ENEMY ALIENS IN BRITAIN

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 306, 22 September 1919, Page 5

ENEMY ALIENS IN BRITAIN

HOLDING MINISTERS 10 PLEDGES A GOVERNMENT DEFEAT % ~~~~~ ' liv U votes to 12 the Standing Committee of the House of Commons 011 the Allies Restriction Bill recently adopted a new clause, opposed by the Government, providing lor the deportation of all enemy aliens except those oxempted 011 spfci'.io grounds. . . The Honu Secretary, Mr. Sliortt, opposed the clause in favour of the Government's own proposal for an Order-in-Councit for dealing with 'he deportation of eveiv dangerous alien. Moved bv Sir John Butcher, the new clause. provides thai every former enemy alien shall lie deported unless within a month after the passing of the Act he applies to'be allowed to remain on special grounds, and unless the Home Secretary after inquiry grants him a license to remain. The elauso also specifies tho grounds 011 which inquiry is to be made, and the conditions on which a -license might be wanted. Sir John Butcher pointed out that the Home Secretary, if satisfied that the military rr police had no objection, could grant a license if*the applicant was;— A member of a nation or race hostile to States recently at war with us and was well-disposed towards us. Seventy' vears'old or upwards,,and fifteen vears resident here. Seriously ill or permanently infirm. . Had a son who voluntarily served in an Allied Navv or 1 Army. . Thirty-five years resident' here, and married to a British-bom wife. A woman whog married to a former enemy alien living abriad or deported, was a British or Allied subject, Ministers' Pledges. \ Sir John mentiohed that in November, 1918. there wero in this country 21,000 enemv aliens uniutemed. He wanted to know ho.v these had been dealt with. ,:> ledge3 had been given by members of the Gnvsrnnieiit. Speaking in Qi.een's Hall, the Prime Minister had said Germans living in this country had spi .d upon us ana nad assisted Germany in an effort towards the destruction of the Empire, and had forfeited all claim to remain. ("Hear, hear."! The Lord Chancellor, when Attorney-General, said it was the declared policy of the Government, to -send back to Germany every Boche in this country. If (said Sir John Butcher) the Home Secretary said v he was not going to give effect to these Dlcdcres, he would have to ask the Prime Minister and the Lord Chancellor to resign. Was there any, uood reison.whv this, should not be embodied in the Bill? for the 'man in the street, and the ordinary member of Parliament would say that this Was ihe onjy wnv to enrrv out the,ss pledges. Tho Home Secretary might say they would do all that was necessary by Order-in-Council. "We are," continued Sir John, "sick of Orders-in-Council, and the country is.sick of them too." Orders-in-Council were all very Well during the war, but the war was happily over. How many of the uninterned aliens had been sent home? \ Tho Home Secretary, intervening, said a number had sent homo, poth after consultation with) Mr. Justice Yoiwiger's Committee- and without. The spy danger in England during the 'vnr had been greatly exaggerated; wo had the most,efficient Secret Service in the world. 1 ' Sir John Butcher, continuing, fflid thai in 1915. 'und*r pressure from Parliament, .die -INmo' (.Secrotn,ry began interning enemv aliens, and it would be. remembered what a struggle there was to tret the Home Secretary into action. The Advisory Committee had been exceedingly ■lenient.and exemption had been granted too easily. He /Sir John) was a member of that committee, and they came' across an immense num'b"r of eases of nnintenicd Germans.' When the armHice rune there remained many uninterned Germans because they hats not time to g' into the cases, ' There was a very considerable number of young girls, and the committee thought it better to leave them loose to do work oil munitions. How many of these were to remain?. _ , .Mr. Eeid said he. considered this clause quite unnecessary. Sir Herbert'Nield strongly-supported >'t on the ground that there ought to be a rigid statutory standard to which these people must conform, •♦he East End -of London was honevcom'bed by aliens who "ame over here for the exprnss of ousting oiir own poople, and they made thines so intolerable that Unglish people could not live there. Sir W. Pearce (Limehoiwe) nsscrted that they were mainly Russians. '"Kiss and be Friends!" Sir E. Wild said the country was sicic and tired of Orders-in-Council. He would not shake hands irth 'a German, though some appeared to think that they should tow. figuratively speaking, kiss and be friends. They should regard every German as prima facie dangerous. People Whom they trusted and respected before tfle war were, it turned out. spies nil tho time. This clause treated tlieiii with too much moderation. 1 . , , , . Some people would saake hands and let -them ail come, but this country was not going to allow that'. (LoV.d cheers.) If the' Government did 101 meet the promoters' of his clause they would fight the Government, both there and elsewhere The cointry was a little suspicions of the Government in this matter, and ho would rather see the Government fall than that theve suould be any /truckling to the enemy. (Loud cheers.) TToon a division being taken the second reading w'as carried by 14 votes to 12 amid loud cheers. The committee adjourned.