In our opinion, there ought to be an end once
and for all to the possibility of those methods of penetration being repeated. The popular indignation, with which we sympathize, has been expressed by no body of men more forcibly or more logically than by Mr. Havelock Wilson. and the British Seamen's League. But what is happening at the present moment is that the Government appoint an insignificant Committee and postpone their own control of the whole business. This is a policy of drift. If it goes on, the Government may find themselves forced by newspaper agitation into doing very foolish things. A strong policy, indeed, is wanted, but not an indiscriminating policy of cruelty to aliens who happen to be perfectly innocent, or of injustice to people who have the msforttine to bear German names or who have been honourably naturalized. Denaturalization may certainly be necessary in some cases, but this ought to be done on the sentence of a Court., and not at the call of the Northcliffe Press or of Mr. Billing, who, though he has been frog-marched out of the House of Commons, will no doubt try harder than ever to inflame popular opinion in favour of the wrong sort of policy.
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