By late 1944 the British state were extremely aware of
War Commentary because for some time the
Special Branch and
MI5 had been spying on those who were involved in it. However, the state had not taken action against anyone. Then the situation dramatically changed as a result of four actions which the editors undertook. Initially, in late October they sent to the subscribers of the journal the latest issue of the
Freedom Press Forces Letter which John Olday had been writing and producing. Then, in November the editors published a series of three articles under the heading ‘All power to the soviets’ by Michael Peterson: 'All power to the Soviets', 'All power to the Soviets China' and 'All power to the Soviets (3-4)'. The state responded by arresting the four editors of
War Commentary: Berneri, Hewetson, Richards and Sansom, and charging them with conspiring to cause disaffection among members of the armed forces under
Defence Regulation 39a. Also, Inspector Whitehead of
Scotland Yard, accompanied by four officers, raided the offices of
Freedom Press in
Belsize Road,
London Borough of Camden and searched them and the three people who were working there with recourse to Defence Regulation 88A. Very soon after the raid, Berneri and Richards asked Woodcock to meet them at
Camden Town Tube Station. When they met, they told him that the police 'had shown a special interest in the typewriter on which the appeal to the soldiers had been prepared.' The reason they told him this information was that he had typed the stencils for the manifesto on his typewriter and that if he was caught there would be nobody else left to run
War Commentary. At the end of the meeting, Berneri asked Woodcock directly if he would take over the running of the newspaper, to which he agreed. For Woodcock to run
War Commentary he needed to regularize his situation by registering his change of address. After he had done so he immediately contacted
Herbert Read for support. And, within a few days they persuaded
T. S. Eliot,
E. M. Forster,
Stephen Spender,
George Orwell,
Dylan Thomas and several other well-known writers to sign letters in protest about the raid on
Freedom Press. Their letters were published in the
New Statesman and
Tribune, and were followed shortly afterwards by the arrests of the four editors, who were charged and released on bail. The subsequent four-day trial of the editors at the
Old Bailey received significant coverage from the press. Woodcock later observed: The
Freedom Press Defence Committee was launched, which included notable figures such as
George Orwell,
Simon Watson Taylor,
Herbert Read,
Harold Laski,
Kingsley Martin,
Benjamin Britten,
Augustus John, and
Bertrand Russell. The trial concluded with Richards, Sansom and Hewetson being sentenced to nine months imprisonment; the charges against Berneri were dropped as legally a wife could not be prosecuted for conspiring with her husband, about which she was reportedly furious. Three events happened shortly after the trial. Two events related to the name of
War Commentary. In its 11 August (Volume 6. No. 21) issue, the
masthead included the announcement that the title of the next issue would be
FREEDOM through Anarchism (emboldening in the original). Subsequently the title was shortened to
Freedom. The third event was that the
Freedom Press Defence Committee was renamed as the
Freedom Defence Committee to expand its scope. These events were followed by the eventual release of the defendants – two of whom, Richards and Hewetson, lost their jobs – who returned to their previous tasks of editing and running
Express Printers. == Notes ==