The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1918 GERMANS TO BE REPATRIATED.

Taihape Daily Times, 25 November 1918, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times. AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 1918 GERMANS TO BE REPATRIATED.

(With which is incorporated The Talhape Poet and Walmailao News).,

The statement made by Viscount Cave in the British House ox Lords, that all interned Germans in Britain would be repatriated, does not proclaim a decision that should affect Britain alone. It interned Germans are dangerous to an extreme that warrants tneir expulsion from Britain they arc sufficiently dangerous to warrant their expulsion from ail other parts of the Empire. The fact that the British Government is introducing a Bill empowering the exclusion ox foreigners in peace time the same as in war time makes it of consideraoie moment here. This Bill, it will be observed, is of the permissive character, not compulsory. The British Government’s experience is that dangerous foreigners do not come solely from Germany, but the uniform experience is that almost to a man those that do come from Germany arc of the undesirable brand. Lord Cave is personally of opinion that no German should bo allowed to laud on British soil. While many people here, who know nothing of what governments are in possession of, and who may have had almost lifetime business and other relationships with German people, have, very disagreeably and surprisingly, had it undeniably brought home to them that their erstwhile friend has been in league with the German Government in its efforts to subdue and dominate the whole, British race and ( Empire; while they professed friendship and comradeship I they have been intriguing to plunder and kill. The need for such a measure indicates a momentous impasse; ! it means that intrigue, that campaigns j of corruption have been so inculcated i in Germany as to make every German ! a dangerous spy and destroyer, in whose presence neither property or life is safe. Undesirable alien laws have been adopted in various legislatures of the world, but none have enacted any measure aiming at the ex- ■ elusion of an entire race of people. No parliament has passed a law that approaches that mentioned by Lord Cave for comprehensiveness and discrimination. All interned Germans are to be repatriated; they are no longer to be allowed to live in Britain as heretofore, nenc are to remain, and the scope of the measure is to allow for the exclusion of Austrians, Turks j and Bulgars, as well as many who, though reputedly units of. a neutral nation, have proved themselves to be of the ilk that secretly plots to destroy and kill. Of course, the question at once arises, what is going to be done with Germans interned in New Zealand, as well as those who, though they have British names, have proved by their acts that they are traitors to the British Empire? The greatest reformer, the greatest Socialist this world has yet given birth to, some nineteen hundred and eighteen years ago, said: “He that is not for me is against me.” History has disclosed that that postulate states the case as undeniably to-day as it did in the past; “a nation that is divided against itself cannot stand.” Then what is to be the New Zealand attitude to the German exclusion measure being adopted by the British Government? Equally with Britain this Dominion has given thousands of its best lives to save the honour of its homes and to avoid the enslavement of its peoples, will the New Zealand Government invite the conquered Germans to come amongst the people and efI feet that by corruption what they fail--1 ed to accomplish with massacre and unprecedented frightfulness? Has the experience of all Allied- Governments to have no influence with the New Zealand National Government? There seems to be but one answer possible; to do otherwise than fall into line with the British Exclusion of Foreigners Bill would create political and racial chaos. It is not intelligible or thinkable that a Vanquished enemy, who is little short of being a mass of political ulcercusness, can be admitted to citizenship of the Empire in one dominion while being banned from citizenship, and from even setting foot bn the shores of the Motherland. Such a condition would be impatible, impractical and unendurable, and so this rather harmless-looking statement made by Lord Cave in the British House of Lords is fraught with great, if not supreme, significance to people of the outlying British dominions. No

Dominion Government can very well follow a coursg -that would .result in New Zealand citizens being refused the right to land on any British shore, therefore it seems-' there is nothing for it but to give up our Germans and send them to Germany, their soul and sympathy with which has caused this country a very great deal of trouble, as well as the expenditure of a verygreat deal of the taxpayers’ money to keep them from treachery and traitorousness in internment compounds. Germans interned in Allied countries are not entitled to argue against their repatriation; they have done all that it was possible for them to do to aid the German inhuman military caste, and many have been known to brag about the time when the Kaiser would annex New Zealand. The time has come, however, when such men can be trusted in Germany; when they can be spared from New Zealand, from Britain, and from every foot of the British Empire wherever situated, to go and sympathise and fraternise with their defeated countrymen and help them to evolve and establish some form of a government to replace that the German people have destroyed. Whether the National Government will disclose its intentions with respect to the'German exclusion question before the two leaders return from the Peace Conference is problematical. While in Britain Mr Massey and Sir Joseph Ward will have every opportunity to discuss the matter with the British Government, but opposed to this view is the troublesome question of what to do with the interned Germans after peace is formally settled and declared. It is possible that Lord Cave spoke for the Empire and not for Britain alone when he stated that all interned Germans would be repatriated. Whether that is the case or not it is difficult to understand how Germans who have had to he placed in custody during the war can be accepted as citizens in one British Dominion and refused citizenship and even be prevented from landing in another. This is a question about which the National Government might relax its secretiveness and give some indication as to whether the troublesome aliens now in custody are to be again allowed to rilix and compete with New Zealanders in full rights of citizenship, or whether they are to go, with Germans interned in Britain, back to their Fatherland.