Professor Hayward's complaint
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The circumstances of Professor Hayward's complaint
44. Professor Hayward was born in Shanghai in 1931. His father was a British subject who was born in India and his mother was born in Iraq. His grandparents died before he was born. His birth was registered with the British Consulate, as was usual with the children of British subjects at that time. In early 1943, the Japanese authorities interned him and his parents as British subjects in Yangchow Camp C, near Shanghai in China. The late date of the internment is explained by the fact that there were many British subjects in Shanghai; it took some time for the Japanese to intern everyone. Many members of Professor Hayward’s family were interned, but one of his sisters escaped internment because she was working in London as a nurse.
45. Following his release from internment, Professor Hayward accepted an offer of ‘repatriation’ to the UK and in 1946 he came here to live with an aunt. He went to boarding school and university in England and did National Service as an Education Officer in the Royal Air Force before embarking on an academic career. In the course of his career as a political scientist, he was appointed Professor at Oxford University, having been invited to establish a School of European Studies at St Antony’s College. He specialised in the study of the French political system and was awarded the Légion d’Honneur. He is a Fellow of the British Academy and on retirement from Oxford was appointed Research Professor at Hull University. His two children are pursuing careers in the UK.
46. On 7 November 2000, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Defence, Dr Lewis Moonie (now the Lord Moonie of Bennochy), announced in Parliament that the government was making funds available for one-off ex gratia payments of £10,000 to the surviving members of the British groups who were held prisoner by the Japanese during the Second World War. One of the eligible groups was described as ‘British civilians who were interned’, without further qualification as to nationality or bloodline. The WPA advertised the scheme and issued claim forms to its welfare offices and to ex-service organisations who acted as its authorised agents. Some of these latter groups contacted individuals who they thought might be eligible under the scheme. Other groups advertised the scheme on websites and in periodical publications. Professor Hayward received an invitation to apply for the scheme and, thinking that he fell within the category of British civilian internees, in December 2000 he applied to the WPA for an ex gratia payment.
47. The WPA rejected Professor Hayward’s application, and many other similar applications, on 25 June 2001. Their letter stated:
‘Those who are entitled to receive the payment are former members of HM Armed Forces who were made prisoners of war, former members of the Merchant Navy who were captured and imprisoned and civilian internees who were British subjects, and were born in the United Kingdom or who had a parent or grandparent born in the United Kingdom… it would appear from the information held that you are not eligible to receive the ex gratia payment.’
48. Professor Hayward considers it outrageous and unacceptable that he should have been asked to apply to the scheme and then refused payment because of an eligibility criterion that had been introduced months after the scheme was established and which was not disclosed to him at the time that he was asked to complete an eligibility questionnaire. He considers that he meets the eligibility criteria originally announced to Parliament as he was interned as a British subject and is now a British citizen who has lived in the UK since 1946 and thus can demonstrate a link to the UK. He seeks a review of the decision and an apology both to him and to other British civilians who have been refused recognition in similar circumstances.
