On April 3rd the Home Secretary presented the War Cabinet and the Civil Defense Committee with memorandum W.P. (43) 137 which summarized the conclusion of Mr. Dunne’s inquest. It stated that the main cause of the disaster was a forward surge of shelterers who had been ‘considerably alarmed by the discharge of a salvo of anti-aircraft rockets.’ Mr. Dunne concluded that the crowd was ‘out of hand and frantic with nervousness and worry’ and although ‘panic is not the right word’ there was certainly those that showed a ‘loss of self-control’ which was escalated by additional anti-aircraft fire.[1]
The Home Secretary also expressed a certain amount of anxiety with the Report’s references to ‘psychological causes’ as one of the main reasons for the disaster. He feared that it would have had a huge affect on morale and ‘be likely to assist the enemy.’[2] He felt that that point made by Mr. Dunne would be beneficial to the enemy and detrimental to national security. Therefore, he prepared a summary for publication, in conjunction with Mr. Dunne and with his approval, modifying these statements in regards to psychological causes of the disaster, but not to ‘criticisms of errors of commission or omission in administration.’ Mr. Dunne agreed to the modifications and the White Paper was subsequently agreed upon as the official statement by His Majesty’s Government.
However, the Home Secretary soon concluded that, by omitting the main cause of the incident on the grounds of national security, the balance of the report had been disturbed and therefore made the Bethnal Green authorities seem responsible for the disaster. Therefore, the decision to produce the White Paper was abandoned by Morrison and a copy of the Dunne Report was sent to the Bethnal Green Emergency Committee to reassure them that they were free from any responsibility. However, Section 2 of the Official Secrets Act of 1911 prevented the Bethnal Green authorities from making any public statement on the matter.
On the 5th of April the War Cabinet met once again, this time Winston Churchill sat in on the meeting. The main discussion was about Memorandum W.P. (43) 137 and whether the contents of the Dunne inquest should be made public. Because Morrison had stated in the House of Commons on March 8th that subject to security considerations the findings of the Report would be published, the pressure by the people of Bethnal Green to hold a public enquiry had eased. The Home Secretary feared that by not publishing the findings of the Report, it would appear that the Government had something to hide from the public. However, it was the view of the other members of the War Cabinet, including the Prime Minister, that publication of the conclusion would draw “disproportionate importance (of the event), and might encourage the enemy to make further nuisance raids.’[3]
The War Cabinet decided that the Government would not publish the conclusion to the Dunne report, but instead the Home Secretary would make another statement in the House of Commons.[4] Mr. Morrison was to include in his statement to the House of Commons that Mr. Dunne’s report had been fully received and suggestions from the findings had already been implemented and modifications for the Bethnal Green Tube Shelter and all air raid shelter throughout the country, had been taken to help reduce the risk of something like this from happening again.
On April 8th, exactly one month after his first comments on the matter, Mr. Morrison addressed the House of Commons. This time he had every intention in making a definitive statement on the official position of the His Majesty’s Government. The Home Secretary stated:
It is impossible to make a fair summary of the report or even the conclusion,
without conveying information valuable to the enemy. The omission of some of
the conclusion on security grounds disturbs the balance and must have the effect
of misleading any reader who has not had access to the full text. In these
circumstances the Government have regretfully felt bound to decide not to publish
the conclusion. It is difficult to judge how far all the factors that contributed to
the accident could have been foreseen and provided against, but after careful
consideration I have reached the conclusion that acts of culpable negligence are
not properly to be included amongst causes. Certain suggestions were made by
Mr. Dunne for modifications of existing arrangements which might reduce the
risk of further disaster of this kind, and action is already being taken to introduce
these modifications, not only at this shelter but at similar shelters elsewhere.[5]
Sir Percy Harris, Member of Parliament for Bethnal Green and the main advocate for the publication of the Dunne Report, quickly followed up the Home Secretary’s opening comment by asking him “Does he (Herbert Morrison) realize the bad effect there will be on the morale of the people if suspicion arises that he want to conceal the facts that have been stated to the magistrate who made the inquiry?” To which Morrison replied:
I think the House and the people of the district concerned know me sufficiently well to believe that I would not wish to suppress this report in order to protect anybody. I would not do that, but I am in the dilemma that if I seek to make a summary, it will not be a fair summary if I eliminate those points on which there are security objections.[6]
Although Mr. Morrison both publicly and privately thanked Mr. Dunne for his thorough and articulate report, he still withheld the conclusion from the public. Mr. Dunne endorsed the Home Secretary’s decision to withhold the Report’s findings, but harbored suspicions that this was the Government’s intentions from the beginning.
By July of 1944, the debate over the publication of the Dunne Report began to resurface in Parliament because of a highly publicized lawsuit filed against the Bethnal Green authorities by Mrs. Anne Baker. Mrs. Baker lost her daughter and husband in the shelter disaster and filed a suit in July of 1943 through the law offices of Messers Dolland and Hearse. Over the next twelve months the details of the incident were heard for the first time in a public court of law. Mrs. Baker’s claim stated that the Bethnal Green Council was guilty of negligence because they did not provide a safe and proper entrance to the shelter; the staircase was dangerous; the steps were uneven and worn; the light was insufficient and there were no handrails running down the middle of the stairway. In absence of the Dunne Report as inadmissible evidence on grounds of national security, Mr. Justice Singleton of the King’s Bench Division had no choice than to rule on 18th of July 1944, that the accident was not caused by the guns firing at Victoria Park, but rather the poor conditions of the stairs and the insufficient light. Mrs. Baker was awarded 950 pounds for her damages in the form of her husband’s death, 250 pounds in damages of her daughter’s death and 100 pounds awarded for the damages of her own injuries, totaling 1,150 pounds.
On January 19, 1945 the Government agreed to publish the Dunne Report in its entirety in an address made to the House of Commons by the Minister of the Exchequer, Sir John Anderson. There had already been dozens of lawsuits filed on behalf of the victims’ relatives and survivors. The Ministry of Home Security issued a statement on March 2nd, 1945, stating that those who were receiving a pension due to damages inflicted by the accident were free to decide whether to maintain their pension position or pursue their rights at law. However, if they chose to pursue their legal rights, they would forfeit their government pension. By 1951 there had been over 250 claims filed and the Ministry of the Exchequer made its last payment in January of the same year, bringing the total to L69,613 14. 4.
The censoring of the Dunne Report essentially did very little to prevent the details of the accident from being withheld from the public. Mrs. Baker’s case divulged all of the same sensitive material within the Dunne Report, including references to psychological causes, panic and the name of the borough that was held accountable for negligence. Sadly, the real loser of the entire unfortunate event was the Bethnal Green authorities. Accused and convicted of negligence due to the censoring of the Dunne Report, the Bethnal Green council were effectively gagged from proving the innocence; something that has altered the history of the disaster to this day.
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