ENEMY SUBJECTS

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2461, 14 May 1915, Page 7

ENEMY SUBJECTS

SHOULD THEY BE AT LIBERTY?

All over the British Empire the people, stirred by the flagrant breaches of international law as well as the laws of common humanity which Germany has ■ made recently, have been demanding that enemy subjects should not be allowed equal privileges with those of the British race, and that England has suffered by her supineness in dealing with this aspect of conditions brought about by the war. The pnblic is saying very insistently that England is taking too much lying down. Practically the same hint was given, to the Mayor yesterday by a deputation from the Wellington Patriotic Society, headed by the Hon. J. G. W. Aitken. Mr. H. G. Hill presented a resolution by the Patriotic Society, expressing its horror and indignation at the sinking of the Lnsitania by the Germans, nad urging • the internment of all Germans now in New Zealand, and the strictest supervision of Germans who were naturalised British subjects. The people of England were now waking up to the fact of the enemy being in_ their midst, said Mr. Hill, and the feeling against Germans, naturalised and othewise, in New Zealand was now gathering strength in view of the horrible outrages against civilisation being committed by Germans. He urged that the Prime' Minister should be approached witho it delay and asked that every Germau who was a naturalised British subject should bo closely watched and his or her actions scrutinised, and that all unnaturalised Germans should bo interned without delay. He cited the case of a German who was a naturalised British subject giving vent to absolutely anti-British sentiments, and expressing the hope that the Germans would win. No distinction of class or position should be observed. The Mayor was quite in accord with what Mr. Hill had said. He had had to help Germans and Austrians when they came to him day after day for as. sistance. Thoy had, however, to be kept alive somehow, of course; but he had no doubt in his mind that some of them should have been on the island. There should be no false sentiment in dealing with this urgent question. The linos of communication, notwithstanding the vigilance of the censor, were still open, and word was passed, he felt sure, from New' Zealand, in common with other parts of the Empire, to quarters where they did' not want it .known what was being done here, and there was, he felt certain, communication between people in New Zealand and »those who had allied themselves with his Satanic Majesty, and who were doing everything that was opposed to humanity and civilisation. If the New Zealand Government took action it should regard all Germans alike, no matter what position they occupied. In grappling with this problem, all sentiment ' must be put aside. The Government, he was convinced, must act and act now, and with no regard for the social position or length of residence of any person requiring to be watched, and closely, too, or removed to a place of internment. (Applause.)