NEEDLESS PRECAUTIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 308, 29 December 1922, Page 4

NEEDLESS PRECAUTIONS.

Whatever is the outcome of the political situation, we hope Parliament will soon revise t',i<- Act under which the oath of allegiance \a imposed upon people entering New Zealand. The spectacle of a shipload of people from a neighbouring Dominion, some of whom may have been absent from New Zealand far only a few weeks, being solemnly required to attest their loyalty liefore they are allowed to land, causes needless delay and irritation, and makes thie country n laughing-stock. If the business were of any practical value, we

would not write so strongly about it

hut what μ-uod dot's it dot The inten

tion is to keep out disloyalists, a:)d

especially Molsheviks. The average Bolshevik agitator, however, will take such an oath with t'.ie utmost cheerful-

ness if it stands between him and Tiis objective, iin;l no information to the contrary has been supplied by the (iovernment. The type that the imposition doe s really affect is the "conscientious objector." the man who for religious or ethical or political reasons cannot reconcile it wit.i his conscience to bind himself. This type is sincere but harmless. a.ii,l not nearly numerous enough to justify the maintenance of this elaborate system of toting. What the whole system of enforcing the oath and obtaining and classifying details of visitors' origin cost* we do not know, but we suspect that it helps to swell appreciably the number of civi] servants. This'is a direction in which zealots for economy might turn their attention. The whole business of admitting people to New Zealand ami permitting people to leave is in neej of overhaul in th* , interests of convenience, economy, anil national self-respect.