"MARRIED WOMEN'S NATIONALITY"
Sni,--With reference to your mention of the nationality of British-born women who marry aliens, you will doubtless have noticed in a recent Times the statement that the Commonwealth Ministers discussed the problems involved and decided to set up a committee of experts from the United Kingdom and the Dominions to meet in London and to report to their respective Governments. Australia and Canada have recently introduced legislation to allow British women resident in their counuies to retain British nationality if and when the United Kingdom • and the other Dominions agree. My committee hope that in the event of such agreement, which is now at long last in sight, the British Govern- ment will -at once introduce and pass the necessary legislation, giving a married woman the same right to retain or change her nationality as is possessed by a man or single woman. We would point out that, by the abolition of the dependence of a woman's nationality on that of her husband, the difficult problem of the marriages between members of the British Forces and German and Austrian women would be solved, as such women would no longer automatically acquire full British citizen- ship, but would be subject to the same conditions and safeguards as are deemed necessary for alien men and single women.—Yours faithfully, :EVA HARTREE, Chairman Nationality of 55 Berners Street, W. r. Married Women Committee.
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