Main Performers | Mrs Dacre Fox, Lord Bereford, Major Harland Bowden, Dr Ellis Powell, Lieutenant-Colonel Faber, Sir Edward Nicholl, Sir Ernest Wild - speakers |
Set List | Resolution - The immediate internment of all enemy aliens, whether naturalised or not, in the UK. |
Performance Notes | Mrs Norah Dacre Fox (18781961), the event's promoter, was a militant suffragette, anti-vivisectionist, feminist and fascist. In 1918 she stood as an independent candidate in Richmond (Surrey) for election to Parliament but was not elected. The same year she campaigned for the internment of enemy aliens in collaboration with the British Empire Union and the National Party.
"About 8,000 persons attended the anti-alien meeting in the Albert Hall last night. Much enthusiasm was shown, and a resolution in favour of the immediate internment of all persons of enemy blood, whether naturalized or not, without distinction of sex or position, was carried unanimously." (The Times, 31 July 1918).
'The Hall was as tightly packed as it had been for some while, one reason perhaps being that the entire audience of 8,000 had been admitted free. Its members heard, and applauded, suggestions that the 'hidden Hand' of Germans inside the British Government must be wiped out - the hidden hand which, it was claimed, had allowed thousands of German reservists to return to their native country at the beginning of the war. A resolution was passed calling for the immediate internment of all persons of enemy blood, whether naturalised or not, without distinction of sex or position' (The Royal Albert Hall, Ronald W Clark, 1958)
Previously booked for 4 August 1918. |