Defence of the Realm Act 1914
Encyclopedia
The Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) was passed in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the formal name of the United Kingdom during the period when what is now the Republic of Ireland formed a part of it....

 on 8 August 1914, during the early weeks of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. It gave the government
Government of the United Kingdom
Her Majesty's Government is the central government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. The Government is led by the Prime Minister, who selects all the remaining Ministers...

 wide-ranging powers during the war period, such as the power to requisition
Eminent domain
Eminent domain , compulsory purchase , resumption/compulsory acquisition , or expropriation is an action of the state to seize a citizen's private property, expropriate property, or seize a citizen's rights in property with due monetary compensation, but without the owner's consent...

 buildings or land needed for the war effort
War effort
In politics and military planning, a war effort refers to a coordinated mobilization of society's resources—both industrial and human—towards the support of a military force...

, or to make regulations creating criminal offences. Some of the things the British public were not allowed to do included flying a kite
Kite
A kite is a tethered aircraft. The necessary lift that makes the kite wing fly is generated when air flows over and under the kite's wing, producing low pressure above the wing and high pressure below it. This deflection also generates horizontal drag along the direction of the wind...

, lighting a bonfire, buying binoculars
Binoculars
Binoculars, field glasses or binocular telescopes are a pair of identical or mirror-symmetrical telescopes mounted side-by-side and aligned to point accurately in the same direction, allowing the viewer to use both eyes when viewing distant objects...

, feeding wild animals bread, discussing naval and military matters or buying alcohol
Alcoholic beverage
An alcoholic beverage is a drink containing ethanol, commonly known as alcohol. Alcoholic beverages are divided into three general classes: beers, wines, and spirits. They are legally consumed in most countries, and over 100 countries have laws regulating their production, sale, and consumption...

 on public transport
Public transport
Public transport is a shared passenger transportation service which is available for use by the general public, as distinct from modes such as taxicab, car pooling or hired buses which are not shared by strangers without private arrangement.Public transport modes include buses, trolleybuses, trams...

. Alcoholic beverages were watered down and pub opening times were restricted to noon–3pm and 6:30pm–9:30pm (the requirement for an afternoon gap in permitted hours lasted in England until the Licensing Act 1988
Licensing Act 1988
The Licensing Act 1988 is a statute, applying to England and Wales, which among other things, extended permissible opening hours for public houses to 11am to 11pm. Previously pubs were not generally allowed to open the afternoons....

 was brought into force). DORA ushered in a variety of authoritarian social control
Social control
Social control refers generally to societal and political mechanisms or processes that regulate individual and group behavior, leading to conformity and compliance to the rules of a given society, state, or social group. Many mechanisms of social control are cross-cultural, if only in the control...

 mechanisms, such as censorship
Censorship
thumb|[[Book burning]] following the [[1973 Chilean coup d'état|1973 coup]] that installed the [[Military government of Chile |Pinochet regime]] in Chile...

.

Intention

The law was designed to help prevent invasion and to keep morale at home high. It imposed censorship of journalism and of letters coming home from the front line. The press was subject to controls on reporting troop movements, numbers or any other operational information that could be exploited by the enemy. People who breached the regulations with intent to assist the enemy could be sentenced to death. 10 people were executed under the regulations.

Though some provisions of DORA may seem strange, they did have their purposes. Flying a kite or lighting a bonfire could attract Zeppelin
Zeppelin
A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship pioneered by the German Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin in the early 20th century. It was based on designs he had outlined in 1874 and detailed in 1893. His plans were reviewed by committee in 1894 and patented in the United States on 14 March 1899...

s, and after rationing was introduced in 1917, feeding wild animals was a waste of food.

The first person to be arrested under DORA was John Maclean
John Maclean (Scottish socialist)
John Maclean MA was a Scottish schoolteacher and revolutionary socialist. He is primarily known as a Marxist educator and notable for his outspoken opposition to the First World War....

, a Marxist
Marxism
Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...

 and Clydeside revolutionary
Red Clydeside
Red Clydeside is a term used to describe the era of political radicalism that characterised the city of Glasgow in Scotland, and urban areas around the city on the banks of the River Clyde such as Clydebank, Greenock and Paisley...

, for uttering statements deemed prejudiced against recruiting. He was fined £5 but refused to pay and so spent five nights in prison and
was subsequently dismissed from his post as a teacher by the Govan Board of Education.

Excerpts

The original Defence of the Realm Act was barely more than a paragraph long:
The original act was amended more than once, however, firstly on 28 August 1914 and then by the Defence of the Realm Consolidation Act on 27 November 1914, which contained the following:

United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland

The Act was followed by the Defence of the Realm (No. 2) Act 1914, the Defence of the Realm Consolidation Act 1914 (which repealed both predecessors) and the Defence of the Realm Act 1915, in total being amended and extended six times over the course of the War.

At the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939 a similar act was passed, the Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939
Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939
The Emergency Powers Act 1939 was emergency legislation passed just prior to the outbreak of World War II by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to enable the British Government to take up emergency powers to prosecute the war effectively...

. Regulations made under this Act created three capital offences. Also the Treachery Act 1940
Treachery Act 1940
The Treachery Act 1940 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland enacted during World War II to facilitate the prosecution and execution of enemy spies, and suspended after the war and later repealed...

 created a new capital offence of assisting the enemy.
  • Munitions of War Act 1915
    Munitions of War Act 1915
    The Munitions of War Act 1915 was a British Act of Parliament promulgated during the First World War which brought private companies supplying the Armed forces under the tight control of the newly created Ministry of Munitions, regulating wages, hours and employment conditions...

