LYTTELTON ELECTION

Evening Star, Issue 19198, 15 March 1926, Page 9

LYTTELTON ELECTION

WOMEN'S RIGHT TO NATIONALITY MR M'GOMBS'S PROTEST [Special to the ‘Star.’] CHRISTCHURCH, March 13. The first public utterance made by Mr. M'Combs, M.P., after his election bad been announced was a protest against the reflection cast on certain persons in Lyttelton electorate that they were aliens, and not British citizens. “1 know of, and I feel yexy keenly,” said Mr M'Combs, the hurt which has been inflicted on a nuinbox of individuals and families in Lyttelton in its having been made to appear that certain persons were aliens, Ihe hrst on the list was a man with a foreign name born in Ohoka, and theretoio a New Zealander, who served two and a-half years at tho front, ihe next was the son of a man who was natmalised in 1877, and who sent three sons Lo the front. The mother of these sons, who was British born, felt it very hard that she should ho branded as an alien. The next on the list was a young woman who was born in Lyttelton and who lived in Lyttelton all her life, but married a foreigner. She lost her vote in the country in which she was born. Next was the daughter of a British Army doctor, and one whoso mother was also British to tho backbone. J.ho parents spent less than two years in tho United States of America, whore the daughter was born; but they never forfeited their British nationality, iho next case, born in Finland, acquired British nationality. The wife, who was born in Lyttelton, had her nationality challenged. Tho next appears to have bad his nationality revoked, or at least a man of that name had; but ho was away on a boat, and could not be consulted. Tho next was a Britishborn woman, wife of an alien, whoso husband had left her, and she lost her vote. The next, horn in Finland and naturalised in New Zealand, lin'd his vote challenged; while his wife (a Britisher) risked losing a vote m the country in which she was born. Iho next was a Lyttelton-born girl who married a man born in Sweden, who was given his naturalisation papers after the roll closed. Next was also a Lyttelton-born woman who married a man who is captain of a small vessel. He applied for naturalisation in 1899, but did not pursue it. Of the four persons who lost their votes throe were British women born in tho country. “It is time the law was altered, as it has been in other countries,” Mr M'Combs added, “to allow women to retain their nationality in the country in which they wore born. The women’s societies throughout the world are demanding it, and what I have witnessed in some of iho homes affected in this contest'will make mo more determined than ever to see that women shall be granted tho same right to possession of nationality as men have. _ The other Bide had a legal right to object to these names. It is tho law that requires altering.”