The various outlying countries of the British Commonwealth of nations were banning the work of the Watch Tower Society and Jehovah’s witnesses at this time. What was Britain doing? Britain was not imposing a ban. It was strangling the flow of literature supplies with official red tape. All Watch Tower literature was placed under censorship. Notice arrived from the Import Licensing Department that no licenses would be issued after December 31, 1940. With grinding pressures from every angle, the British branch was about to be cut off from headquarters.

Meantime, subscribers complained they were not receiving Consolation magazine. Eventually the fact emerged that the quaintly named Ministry of Information had “found [it] necessary to retain the issues [of Consolation].” So the same magazine that was banned by Hitler in 1933, a few weeks after Goebbels’ Ministry of Enlightenment and Propaganda was created, was now disapproved by the British Ministry of Information. It was well known that Consolation attacked totalitarianism long before this war started. An American brother made a gift of 150,000 books to Britain. A letter confirming the gift and attested by an American notary public accompanied the application for the license. Later a trade sample of the new-type phonograph for our engineers to copy actually arrived in this country. The sample was seized and the license for importation of the gift of books was refused.

Even copies of The Watchtower ceased to arrive in the mails from the United States. The problem of keeping the brothers supplied with spiritual food became a pressing one. Since publication of a new magazine would not be permitted, the Society began printing what was known as the Watchtower Bible Study Series. This publication was very much like the Watchtower in appearance and contained at least the main article with questions. Thus not a single issue of Watchtower material was lost to the brothers in Britain.

The brothers in Ireland too were not left wanting for spiritual food. Many of them began receiving newsy letters from overseas. Each letter contained an anonymous Watchtower article easily recognized by the brothers. Stencils were made and each article duplicated for all the 120 Witnesses in Ireland.

Despite renewed efforts by the brothers in Britain to obtain justice from government officials, it became impossible for the Society to import even Bibles and Testaments, while other Bible houses could frequently do so. On November 2, 1942, both The Watchtower and Consolation as well as the Kingdom News were officially banned and all in the mails seized. Eventually the Society published a folder outlining the 1933 Nazi model that was being followed by the British authorities. The folder was entitled “The Facts About Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Censorship Ban.”