ALIEN CONTROL

Evening Post, Volume CXXX, Issue 93, 16 October 1940, Page 10

ALIEN CONTROL

WORK OF TRIBUNAL

MORE TO BE APPOINTED

REGULATIONS BEING PREPARED

Regulations providing for the appointment of more aliens tribunals on a district basis are almost completed, according to a statement made today by the Attorney-General (the Hon. H. G. R. Mason), who outlined the work of the first tribunal and referred to some of the difficulties that presented themselves in considering the control

of aliens.

"The Aliens Tribunal set up by tho Government, consisting of the Hon.,> Mr. Justice Callan, Colonel C. H. Weston, K.C., and Mr. J. H. Collins, has now been functioning long enough to obtain a comprehensive view of the major . problems involved in the question of classifying aliens and in determining the extent of the restraint that may be prudent," said Mr. Mason.

"Before the institution of the tribunal' the question of whether or not a person should be interned was determined by the Attorney-General upon perusal of reports resulting from police investigations. However thorough the police may be, and however careful may be the Attorney-General, this method cannot be so effectual in reaching a sound conclusion as that followed by the Tribunal. The Tribunal not only has the reports, but it can call evidence'and hear witnesses and have the alien brought before it to be interviewed personally. This opportunity has enabled some interned aliens to satisfy the Tribunal as to the innocence of acts and circumstances which had previously been the cause of suspicion, and. accordingly it was found possible to release them from internment after the hearing of their appeals. On the other hand, cases have been ■found in which the Tribunal has thought proper to recommend internment and in each case effect has been given to the recommendation. "Upon the appointment of the Tribunal it was felt that the one Tribunal following the present procedure would hardly be able to deal with all cases. The experience of the Tribunal has made it clear that it will be necessary to have tribunals in every police district and, in the larger districts, probably more than one tribunal. The regulations are now being drafted to give effect to this procedure. APPELLATE BODY. "These provincial tribunals will systematically review the cases of all enemy- aliens. They will make a provisional recommendation and, in the great majority of cases, this will conclude the matter so far as that alien is concerned, but it will be open either to the alien or the police to appeal to the present Tribunal, whose work may thus be regarded largely as of an appellate nature. "The drafting of regulations concerning aliens is of a difficult nature if one is to avoid certain grave injustices and anomalies that arose during the last war," continued the Minister. "What is an alien and what is an enemy alien? The questions are not of immense difficulty as a matter of legal definition, but unfortunately these legal interpretations by no means indicate the dividing line between persons about whom suspicion should be entertained and those who may be regarded as trustworthy. Many people who are British subjects but of enemy origin give ground for suspicion as to their loyalty and cannot be excluded from the purview of the Aliens Tribunal. On the other hand, if we are not very careful the definition which might include such persons might include also loyal subjects whose sons and brothers have given their lives for our country in the last war, or who are fighting for us in this war, and in respect of whom it is unthinkable that they should be subject to the humiliation of going before the Tribunal.

"These questions are exceedingly complex and few more troublesome problems have ever come before a draftsman. At the same time, the regulations must be simple and understandable in order that all those affected by them, and all those administering them, may be clear as to the duty cast upon them. The revised regulations are now almost completed. "There can be no crude and undiscriminating way of dealing with this problem. It cannot be approached upon a purely emotional basis.

"The safety of the country and the full prosecution of its war effort are the essential considerations, and nothing must interfere with this, but where we can, by taking proper care, see that this can be secured without harsh oppressiveness, it is our duty to take that care and, in particular, a Labour Government, with the instinct of humanity as one of its cardinal principles, cannot neglect the duty of taking that care. The Tribunal. enables this to be done.

"As an illustration of the harshness that may result from the wrong and crude handling of this problem one may point to the case of the last war where, as the result of war legislation, women born in New Zealand and who had never been out of New Zealand, were not permitted to own a home for themselves or their children simply because their husbands, who were naturalised British subjects at the time of marriage, had been born in enemy-occupied territory."

(chairman), G. E. Littlejohn (secretary), E. Turksma, L. Manttan, G. Venn, N. J. Sutton, A. V. Thompson, F. B. Dawson, and A. V. Ross.