THE Pukekohe and Waiuku Times PUBLISHED TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 1915. THE ENEMY ALIENS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 4, Issue 5, 19 January 1915, Page 2

THE Pukekohe and Waiuku Times PUBLISHED TUESDAYS AND FRIDAYS TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 1915.

THE ENEMY ALIENS.

"We nothing extenuate, nor net down auaht in malice."

SHOULD THEY BE INTERNED? A largely-attended meeting of Justices of tha Peace was held in Auckland Friday last to consider the treatment that should be accorded t) alien enemies ia the Dominion. A resolution was passed urging the Government to intern all male alien enemies in New Zealand, whether naturalised British subjects or not. The mover of the resolution stated that in Auckland an enemy alkn owned a wireless station.

We may, we think, fairly take U lhat this meeting and tha conclusion it arrived at is the direct result of the ill-advised action of certain friends of F. Gaudin, now serving a sentence of five years penal servitude at the Ncr.h Shore fort tor war treason, in endeavouring to interfere with and set aside the finding of the Imperial Military Court at Samoa. By the patriotic citizen at the preßent moment anything tending to hamper or belittle the military authorities, or encourage or sustain the enemy, is rightly held in detestation, and with this feeling fostered b> the action of the Gaudin sympathisers the ,meeting went a little further than the Government can be expected to follow them. There is, ot course, no room for doubt that in common with the rest of the Empire New Zea'and is infested with spies (f the enemy. The question, however, of interning the whole alien population is "so large a one that it cdn scarcely be undertaken by the Government even if it were necessary or desirable, which is open to doubt. We have amongst ud many thousands of Dalmation gum-diflgers and fruitgrowers, subjects of Austria, who have the strongest wish that our arms may be successful, who have freely aided us with money, and have desired to give their personal services for the defence of the Dominion. Can it be necessary to shut theee men up on an island in the gulf and assume the expense of feeding and guarding them? We think that the spy question and the alien question are matters which can safely be left to the responsible Government, acting under the direction of the imperial authorities, and guided by the advice of their military advisers. But when we say this we do not wish it to be understood that we disapprove of the public making the Government feel the tremendous responsibility which rests upon it of not permitting any unnecessary peri! to be run by the country. And if the meeting of Auckland Justices haa m other effect than of drawing once moie the attention of the Cabinet .°.ud the public to the undoubted fact that we have'th? spy and the potential etemy still at large amongst us it will not have been helj in vain. The Government can have no c'oubt that the country will sta'id by it in whatever action may bs thought necessary tc. secure our safely. If the present system ot alien* having to report themsdves periodically, and hot being allowed . to move about the country without permission, be

found inefficient for our protection the precautions can be increated but we do not think it will be found ueceßeary to intern the whole male alien population, even if some people's imaginations allow them to believe that the policy and military authorities are slack enough to allow the enemy to use wireless stations in our midst.