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Evening Star, Issue 14497, 23 February 1911, Page 4

On Tuesday we discussed the problem

presented by the inadequate provisions of tho English law in respect to anarchists and undesirable alions, with special reference to the practical suggestions offered by Mr Arnold White. Our object iu reverting to the subject is to draw attention to tho viows held by expert authorities in Berlin, as reported by the correspondent of tho ' Daily Telegraph' in tho Gorman capital. Thoro appears to bo a virtually unanimous opinion that tho British Government ought to eomo into lino with the chief continental countries in exercising an offective supervision over the sworn niiemios of sociot.v, and to this end it is strongly urged that thero should bo a compulsory registration of the occupants of every house. This proposal is sure to he denounced in some quarters as un-British and tyrannical, but it has boon in operation for some years in democratic France, as well as in bureaucratic Germany; and unless English people aro determined to ignore the dangers which besot them, they must needs modify that thoughtless hatred of restraint and organisation which Matthew Arnold satirised forty years ago in 'Culture and Anarchy.' Describing the system of registration as carried out in Berlin, the ' Telegraph's ' correspondent writes: The scheme is carried to such perfection hero that tho police, by means of their own records, can trace the present residence of persons who lived in Berlin twenty years ago, and who may have changed their abode any number of times in the interval. Each man, woman, and child of Gernuuiy|s sixty odd millions of inhabitants is registered in this careful manner. Suggestions that any such scheme of official registration would be irksome to the liberty-loving Englishman are met by a reference to its existence in France and other progressive countries, where the inhabitants raiso no objection to it.

Anarchists and Aliens.

It is admitted that tho system is troublesome and expensive, but tho people of France and Germany regard these inconveniences, to all intents, as an insurance premium. The non-oxpert mind might perhaps be disposed to question the conclusive valuo of registration as a protection against anarchist activity, but the continental authorities evidently look upon it as the primary and principal necessity of the situation. It is pointed out here that no reform of the existing Aliens Act will produce the desirod results unless the English police possess some efficient method of supervising, foreigners after their arrival in England. It is thought here, that the success of tho most stringent legislation would bo largely frustrated unless compulsory registration were introduced as a supplementary measure.

It is also pointed nut that arrangements should ho inaclo for systematic 00-opora-tion between the police in London and ia the continental cities; and the British Government and Parliament are told, delicately hut firmly, that many of their traditional sentiments, hased on romantic ideas of national hospitality, must he sacrificed in favor of doctrines and methods dictated by a cool recognition of hard facts.