Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1919. ENEMY ALIENS AND CITIZENSHIP.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIII, Issue 1710, 29 December 1919, Page 4

Manawatu Evening Standard. MONDAY, DECEMBER 29, 1919. ENEMY ALIENS AND CITIZENSHIP.

Ekcent happenings in Fiji, and nearer home at Auckland, have again brought into proininenco the question whether enemy aliens, interned during the war, should be permitted to assume citizenship rights within the British Empire —rights that were freely conceded to them prior to 1914, but which they shamefully abused, returning base ingratitude for friendly and hospitable treatment, and treachery for the good faith meted out to them. Returned soldiers, both in Fiji and Auckland, have taken up the question in no halfhearted fashion. In the Crown Colony they have refused to permit repatriated German aliens, possessing former property; rights in Fiji, to land at Suva, and when the Germans attempted to come ashore they simply dumped their baggage into the harbour, and threat anod to put them there also, the result being that the ex-Gorman colonists were pra-ctically re-interncd, this time on the Quarantine Island. The Auckland men are demanding the deportation of all interned Germans, and have made urgent representations to the PostmasterGeneral upon the subject, which should not be without their'effect upon Ministers. In the present temper of the country there is every reason to believe that .a plebiscite (were such taken) wotjild result in an overwhelming vote against any enemy alien being permitted to again take up bis residence amongst us. Most certainly it wduld result in an emphatic refusal to grant such people the citizenship rights which were open to them before the war. That the enemy alien is a danger to the community is a S'act so firmly established by the events of the past five years as to be practically indisputable. The isigning of the Peace Treaty by the German delegates has not removed the danger, for the all-sufficient reason that GWmany, although subdued, remains uiiconquered. The Gorman spirit is not dead, nor have the hopes of the German people been dissipated by the happenings of the last, few months. They, at least, refuse to "bury the hateftet." Kaiser, Crown Prince, von Hindenburg, von Tirpitz, Ludendorft and tSie people, alike, are all looking forwand to "next time," when they hope Uo accomplish their revenge. The Rolshesism that at present dominates Russia is the creation of the German mind. Foiled in one direction, with the plod tings of the pro-German advisers o* : the late Czar exposed and overthrown, the German Secret Service opened in another, and with their subtle propaganda, reduced the great Russian Elmpire to ruins. And, while beaten in'- the field, our enemies are still strong-, in the fight for "Deutsehland über" Allies." They hope to retrain in the world of commerce, their Tosses on the battlefields of Europe., During the trial of the French renegades. Humbert, Lenoir, Descouches and Ladoux, before the war tribunal in Paris, it was conclusively shown that largo sums were disbursed through a psoudo Swiss bank for the support oi Bolshevism, not merely in France and America, but also in Great Britain. Other evidence has been forthcoming to show that the enemy was at work to produce similarly chaotic conditions in Britain to those he had successM 3 jbnought obqufe*"! ftwfc'-c'ljnfeffiii lijjuofoj - " .*Vi>A~\<J

fain Swiss printers have confessed that the poisonous literature circulated in England and Ireland, and. notably in Glasgow and Belfast, printed by thern, was paid for by the secret bureau in the Krausen Strasse, Berlin, presided over by Herr Doctor Herman Hahudorf, who|, according to Mr William Le Queux, is still conducting the German propaganda in enemy countries. It would be idle to ignore ths fact that, in the minds of the great majority of our citizens, there is a strong feeling of repulsion towards enemy aliens—a feeling that it would be foolish to ignore, or make light of. The Him is as litfre wanted hs a citizen amongst us as the "unspeakable Turk,'] with whom he is so intimately allied in JeeKpgß, sentiments and action. Even wore ho entirely guiltless of the infamous . revolutionary propaganda he launched with such devilish cunning upon Russia and her Allies, prior to his defeat, and which there is ample evidence ho is continuing wherever possible, the German would be an "undesirable citizen" by reason of his war record. Knowing that he is unchanged in nature, and that he remains impenitent and defiant, he is doubly undesirable. If the rights and privileges British citizenship carries with it are to be retained by Britishers unimpaired, wo must see to it that such rights are conferred only upon men and women who are loyal to the principles of British liberty—a liberty embalmed and preserved in the constitution and free institutions of the bntish Empire.