UNDESIRABLE ALIENS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 426, 8 February 1909, Page 4

UNDESIRABLE ALIENS.

;•'■ .The recent crime of. the 'two Russian revolutionaries who robbed a motor,car and.then ran amokin London, killing a constable; and a boy'with their, revolvers, has : dr'awn..;rehewed attenjtion. to .the alleged inadequacy of. the 'present- Aliens' ■Act.",-■' Following a representation 'of. the corqnor's ; jury on -the subject, .Sir Robert, .'Anderson, 1 late'head/of the Criminal;lnvestigation,/ Department,,condemned , the Government's apathy towards/ anarchists, and-a cable message published on Saturday, stated .that; the chairman' of a medt-', ing, of. .the Society of Friends of Foreigners Jn: Distress' complained ; bitterly that the' Act was inoperative. > Pauper grants, he said, were admitted- without restriction, and then appeals were made to the society to repatriate them. The Aliens Act of 1905 prohibits the admission of foreign lunatics, paupers, and persons actually convicted of an extradition crime within the meaning of the Extradition Act, but earofully provides . that, pauper or no pauper, no immigrant shall be excluded who seeks admission to the United Kingdom in order to avoid prosecution or punishment for "an offenco of a political character." 'There is some safeguard in the provision'.that the Government may expel any alien on a recommendation of tho Home Secretary, but despite this powor, thoro is a growing feeling that English tolerance allows too great an opportunity for tho half-crazed onomy of authority to use his murderous weapons in a country whore authority is popular and kind. There Are hangers-on and riff-raff in Freedom's,, as in any other, army, and it seems peculiar that while the law-abiding Continental pauper is shut out of England, the pauper who is "wanted" for a political offence is recoived with open arms. It has long been understood that the strenuous political "reformer" of less , tranquil States is welcome to a homo in England, provided that ho does not'rosume thero tho activities that have made his native land too hot for him. The case of the Russian refugees shows that the .understood condition is not observed. The problem calling now for solution is how to strengthen tho Aliens Act to keep out reckless foreign "politicians" whose arguments are bomb and pistol, while still affording refuge to the true heroes of Freedom's cause, tho Kossuths and Garibaldis, to have sheltered whom is one of Britain's noblest 'glories. According to a cable message which wo publish this morning, l tho Home Secretary has stated that during the pastthreo years.the tribunals have recommended him to expel 947 aliens, and orders have been made in 913 cases. If the police classification and supervision of these visitors could be improved, and dangerous characters expelled on a police recommendation, before they had time to make acquaintance with the Courts, English' life and property would be more secure, and Continental nations would rejoice to see a violent 'and disturbing element of their population deprived of a safe nursery for their,schemes. By such a natural precaution England, would protect' herself and others, without ceasing to deserve her title of the Friend of Freedom. ' <