RELEASE FROM INTERNMENT

Press, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24986, 21 September 1946, Page 7

RELEASE FROM INTERNMENT

ENEMY ALIENS IN AUSTRALIA (Rec. 10 p.m.) CANBERRA, Sept. 20. Hundreds of enemy aliens brought to Australia during the war for internment are being released to take jobs and establish permanent residence in Australia. Later, they will be permitted to apply for naturalisation and may be allowed to bring thenwives and children to Australia. A startling official disclosure to-day was that the period of internment served by an enemy alien in Australia counts as part of the five years’ probationary period needed before naturalisation can be sought. Thus, many aliens who have spent the whole of the last five years behind barbed wire will soon be* eligible. The only condition is that “they must wait 12 months after their release from internment.

The releases follow investigations which have been made in recent months by Mr Justice Hutchins, of Tasmania.

There are about 2000 enemy aliens, mostly Germans, who were brought to Australia during the war by the military authorities on behalf of the British Government Because of chaotic conditions in Europe, the Commonwealth Government, which wanted to close all internment camps as quickly as possible, was faced with a difficult problem. Lack of shipping and the reticence of gie Allied Military Government in ermany made the repatriation of enemy aliens virtually impossible. •Mr Justice Hutchins makes three classes of recommendations—deportation, release pending deportation and release to remain in Australia. Those in the first category are being held in custody pending the provision of shipping. Others are being released subject to certain conditions. Numbers of persons brought to Australia on behalf of the British Government were released during, the war and volunteered for service in the Australian Army. This was not permitted, but their services were used in Army employment companies and later in the Aliens Corps. Many have already been naturalised.