The Archbishop of Canterbury, in the House of Lords on
Monday, asked whether the Government realized the full effect of their declared policy of deporting to Germany all en my aliens who had been interned. Lord Jersey was unable to give a definite reply. He said, however, that four thousand interned Germans• did not wish to return to their native land, that they could appeal against deportation, and that un- defined " reasons of exceptional character" must be assigned to justify the Government in allowing them to remain. With the unmarried German, however respectable, we are not concerned. But we confess to anxiety about the German who has lived here for years, has married an Englishwoman, and has brought up a family, some of whom perhaps have served in the British Navy or Army. In such a ease the wife, it must be remembered, has lost her English nationality and become, technically, an enemy alien. If the husband is deported, the wife is virtually co spelled to accompany him, with the younger children. Lord Selborne was, we think, right in describing such a banishment of innocent English women and children to Germany as an act of unwarrantable tyranny.
Previous page
