--- title: Herbert Morrison url: https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/herbert-morrison/ description: 7 verified quotes from Herbert Morrison, Home Secretary and Minister of Home Security, with sources. section: FRAME --- ![Illustration: a Second World War naval-intelligence collage of a Pacific theatre map, aerial reconnaissance photographs and radar plots.](https://propagandaarchive.org/static/generated/detail/hero-wwii-pacific.jpg) [Quotes](https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/) · United Kingdom # Herbert Morrison Home Secretary and Minister of Home Security · United Kingdom On the regime page: [Churchill wartime government](https://propagandaarchive.org/regimes/churchill-government/#herbert-morrison) 7 quotes, oldest first. [Filter with other speakers](https://propagandaarchive.org/quotes/#speaker=herbert-morrison). 1. > “This action has been taken not because of any recent change or development in the character of these publications, nor because of the appearance therein of some particular article or articles, but because it is and has been for a long period the settled and continuous policy of these papers to try to create in their readers a state of mind in which they will refrain from co-operating in the national war effort and may become ready to hinder that effort. It is my firm conviction that freedom of the Press should be maintained even at the risk that it may sometimes be abused. If in newspapers which share the national determination to win the war there is occasionally published matter which, though not intended to be harmful to the national interest, may nevertheless have a prejudicial effect, I recognise that the inestimable advantage of maintaining a free Press far outweighs the risks which such freedom may sometimes entail.” — January 22, 1941 · Statement · London, House of Commons — Statement in reply to William Gallacher MP on the suppression of the Daily Worker and The Week under Defence Regulation 2D. Morrison was Home Secretary. — House of Commons, statement by Private Notice question, 22 January 1941, HC Deb vol. 368, c186 [Source](https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1941/jan/22/daily-worker-and-the-week-suppression) 2. > “Any step which has even the appearance of a departure from our traditional policy of allowing freedom for the expression of minority opinions must be a matter for regret. The policy of the Government is to make the minimum use, even in time of war, of methods of repression, and to confine such action to those forces, all of them agents or allies of reaction, which would consciously or unconsciously place impediments in the way of our war effort and thus help the enemy.” — January 22, 1941 · Statement · London, House of Commons — Closing passage of the same statement on the suppression of the Daily Worker and The Week. — House of Commons, statement by Private Notice question, 22 January 1941, HC Deb vol. 368, c187 [Source](https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1941/jan/22/daily-worker-and-the-week-suppression) 3. > “I do not want to suppress opinion for the sake of suppressing it, but it is my duty to take any action necessary for the furtherance of the security of the country and the success of the war. My hon. Friend must take it from me that I shall do anything necessary for that purpose.” — March 27, 1941 · Statement · London, House of Commons — Reply to Aneurin Bevan MP after Sir Waldron Smithers MP asked the Home Secretary to act against pamphlets succeeding the suppressed Daily Worker. — House of Commons, oral answers, 27 March 1941, HC Deb vol. 370, c688 [Source](https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1941/mar/27/communist-propaganda) 4. > “The object of this Regulation is to provide in time of war a power to detain on grounds of national security persons of hostile origin or associations and persons whose dangerous activities cannot be dealt with by criminal proceedings.” — June 12, 1941 · Statement · London, House of Commons — Reply to Walter Loftus MP, who asked how many people detained under Defence Regulation 18B had been brought to trial. — House of Commons, oral answers, 12 June 1941, HC Deb vol. 372, c318 [Source](https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1941/jun/12/detainees) 5. > “The cartoon in question is only one example, but a particularly evil example, of the policy and methods of a newspaper which, intent on exploiting an appetite for sensation and with a reckless indifference to the national interest and to the prejudicial effect on the war effort, has repeatedly published scurrilous misrepresentations, distorted and exaggerated statements and irresponsible generalisations.” — March 19, 1942 · Statement · London, House of Commons — Reply to a Private Notice question from Sir Edward Spens MP about a Daily Mirror cartoon, in which Morrison announced that the Government had warned the paper under Defence Regulation 2D. — House of Commons, statement by Private Notice question, 19 March 1942, HC Deb vol. 378, c1665 [Source](https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1942/mar/19/daily-mirror-cartoon) 6. > “On this point I can only say that, while considerations of national security must come first, I am not prepared, subject to this overriding consideration, to let anyone die in detention unnecessarily.” — November 23, 1943 · Statement · London, House of Commons — From Morrison's statement on his decision to release Sir Oswald Mosley and Lady Mosley from detention under Defence Regulation 18B on medical advice, subject to restrictions. The release was debated in the House on 1 December 1943. — House of Commons, 23 November 1943, HC Deb vol. 393, c1430 [Source](https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1943/nov/23/sir-oswald-and-lady-mosley-release) 7. > “I mention—merely to dismiss it as an absurdity—the suggestion made in certain quarters that the decision to release at this date on medical grounds a man who stands for a doctrine almost universally detested in this country and whose influence is greatly diminished, indicated that there is a weakening on the part of the Government or myself in our determination to root out the evil cancer of Fascism. If I were to allow myself, in the exercise of the drastic power of detention without trial entrusted to me by Parliament as an exceptional war-time measure, to depart from the judicial frame of mind and to be influenced—not by considerations of the public safety—but by personal dislike or political opposition, I should no doubt be able to give entire satisfaction to many of my present critics, but I should be abusing the powers afforded by Regulation 18B and betraying the trust reposed in to me by Parliament that those powers would be exercised in a judicial spirit and solely for the purpose of national security. Any departure from these principles of administration would involve grave danger to the maintenance of constitutional democratic government and might set a precedent which in other circumstances no one would regret more than many of my critics of to-day.” — November 23, 1943 · Statement · London, House of Commons — From the same statement on the release of Sir Oswald Mosley, answering the charge that release signalled a weakening of the Government's attitude to Fascism. — House of Commons, 23 November 1943, HC Deb vol. 393, cc1432-1433 [Source](https://api.parliament.uk/historic-hansard/commons/1943/nov/23/sir-oswald-and-lady-mosley-release)