Although the judgments in Thomas v. Sawkins occupy less than three and a half pages in the Law Reports, it is a case of peculiar interest and importance. For the first time in English legal history it has been established that police officers are entitled to enter and remain on private premises if they have reasonable grounds for believing that if they are not present an offence or breach of the peace will be committed there. No, case was cited by counsel or in the judgments in which it had been specifically held that the police had this power, and no text-book contains a statement that it exists or has ever existed. Apparently the Home Office was ignorant that this right, obviously so useful to the police, could be exercised by them, for when the Fascist meeting was held at Olympia in London on June 7, 1934, the police, although they had reasonable grounds for believing that breaches of peace would occur, did not enter the hall, because, in spite of their request, the organizer of the meeting refused to admit them. When, a week later, the situation was discussed in Parliament, the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Sir John Gilmour, said:‘I want the House to understand that the law provides that unless the promoters of a meeting ask the police to be present in the actual meeting, they cannot go in unless they have reason to believe that an actual breach of the peace is being committed in the meeting.’
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Jul 1, 1937
M D W.-J 
