CORRESPONDENCE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 7, Issue 426, 15 November 1918, Page 2

CORRESPONDENCE.

MR. MYERS AND THE CABINET. (To the Editor.) Sir,—.Pursuant to the publication, in your issue of Nov. Ist, of the correspondence between Mrs Bedford and Sir James Allen, relative to the refusal of the Government to forward to the Queen a petition asking for the removal from the New Zealand Cabinet of a Minister of German blood, I am going to ask you to be good enough to publish the following extracts from two newspapers of undoubted respectability. The London " Daily Mail," of August 28th, says, under the headings of "Aliens Act To-dav —Revoked Naturalisation " : the new Aliens Bill, which becomes an Act to-day, the Home Secretary will be required to revoke the naturalisation of a large number of persons who remain, according to the law of a State at war with his Majesty, subjects of that State. This latter clause affects every naturalised British subject of German origin, including the British-bom sons and daughters of Germans. lo understand the position of naturalised subjects of German origin, the new Act must be read in conjunction with th? Delbruck law, ~ which received the Kaiser's assent on July 22nd, 1912. This law makes it possible for a German abroad to be transferred to the Landsturm reserve if he is per manently settled as a merchant, dealer, or the like, in a foreign country. It provides that a man does not lose his Gorman nationality if he obtains permission from his Home authorities to beome naturalised in another country. It also makes it quite clear that German nationality is not lost when a foreign nationality i* acquired hj birth." The " New Zealand Hera'd," of Nov. 11th, 1918, reports the Prime Minister as saying, on the second reading of the War Regulations Bill: —"There had been cases of men who, although, on account of their alien blood, they were not serving at the front, wore nevertheless, able to buy the land of men who had gone with the New Zealand Expeditionary Forces—a state of things not to be tolera;ed."—The "Herald" of the same date also reports Dr A. K. Newman as saying, in the same debate"The army, navy, and air service would not risk taking the son of a naturalised enemy alien, and • the New Zealand Government ought to make drastic regulations against enemy aliens. Persons of enemy alien origin ought not to be allowed t to take part in the government of the country for several generations. Now, Sir, the English Alien Act became law while the Prime Minister was still in the Old Country. It would appear that, after four yeays of war, he is at last seeing th ngs in their-correct perspective ; presume we shall now see our Cabinet freed from any taint of the German element. If lio considers it intolerable that a man of alien blood should buy the land of a soldier at the front, he surely cannot cun&ider it tolerable that a similar one should control the supply of munitions and settle what literature British people ehall or shall not read. Yours, etc., A. MADILL.