Editing Defence Regulation 18B (section)

==Expansion in May 1940==
The authorities dramatically revised their approach to the British far right in the late spring of 1940. The recent rapid [[Quisling regime|seizure of power]] in [[Norway]] by [[Vidkun Quisling]] raised the possibility of a [[fifth column]] deposing the British government. The fall of the [[Low Countries]] and the invasion of [[France]] led to fear of invasion. Then on 20 May 1940 a raid on the home of [[Tyler Kent]], a cypher clerk at the U.S. Embassy, revealed that Kent had stolen copies of thousands of telegrams, including those between [[Winston Churchill]] and [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt|Franklin Roosevelt]]. Kent was an associate of [[Archibald Maule Ramsay]], an openly [[antisemitic]] MP. This opened the possibility that Ramsay might use parliamentary privilege to reveal the telegrams, which Churchill had not told the Cabinet about. It would also reveal Roosevelt was trying to help Churchill while proclaiming his support for neutrality in public. The Cabinet decided in favour of widespread detentions of the far right on 22 May. This required an amended version of the Regulation, known as 18B (1A). 

One of the first to be arrested, in the early morning of 23 May, was [[Oswald Mosley|Sir Oswald Mosley]]. Others arrested later included [[Admiral]] [[Barry Domvile|Sir Barry Domvile]] and [[Reginald Goodall|Sir Reginald Goodall]]. Popular reaction was strongly in favour,{{Citation needed|date=March 2013}} and one reader wrote to ''[[The Times]]'' to note with satisfaction that news of Mosley's arrest had been carried in the fifth column<ref>The [[fifth column]] is a term often used to describe undercover traitors</ref> of the page.{{cn|date=August 2020}} By December 1940 there were more than a thousand detainees in custody.