ENEMY ALIENS

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 133, 7 June 1915, Page 6

ENEMY ALIENS

The sinking of the Lusitania probably contributed more than any other' single i event of the war, both to stimulate recruiting throughout the Empire and to inflame popular passion against the enemy whose murderous tactics had achieved such a dramatic triumph. Hitherto there had been a singular absence on the British side of that national hatred which during years of peace had been carefully fostered in Germany, and since the outbreak of war had been carried-, with the aid of every stimulus that official patronage could supply, to a pitch of ungovernable ferocity ' There has been no British "Hymn of Hate " A •campaign of hatred has been no more a. part of British tactics than a campaign of murder, but it is not surprising that the enemy's campaign of murder should have excited many of our people to a campaign of hate which would never have been contemplated against an enemy who was considered to have "played the game." Tn the stimulus to recruiting and to patriotic benevolence which this, passion has provided its effects have been entirely excellent, but it has had "other less admirable -effects which have caused great embarrassment to the British Government and provided v some trouble for our own. Rioting is so obviously a disgrace to the nation that indulges in it, so utterly powerless to do anything but hinder its ostensible objects, and so alien to the temper of a just and law-abiding people, that there is really no need to argue against it. But the popular indignation inflamed by the sinking of the Lusitania. took another form which, as it involved no violation of law or justice, cannot be dismissed in this peremptory fashion and may produce a permanent beneficial effect. Are wo taking sufficiently strict measures to protect ourselves against the enemy aliens in our midst? That is a question, about which the public mind was very much exercised in the early days of the war, has never been quite easy since, and has within the last month been again excited by the outrage to which we have referred. ' It is perhaps just as well that the' intense excitement was not sufficiently prolonged to dictate a change in public policy while public feeling was swll at boiling-point. A fierce indignation is a splendid fighting quality, but it is not conducive to the calm and cool consideration which so difficult a problem de mands. The question is not one of vengeance but one of justice, and justice as much for ourselves as for the other side. Nobody suggests that because the German nation as a whole must be held responsible for the cold-blooded murder of more than a thousand noVi-combntantSj including women and children, on the Lusitania, every individual German, wherever found, is to be held guilty of murder or of any other crime. But it is

us the more careful in our dealings with the guilty nation, and more determine- [ to see that the means we have taken to protect ourselves from mischief at the hands of its members in our own country are adequate. As we have previously argued, our position is very different from that of Great Britain in regard to this aspect of the German menace There are no German airships within call which might be piloted to where they could do most damage by friendly signals, There are not even any German cruisers which might be helped to harry our coasts by information supplied by German spies. The danger which has grown greater in England with" the growing intensity of the struggle has diminished more than proportionately irNew Zealand with the disappearance of the last German warship from ths Pacific. But it is still possible that German residents in this country may bo supplying information that is of value to the enemy, or may find other means of abusing our hospitality. | Against this clanger it seems to us that the policy of the Government is in principle the right one, though it is quite possible that it may with advantage be more strictly enforced. The wholesale internment of enemy aliens is out of the question, but liberty should not be the privilege of those at all likely to abuse it. The presumption is in favour of naturalised aliens and against those who are not naturalised. But each case must be judged on its own merits, and the result of the great wave of indigna tion that passed over the country lasi month should be to ensure that the processes of investigation, discrimination, and supervision are more carefully con ducted. The personnel of the Advisory Board whose assistance the Government has invoked is such as to inspire confidence in the attainment of this result.