"WAST AND SEE"

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 278, 13 August 1918, Page 9

"WAST AND SEE"

Sir,—l see a correspondent of yours urges the establishment of a special tribunal to deal with tho enemy aliens. 110 considers the present system of police surveillance inadequate because tho police act on the principle of "wait and see. That is, they don't take action until , the particular individual lias done something to justify detention. He also urges that polico information is defective because so many informants err on the side of leniency. Where your correspondent gets his leniently-inclined individuals from, in tho present state of public feeling is rather a mystery. The tribunal which is not to wait and see, but to take action without either waiting or seeing, is not altogether a novelty. The Star Chamber of the days of Henry VIII and the Inquisition of Spain did occasionally wait and seo, but frequently they found it convenient to dispense with that formality. Just imagine what tho fitato of society would bo if we had in our midst a tribunal that need not wait and see whether a man would .commit a crime, but laid him by the heels because it was just pcssiblo that some day ho might do something. Obviously, tho remedy would be worse than the disease. If such a tribunal were to be called into existence where is the guarantee that it would not under olio pretext or another carry the principle into practice, on an extended scale? This tribunnHs to deal with enemy aliens for a start, just ae tho Spanish Inquisition was • only to deal with the Jews at first. How tho principle was extended till the whole nation came under its sway is hjstory now. What guarantee have we that your correspondent's tribunal would not develop in the samo way? It is a fundamental principle of English law that no man shall be oondemned without a fair and impartial trial by his peers. I submit that it would be a most dangorous experiment to follow your correspondent's suggestion, and dispense with this very important principle, even in the case of alien subjects. To do so would bring a swift and Buro vengeance on the wliolo nation, even as it did in the case of Spam. Instead of making the public safer, it wouliT be tho first, step towards tho remvoal of all the fundamental safeguards of personal liberty. Your correspondent, if he applies for information to the Minister of Internal Affairs, would probably find that tho injunction to the Dominion Government by tho Home authorities still holds good. For the good and sufficient reason that whatever wo do to the enemy aliens here the enemy will do to our nationals in Germany, Austria, and Turkey, and probably go ono or two better. Tno powor to exact reprisals is tho only safeguard that, the subjects of belligeient nations have ' got. Sir James Allen deserves every credit for having resisted the hot-heads so far. —I am, etc., H. C. THOMSEN. Carrington, Carterton.