Originally from: Bill
                        
Checked out the Official Secrets Act 1911 which is the one that was in force at the start of the First World War.

The relevant section of the Act relates to conveying information from"prohibited places" if such information could be useful to an enemy.

There is no doubt information relating to the spread of FMD might have been useful to Kaiser Bill (no relation) during the First World War. However there would seem to be no lawful reason to require farmers to sign the Act in peacetime.

Last year certain Ribble Valley farmers told the men from DEFRA where they could shove the Official Secrets Act and as far as I know still got their compensation.

Bill.