THE RIGHTS OF NATURALIZED ALIENS.
[To me EDITOR OP TEE " Sia,—The general anger caused by the sinking of the gami- ne's ' has led those who hare advocated the internment of the German-born, whether naturalized or otherwise, to revive their suggestions, and, aa might be expected, they are being eerionaly pressed in various quarters. This indignation against the German people, still clearly behind the German Government and approving its policy, is reasonable enough, but the matter is one which might make any atatesman hesi- tate, for it involves questions, not only of law and casuistry, but of our national honour.
Whether we have not been far too accommodating to aliens in our naturalization laws ; whether, if daring the last forty or fifty years we had known what we now know of the German character, we should hare allowed Germans to become naturalized under the most stringent conditions, or at all; whether and how far naturalization can or should be revocable at the pleasure of the Sovereign—all are questions on which much could be written. But they are hypothetical; that for the statesman is practical, and he has to start with the fact that our law as to naturalization is as be finds it.
By coincidence only as regards the war, a new Act as to naturalization was passed last year, and came into force at the beginning of this. The former Act was passed in 1870, and, under both, naturalization is a matter of grace only, and not of right. If any Germans have been naturalized under the new Act, the public has certainly very good reason to know why this has been done. Bat no doubt there are many thoasauds of German-born and Austrian-born who have been naturalized under the Act of 1870. Each of them has bad to comply with certain provisions as to previous residence and intention to remain, and of course each has had to take the oath of allegiance. In the new Act there is a useful provision that the applicant must have an adequate knowledge of the English language.
The rights conferred by naturalization are stated clearly both in the Act of 1870 and that of 1914. By the forme' Act he is, while in the United Kingdom, to be "entitled to all political and other rights, powers, and privileges to which a natural-born British subject is entitled." A legal question had been raised as to the effect of this enactment on a clause in the Act of Settlement forbidding to naturalized aliens the dignities or positions of Privy Councillors, Peers, or Members of Parliament. But the new Act sweeps away this barrier and repeats the privileges conferred by the old Act, with the emphatic addition that the alien shall have after naturalization "to all intents and purposes the status of a natural-born British subject." There is a proviso that if naturalization has been obtained by fraud it mu be revoked,
but that ie merely on the general legal principle that privi- leges so obtained are wholly void.
Thera is, of course, no immutable social contract between the Government and any individual, native-born or naturalized, and it would be within the competence of Parliament to pass an Act to deprive naturalized Germans and Austrians of their privileges as such. But between competence and expediency there may yawn a wide gulL The Sovereign has, so to speak, admitted these persons to the roll of Magna Carta by deed of gift; it would perhaps be better in future not to give such freedom to any member of a race of proved treachery, but the citizenship once given should not be taken away save for personal misconduct.
It may be added that neither the Defence of the Realm Acts nor the Royal Proclamations under them in any way differentiate between British-born and naturalized aliens. There is a regulation that a suspected person may be com- pelled to more his residence and report himself, but a naturalized alien against whom there was no evidence of dis- affection or treachery certainly could not be treated in this way because he was not of British birth. And the abominable treachery of Germany must not lead us to break faith either with the spirit of our law or with those who have relied on
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