish, 1957.
Zámečník, Stanislav, That Was Dachau, Le Cherche Midi, 2004.
Ziegler, Philip, King Edward V111, Collins, 1990.
Periodicals and Newspapers
Whitman, Alden, Career Built on Style and Dash Ended with Invasion of Egypt, Anthony Eden’s Obituary, New York Times, January 15 1977.
Graves, Philip, ‘The Truth about the Protocols: A Literary Forgery’, August 16–18, The Times of London, 1921.
Arnold-Foster, W, Germany’s Concentration Camps: Nineteenth Century and After, Leonard Scott Pub. Co, 1933.
Rheinsbaben, Baron von, Vers Une Europe Nouvelle, Presented at a lecture in Maison de la Chimie in Paris, 1941.
Archives
MI5 Files Barry Domvile, Captain Maule Ramsay, Oswald Mosley, National Archives, London.
British Newspapers Archive 1935–1946.
British Union of Fascists Newspaper, Action 1930-1945.
The Patriot Newspaper, 1920–1945.
The Age Newspaper.
Records of the January Club.
Hansard 1930–1945.
The Diaries of Admiral Sir Barry Domvile 1934–1960, courtesy of the Caird Library at The National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London whose staff were ever helpful and efficient.
Admiral Domvile.
courtesy of http://www.dumville.org
Prime Minister Chamberlain meeting Hitler in 1938.
© Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H1216-0500-002/o.Ang
Adolf Hitler.
© Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H1216 0500-002/o.Ang
The Beer Hall Putsch conspirators.
© Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1977-082-35/Hoffman
The Treaty of Versailles.
Oswald Mosley and Benito Mussolini 1936, probably taken by an Italian official photographer or an official photographer for the Italian press.
Professor Arthur Pillans Laurie, 1861–1949. WP:NFCC#4
The Nazis dismantle an Austrian border post, March 1938. © Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-H12478/o.Ang
The flag of British Union (Red background, Blue Circle and white flash).
Captain Ramsay.
Women at work during the First World War, showing Sophie Mary Allen (right).
Q108495, from the collections of the Imperial War Museums. Licensed under Public Domain
William Norman Birkett, Elliott & Fry Ltd.
Statue by Konrad Knoll, Braunau, 1866.
Lady Domvile, C. E. Carroll (left) and Prof. Laurie.
Joachim von Ribbentrop posing with a photograph of Adolf Hitler.
© Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-18087/Pahl, Georg
The Right Honourable Sir George Clerk GCMB, CB.
Rear Admiral Beamish MP.
William Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw).
George Ward Price meeting Adolf Hitler.
Domvile’s book, with a common anti-Jewish caricature swatting a starfish in the shape of a Swastika.
The Duke of Windsor reviewing stormtroopers.
© Bundesarchiv, Bild 102-17964/Pahl, Georg
Kristallnacht.
© Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1970-083-42/o.Ang
Newspaper report of Parliament’s discussion on Quislings, including Domvile.
Admiral Domvile’s article wrongly predicting peace.
Domvile’s book on his detention experience.
Barry Domvile, C. E. Carroll, Raymond Beazley and A. P. Laurie.
Barry Domvile and family, 1932. © The National Portrait Gallery, London
The badge of the In
ternational Fascist League clearly shows their pro-Nazism.
The Link badge showing Domvile’s intentions of linking Germany to England.
Admiral Domvile and his wife with the photograph of Hitler and a stormtrooper Statuette.
© PA Images, London
Hitler's Munich Man Page 19