COMPULSION AND FOREIGNERS.

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2783, 30 May 1916, Page 6

COMPULSION AND FOREIGNERS.

Sir,—Conscription may shortly be en. forced among us, and quite right, too, up to a point. But has it ever occurred to anyone that something should be done, also, with the foreigner:'' Those who live among us enjoy the unrivalled freedom of this country; and make good money, and will do even better during our absence, and, while our boys are serving at the front. Have we to fight for theso fellows, their wives and' children, shedding our very life's blood for them, to the detriment of our own families, while they..simply look on,' perhaps laugh, and grow fat at our expense? Should he not also bo commandeered to do some useful work for the country, in her time of trouble, in return for the privileges he enjoys? Now, this is a very sore point among a very large num. ber of tradesmen, as they fear that while their absence will mean success to the alien, it may spell bankruptcy to themselves, for as the matter now stands these foreigners, Germans, Austrians, Syrians, Chinese, etc., etc., aro in the happy position of having nothing to lose, no mat. ter which way the war goes.*, So I consider that any-man who must not fight because he is an alien should be turned to some good iise under Government control. It seems simply absurd that, we should allow him,, "an alien in our midst," to take the trade out of our hands while we are at the front. It should, bo tho duty of the Government to bring in a Bill at once dealing with all aliens to the benefit (and not the detriment) of the country,—l am, etc., TRAVELLER,