WITHOUT A NATION

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 184, 2 May 1933, Page 9

WITHOUT A NATION

“Alien” Through Marriage PEER’S SISTER’S STATUS The Hon. Mrs. James Beck, sister of Lord Glenconner, and well known as one of the best-dressed and most attractive women in London, lias petitioned the Home Secretary to recover her status as a British subject. Mrs. Beck has discovered that, as a result of her marriage in 1928 to Mr. J. M. Beck. §on of the former Solicitor-General of the United States, she is “deemed” to be an alien under English law, while the United States do not recognise her as a subject of that country. Mrs. Beck, therefore, although the British-born daughter of a peer and the mother of tlie heir to another peerage—she was previously married to tlie lion. Lionel Tennyson, now Lord Tennyson—lias become a woman without any nationality. Penalised by Act.

Mrs. Beck is only one of a number of Englishwomen married to Americans who are thus penalised by the British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act of 1918. They lose all their rights and privileges as British subjects, and have to register as aliens and report regularly to the police. Mr. Harry Abrahams, the solicitor who has taken the matter up with the Home Office on behalf of Mrs. Beck, said to a “Daily Express” representative: “It is a mystery why the law has not been amended before now. It was agreed at an international convention at The Hague in 1930 that no wife should be deprived of her nationality on marriage to a foreigner unless she had acquired Hint of her husband. The same year our Imperial Conference agreed that this provision should be adopted by the legislatures throughout the Commonwealth. Canada has already acted. The Dominion Government has passed a law to remedy tlie anomalous situation. but the Mother Country has done nothing yet. Restoration of Status. Mrs. Beck decided to seek to regain her British nationality when she read of tlie case of Mrs. Grace Tyndail. The latter married an Englishman, who subsequently went to the United States and became naturalised. She returned to England, and was (Incd for failing to register as an alien, but tlie Home Office ultimately upheld her plea for restoration of her British status. “Tlie case of Mrs. Boek, however, is not on all fours with that of Mrs. Tyndall.’' said Mr. Abrahams. “Tlie Home Secretary was able to move in the ease of Mrs. Tyndall because lie has special authority to exercise his discret ion ivlien the husband of _ a British woman changes his nationality after tlie marriage. “Tho Home Office lias notified me that the case of Mrs. Beck is under consideration, tint it is impossible f o say what tlie decision will be. It may be' she will have to wait for the overdue legislation to be passed before she will bo able to acquire any nationality, she could become an American citizen by staying in Hie United States for a year, but neither she nor her husband lias any desire to leave England.”