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At the outbreak of the first world war in August 1914, the Liberal Government headed by Herbert Asquith persuaded parliament to pass the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA). This act gave the government emergency powers to requisition property, apply censorship, control labour and commandeer economic resources for the war effort.
In October 1915, the Clydeside revolutionary and Marxist John Macleanm was arrested for the first time under DORA and charged with uttering statements calculated to prejudice recruiting. He was found guilty and fined five pounds, but he declined to pay and was instead sentenced to five days' imprisonment.
The conviction of Maclean, a Glasgow schoolteacher, was immediately followed by his dismissal from his post by the Govan Board of Education. From this point onward, Maclean devoted himself, full-time, to the cause of revolutionary Marxism in Scotland.
Source: Gallacher Memorial Library, Glasgow Caledonian University Special Collections and Archives
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