THERE IS SOME hope that the Government's conduct in the
Lang case may yet turn out to have been the last straw on the patient back of public opinion. I may be over-optimistic, but I have the feeling that the 'campaign for the limitation of secret police powers,' beginning so soon after this latest demonstration of the State's power over the private individual, will start rolling a ball that the bureaucrats will not be able to stop. The campaign is to be launched next Wednesday at the Caxton Hall by Messrs. Benn Levy, Joseph Grimond, J. B. Priestley, Will Griffiths and Aneurin Bevan. It should be a rousing evening and I am sorry that there will be no Tory on the platform (although one Conservative MP, Mr. David Ormsby Gore, is supporting the campaign). The speakers will urge first and foremost that the rules governing employment on security work should be approved by Parliament and made known to every person engaged on it. If someone is to be removed (as Mr. Lang was) he should be given the charges in writing and told of his right of appeal. It is to be suggested that, over and above the 'Three Advisers,' appeals should be heard in camera by three High Court judges who would also examine the security officers concerned. This, or something on these lines, is long overdue and I hope that the campaign leads to a successful conclusion. * ' *
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