  • Emergency Powers Act 1920
    Emergency Powers Act 1920
    The Emergency Powers Act 1920 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that gave the Sovereign power, in certain circumstances, to declare a state of emergency by proclamation...

  • Restoration of Order in Ireland Act 1920
    Restoration of Order in Ireland Act 1920
    The Restoration of Order in Ireland Act 1920 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom passed on 9 August 1920 to address the collapse of the British civilian administration in Ireland during the Irish War of Independence....

  • Emergency Powers Act (Northern Ireland) 1926
    Emergency Powers Act (Northern Ireland) 1926
    The Emergency Powers Act 1926 was an Act of the Parliament of Northern Ireland that was passed for the purpose of making provision for the protection of the community in Northern Ireland in cases of emergency....

  • Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939
    Emergency Powers (Defence) Act 1939
    The Emergency Powers Act 1939 was emergency legislation passed just prior to the outbreak of World War II by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to enable the British Government to take up emergency powers to prosecute the war effectively...

  • Emergency Powers Act 1939
    Emergency Powers Act 1939
    The Emergency Powers Act 1939 is an act of the Oireachtas enacted on 3 September 1939 after an official state of emergency had been declared on 2 September 1939...

     (Republic of Ireland)
  • National Registration Act 1939
    National Registration Act 1939
    The National Registration Act 1939 was an Act of Parliament in the United Kingdom. It became law on 5 September 1939 as an emergency measure at the start of World War II...

  • Trading with the Enemy Act 1939
    Trading with the Enemy Act 1939
    The Trading with the Enemy Act 1939 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which makes it a criminal offence to conduct trade with the enemy in wartime, with a penalty of up to seven years' imprisonment...

  • Treachery Act 1940
    Treachery Act 1940
    The Treachery Act 1940 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland enacted during World War II to facilitate the prosecution and execution of enemy spies, and suspended after the war and later repealed...

  • Emergency Powers Act 1964
    Emergency Powers Act 1964
    The Emergency Powers Act 1964 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom and was passed to amend the Emergency Powers Act 1920 and make permanent the Defence Regulations 1939...

  • Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1973
    Northern Ireland (Emergency Provisions) Act 1973
    The Northern Ireland Act 1973 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which abolished the death penalty for murder in Northern Ireland, and established the Diplock courts in which terrorist offences were tried by a judge without a jury. It has mostly been repealed, the anti-terrorism...

  • Prevention of Terrorism Acts 1974–89
  • Terrorism Act 2000
    Terrorism Act 2000
    The Terrorism Act 2000 is the first of a number of general Terrorism Acts passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It superseded and repealed the Prevention of Terrorism Act 1989 and the Northern Ireland Act 1996...

  • Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001
    Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001
    The Anti-Terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001 was formally introduced into the Parliament of the United Kingdom on 19 November 2001, two months after the terrorist attacks on New York on 11 September. It received royal assent and came into force on 14 December 2001...

  • Civil Contingencies Act 2004
    Civil Contingencies Act 2004
    The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that establishes a coherent framework for emergency planning and response ranging from local to national level...

  • Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005
    Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005
    The Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, intended to deal with the Law Lords' ruling of 16 December 2004 that the detention without trial of eight foreigners at HM Prison Belmarsh under Part 4 of the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act 2001...

  • Terrorism Act 2006
    Terrorism Act 2006
    The Terrorism Act 2006 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that received Royal Assent on 30 March 2006, after being introduced on 12 October 2005. The Act creates new offences related to terrorism, and amends existing ones. The Act was drafted in the aftermath of the 7 July 2005...

  • Counter-Terrorism Act 2008


Elsewhere

In Canada, the Federal Government passed the War Measures Act
War Measures Act
The War Measures Act was a Canadian statute that allowed the government to assume sweeping emergency powers in the event of "war, invasion or insurrection, real or apprehended"...

 in response to outbreak of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

, since replaced by the Emergencies Act
Emergencies Act
The Emergencies Act is an Act of the Parliament of Canada to authorize the taking of special temporary measures to ensure safety and security during national emergencies and to amend other Acts in consequence thereof....

. Similar acts in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 include the Alien and Sedition Acts
Alien and Sedition Acts
The Alien and Sedition Acts were four bills passed in 1798 by the Federalists in the 5th United States Congress in the aftermath of the French Revolution's reign of terror and during an undeclared naval war with France, later known as the Quasi-War. They were signed into law by President John Adams...

, the Smith Act
Smith Act
The Alien Registration Act or Smith Act of 1940 is a United States federal statute that set criminal penalties for advocating the overthrow of the U.S...

, the Sedition Act of 1918
Sedition Act of 1918
The Sedition Act of 1918 was an Act of the United States Congress that extended the Espionage Act of 1917 to cover a broader range of offenses, notably speech and the expression of opinion that cast the government or the war effort in a negative light or interfered with the sale of government bonds...

, the Espionage Act of 1917
Espionage Act of 1917
The Espionage Act of 1917 is a United States federal law passed on June 15, 1917, shortly after the U.S. entry into World War I. It has been amended numerous times over the years. It was originally found in Title 50 of the U.S. Code but is now found under Title 18, Crime...

, and the USA PATRIOT Act
USA PATRIOT Act
The USA PATRIOT Act is an Act of the U.S. Congress that was signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 26, 2001...

.

External links

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