THE ALIENS ORDER AND AMERICAN VISITORS. ITo THE EDITOR OP
THE " SPECIATOR."7 Sth,—For the last sixty years you and your predecessors have always done everything in your power to make the best of relations between the people of Great Britain and the people of the 'United States, and therefore I appeal to you to help again in that direction. There is nothing that does so much to bring about a good understanding between the two nations as to have Englishmen travel in the United States and Americans travel in England. Anything that interferes with this does harm. Do you not think that such a notice as I quote below (which is handed to every American on arrival in the United Kingdom) does harm, and makes an American /eel that he is pretty nearly a criminal?— " The Home Office calls the attention of foreign visitors in the United Kingdom to the provisions of the Aliens Order, 1920. . . . Visitors over the age of sixteen, who stay more than two months, must either before the expiration of that period report their movement to the Police, or register with the Police the address of a British subject from whom informa- tion as to their movements is to be obtained. . . ."
I think you will agree with me that this does not make an American feel as if he were "coming home to the Old Country."
Again, is it not possible to make the two Governments stop requiring pa-ssports? In 1913 an American could come to England and return without a passport, and without being treated as if he were a doubtful character. To-day, and throughout the War, a Canadian could come to the United States, or an American could go to Canada without any pass- port or trouble, but an Englishman could not come to the 'United States, or an American to England, without a passport and a good deal of trouble and expense. So far as trouble and expense are concerned, the American Government is just as bad as (or worse than) the English, but in regard to treating a first or a second-class passenger as a spy, and making him report to the police, the English Government is much the worse!
To anyone, like myself and many other Americans who love England, it is gad to see such things done, and we begin to wonder if England will again, as she did in 1913, lead the world in laws and individual liberty. I am sure that if the people of Great Britain realized how different an American feels when landing in Great Britain in 1922 from what he did in 1913, they would force the Government to change the" Aliens Order of 1920."—I am, Sir, /M., H. E. Howse. 125 High Holborn, W.C. 1.
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