IGNORING THE ALIEN PROBLEM
By its unanimous resolution to request the Government to prohibit tiie sale or lease of property to enemy Aliens, as well as to prevent their acquisition of shares in limited liability, companies, the Dominion Council conference of the Returned Services Association has endorsed an opinion repeatedly stated by district branches. Nevertheless, up to the present, the Government has almost entirely ignored these and other demonstrations of public dissatisfaction with existing safeguards against the wartime infiltration by aliens into business, industry and property ownership. Not only has no action been taken to improve the system of control introduced more than two years ago, but there has also been a lack of ministerial acknowledgment that any alien problem exists in this country—let alone that the Government possesses a formula by which it may be solved. Seemingly the whole matter is being permitted to drift. During the R.S.A. conference discussion, reference was made to the existing means of preventing uncontrolled property purchases by aliens. One speaker remarked that consent to purchases had to.be obtained from the Solicitor-General, which meant “no consent without very good reasons.” Unfortunately the law provides no tangible safeguards such as this might suggest. The position is governed under the Aliens Land Purchase Regulations brought down in March, 1942, and in them—as is the all-too-familiar practice of the Government — discretionary power is given not to any body or official but to a Minister of the Crown, in this case the Minister of . Justice. The Regulations do not specify reasons, good., bad or indifferent, which may justify purchases by aliens. They simply lay it down that, an alien may not be sold, leased or given land unless the Minister gives his written consent. Moreover, this safeguard, such as it is, refers specifically only to land. There appears to be no check under the Regulations of any other form of alien investment or enterprise. In view of the many protests and inquiries recently made, it has become urgently desirable that the Minister of Justice should give attention to the”matter, and offer an accounting of his supervision of alien purchases. The public should be told the number, and value of properties bought by aliens in recent years. It will be widely recognized, however, that this represents only part of the problem, and even additional supervision over, or prohibition of, share purchases would by no means meet the position in full. What is required is an investigation of the extent and ramifications of alien entry into the industry and trade of the community, with the particular object ot ascertaining the extent of the threat, which this influx represents, to the rehabilitation of our own servicemen in their home, communities. The longer this threat is ignored the more extensive it is likely to become. By ignoring the position the Government is permitting the development of a potentially awkward and perhaps serious post-war problem. . *
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Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 234, 30 June 1944, Page 4
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482IGNORING THE ALIEN PROBLEM Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 234, 30 June 1944, Page 4
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