NATURALISED GERMANS

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 3195, 20 September 1917, Page 4

NATURALISED GERMANS

In replying to a question in the House of Representatives on the question of safeguarding shipping at our ports from acts of treachery by Germans working on tho waterfront the Prime Minister stated that precautions had been taken, and he gave tho assurance that no unnaturalised Gormans were now permitted to handle cargo or to work on tho wharves. This is satisfactory so far as it goes, and Mr. Massey quite properly declined to go into details as to the nature ol the precautions taken. But we trust that the Government are not labouring under tho delusion that because a Gorman subject has gone through the form of naturalisation he is thus transformed into a loyal British subjeot. Nothing could be more foolish than a general acceptance of this view. The disclosures mado during the present war go to show that naturalisation, instead of being a test of loyalty to British rule, has been frequently and systematically used as a cloak to serve the interests of Germany; that it is treated in a great number of casos as a mere form which affords the German an opportunity to secure the advantages of British citizenship to serve personal ends and the ondsof Germany. That there are British citizens of German descent who are loyal to Britain cannot be questioned, but it would be the height of folly because of this to ignore the uselessness of naturalisation as a test of loyalty. The only safe course is to take no risks and to refuse permission for such people to be employed where they may_ find opportunity for doing mischief.