British Citizens
Whether the British Nationality Bill, to which the House of Lords gave a second reading on Tuesday, is more important than it is complex or more complex than it is important is fair matter for argument. Certainly it is abundantly both. One section of the Bill, it is true, is both simple and highly welcome. That consists of the provisions regarding the nationality of married women. It enacts that a British woman will not lose her nationality by marrying an alien, and that any woman who has so lost it will regain it ; that an alien woman marrying a British citizen will not automatically become British—an important point, in view of the number of purely nominal marriages prompted solely by the desire to acquire British nationality ; and that no alien woman who has once acquired British nationality will ever lose it. The main part of the Bill raises far greater difficulties. Its purpose is to create a common basis of nationality throughout the Commonwealth. The adoption of common codes in all the Dominions is the obvious method, but has failed, and an alternative has been agreed on which can best be indicated in the summary given by the Lord Chancellor: " that everybody [i.e., every Dominion] shall decide for themselves, by their own Legislature, who are their citizens, and that the sum total of the citizens of the various member-States shall be British sub- jects." That means, incidentally—and more than incidentally— creating the new conception of " British citizens," who, if they go to Canada, will, of course, be British subjects but not necessarily Cana- dian citizens, just as Canadians coming here will be British subjects but not necessarily British citizens. The Bill is really precipitated by Canada's (perfectly legitimate) action in passing an Act defining the conditions of citizenship in that Dominion. If all members of the Commonwealth do the same, and agree that citizenship confers nationality, the necessary uniformity is attained. But many features of the new Bill will need full discussion in committee, particularly the question whether inhabitants of the Colonies are ipso facto British citizens.
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