AMERICAN NATIONALITY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LII, Issue 16096, 9 December 1915, Page 4

AMERICAN NATIONALITY.

It is evident that recent events in the United States have aroused Mr. Wilson jto a serious view of the German-American menace. In his speech to Congress the President demands laws to deal with naturalised citizens who had turned in malign reaction against the country which has nurtured and welcomed them and who had sought by pission, disloyalty and anarchy to destroy industries and to bring the good name of the Government into contempt. There is no mistaking the meaning of this. The President made no specific reference to Germans, but he made his meaning abundantly clear. " Foreign plotters had made a proud country a hotbed of European passion, spying upon every confidential Government transaction!" Who are these but the paid agents of the Kaiser 1 Who are the naturalised citizens who introduced this " malign influence" but the German-Americans? Mr. Wilson explains that no preparation has been made in the United States for such a contingency as has arisen. In this the United States is not singular. All countries have welcomed Germans and admitted them to nationality while Germany looks upon the naturalisation certificates as " scraps of paper." According to German law a German may "acquire a foreign nationality," while by the written permission of the competent authorities of his home state he can retain his German nationality. In other words a German may naturalise in the United States or elsewhere and have a secret understanding with Berlin that his American citizenship is a matter of form for a present advantage which may be to the ultimate good of Germany. It is obvious that many Ger-man-Americans have caught the spirit of this legislation. They are Germans using their acquired nationality in the true German fashion even to the extent of endangering the internal peace of their adopted country. Mr. Wilson has not exaggerated the danger, which is manifestly greater in the United States than in countries which have a smaller percentage of Germans in their population. He has had to contend for months past with plots hatched on American soil by professed American citizens whose concern is the triumph of Germany whatever may be the cost to the United States. It is evident that the patience of loyal Americans has been"exhausted. Mr. Wilson, in his demand for new and more stringent laws, is not merely expressing his personal feeling but is giving voice to the prevailing sentiment of the people of the United States.