THE TREATMENT OF ENEMY ALIENS.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2793, 10 June 1916, Page 14

THE TREATMENT OF ENEMY ALIENS.

'■Sir,—Though the times necessitate certain confidonce iir our governors, conjecture of the fiituro- has 110 happy estimate when founded on a blunder of the past. We know that a certain'battle was sequently lost "for the want of a nail," and if a trifle such as this was the pivot upon which so great a disaster turned, how much more may wo some day regret the erroneous policy of a man in whom this country has placed its faith? Through the columns of this paper some time back the Minister "of Defence asked for 'open'criticism. He was taken at his word by some; but each aiul every complaint- was closed with the trite "Wo have the matter well in hand." Now, if there's one matter more than another that heeds to bo well in hand" it is the too-ofton shelved and mismanaged question of alien internment. Tho false defence of "naturalisation" behind which many Germans shelter in this country is a bubble of our laws which seems nothing but the dear school of experience can learn to prick. To adduce the argument of a German's oath of allegiance to the King of England as a proof of national honesty is traitorous to our kind. A German is a German for all tiriie, even to rendering compulsory and military service to the Kaiser, miles site obtains a certain military dispensation known as "entlassiiiugschein;" which is graptedonly to those of the most pacific calling, and but rarely. No sensible person demands the wholesale indiscriminate internment of every enemy alien, naturalised and unnaturaiised alike. But to lend a credent ear to German plausibility is dust in the very eyes of . truth. Public agitation- replaced the local German Consul, where all of his ilk should be. Schooled and diplomatic agents of the Kaiser are more menace in our midst thifn any scourge. Very recently a representative of our chief enemy country in one. of our towns is said to have boasted that he'd soon be tile biggest man in the cit.v. Why is he at liberty ? When an old woman of seventy guilty of an indiscreet political utterance on the railway station of Palmerston North received some months' imprisonment, these facts need 110 extra comment. In view of Mr. Allen's attitude of last Tuesday oveninsj. in the House of Representatives ancnt tho acceptance with certain proviso of tho children of enemy parents in the New Zealand Forces, one is induced to think that the time is now ripe in which the TTOII. Minister of Defence should lay down with distinct particularity his plan of future definite action in so important a national affair. Inter-between election time there is something politicians ore apt to forget: it is that which I subscribe myself.—l, am, etc., VOX POPTJLI.