The Home Secretary announced on Wednesday that he had cancelled
the certificate of naturalization granted in 1892 to Sir Edgar Speyer, and that the King had struck Sir Edgar Speyer's name off the Privy Council list. Inquiry had shown that Sir Edgar Speyer had " shown himself by act and speech to be disaffected and disloyal," and that during the War he had " unlawfully communicated with subjects of an enemy state and associated with a business which was to his knowledge carried on in such a manner as to assist the enemy in such war." It will be remembered that in May, 1915, Sir Edgar Speyer, upon whom grave suspicion had been cast, informed Mr. Asquith of his desire to resign his titles. Mr. Asquith, in reply, described the attacks on Sir Edgar Speyer as baseless and malignant imputations." It is not agreeable to reflect now that Sir Edward Speyer's air of offended dignity and terribly injured innocence was all a kind of cunning.
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