ENGLISH OR RUSSIAN.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 34, 3 August 1911, Page 5

ENGLISH OR RUSSIAN.

CASE OF MISS MALECKA. By Cable —Press Association —Copyright. St. Petersburg, August 1. The Foreign Office has informed Great Britain that Miss Malecka, who was arrested by the secret police in Warsaw some months ago, is a Russian, and not a British subject, but, out of friendliness for England, the Russian Government promises to hasten her trial. COMPLICATED NATIONALITY. About four months ago Miss Malecka, a pianist well known in London, was arrested in Warsaw by order of the secret police, and incarcerated in the Alexandra Citadel. She had been living in Poland some months before her arrest, and had occupied herself by giving music lessons. Miss Malecka's mother was an Englishwoman and her father a Polish emigrant, and a naturalised British subject. Hence, according to English law, Miss Malecka is a British subject, and has the right to expect such help and protection as the British Government can afford her. According to Russian law, Mr. Malecka remained a Russia subject, in spite of i naturalisation in England, an act in which the Russian Government refuses to acquiesce except in rare instances. Hence the RussiAn authorities assume that Miss Malecka is a Russian subject. They are apparently not aware (says the London Daily News) that the marriage of her parents was, according to Russian law, null and void. The ceremony was performed in an Anglican cliureli, although Mr. Malecka was a Roman Catholic. Russian law requires that a Russian Catholic be married by a Catholic priest. Miss Malecka, therefore (contends the News), according to Russian law, takes her mother's nationality, and is a British subject.