Eighty years ago this week Britain condemns a traitor to death

 

William Joyce ("Lord Haw Haw") the Fascist leader,  who had fled to Germany on the outbreak of war and broadcast Nazi propaganda to Britain, was sentenced to death for treason after a trial which lasted a couple of days; the jury deliberated for only twenty three minutes. He pled not guilty and there was no argument about the facts; the case turned entirely on a legal point. Joyce had been born in the USA to an Irish father who was a naturalized American. Joyce was never legally a British citizen although he had lived in the country since childhood. He had obtained a British passport  by making a false declaration and this - together with a false claim to being British when he was joining his university OTC - was held to show that he "owed allegiance to the King" and could thus commit treason.

Prime minister Attlee and Lord Wavell, the Viceroy of India who had returned there after discussions with the government in London, each made broadcasts about the future of the sub-continent. Both repeated the commitment given in the King's speech to an early move to full self-government. That was the easy part. Finding a satisfactory form of self-government was the hard part. The Congress Party had decided to participate in the upcoming legislative elections but against the wishes of its radical elements. The Moslem community was no more unanimous in its intentions.

Soon after his arrival in Tokyo General Macarthur, now Supreme Commander in the Pacific and thus in charge of Japan, publicly announced that 200,000 US troops would be sufficient to maintain rule in Japan  within six months. Working with the existing Japanese government obviated the need for a full military occupation. Other troops above this figure could swiftly be sent back to the US. He was instantly rebuked by Washington, less for the substance of his statement, than for the appearance that it gave of making policy independent of the US government and outwith the military chain of command.