The Defence of the Realm Act was enacted by the United Kingdom parliament days after World War I started and granted the government extraordinary wartime emergency powers. Expanded throughout the war, it targeted wartime social, economic, and industrial control,
covering areas beyond censorship and the management of dissent, to economic and labour management, social controls around consumption of alcohol and food economy, and even regulations for the containment of venereal disease.
Truthfully, unexpected, as democratic governments become increasing authoritarian when threatened by outside forces. The United States has laws on the books from both World Wars that are still used today for censorship and military secrets reasons that are increasingly outdated with the modern world.
However, this surprised me:
Under the powers of DORA, British Summer Time was instituted in May 1916. This introduced the changes in spring and autumn when the clocks are put forward or back. The original purpose was to maximise daylight working hours, particularly in agriculture. Its effect, still with us today, is a standardisation of time across the whole of the UK.
Kitching, Paula, Britain’s Jews in the First World War, p172
This shows the extent and reach of The Defence of the Realm Act, and how almost anything could come under its auspices. I see how this can be construed as an economic or industrial control required during extraordinary times, but seems like a stretch …. then again, so does the containment of venereal disease. The Germany and Austria-Hungary empires both implemented summer time in 1916, so both sides saw it as necessary.
The UK was repealed in 1921, though some of its impact is still felt today.
