ALIEN ENEMIES

New Zealand Times, Volume XLII, Issue 9716, 19 July 1917, Page 6

ALIEN ENEMIES

THEIR ESTATES SHOULD BE SEQUESTRATED. An interesting question asked m the House yesterday by Air J. Vigor Brown, member for Napfcer, uas. Whether the Government will pass a law to sequestrate all the estates of alien enemies and retain them in their present position where compatible with public safety, and Pay them the rates of military pay allowed to members of our fighting forces, using all the balance and accrued profits for the benefit of our soldiers, widows, and dependents ? ALIENS IN NEW ZEALAND

On tho same subject , the following questions have been put to tho Minister for Defence by Mr It. I’letchcr: (1) How many Germans are interned on Somes Islands (2) How many Germans are in Wellington who ought to be interned ? (3) What is the coat per head to the Government of those interned ? (4) Are those Germans employed in useful work; and, if not, why aot?

DR LEOPOLD KLEAIIEN HAGEN, Ai.D. J ' In a question of which ho gave notice. Air V. H. Reed (Bay of Islands) stated that Dr Leopold. Kleimcn Hagen, AI.D., of Wurzberg University, Germany, was recently appointed medical superintendent «it tho Kiiy o* Islands Hospital, and Dr Valin tine, Inspector-General of Hospitals, after official inquiry held locally, supported the appointment during tho period of the war, and made the above statement in his report. Would the Alinister for Public Health, asked Mr Reed, state the evidence upon which tho In-spector-General of Hospitals, Dr Valintine founded his opinion that the recently-appointed medical superintendent of the Bay of Islands Hospital was “of British birth and the son of German parents who had been naturalised in Britain’’ ? The following printed reply was given in the House yesterday by the Hon. G. W. Russell: —“During*tho inquiry hold by the Inspector-General of | Hospitals at Kaiwakawa into the charges made against Dr Hagen, medical superintendent of the Kawakawa Hospital, he learned from the statements of George N. Douglas, police constable stationed at Kawakawa, and also Dr Hagen, that the latter was of British birth and the son of German parents. George Douglas, in evidence, said, ‘I was prejudiced against tho man when he first came, because I understood he was a native of Germany, but I have found nothing to justify that.’ ‘liar© you ever had any reason to doubt his loyalty ?’ (question a.skcd hy Dr Valmtine]. Witness: ‘No. I have made inquiries and had a lot of correspondence (police) from Westport and elsewhere, and also seen his birth certificate, and - I am satisfied that ho is a loyal British subject.’ Leopold K. Hagen, asked, ‘Are you a naturalised British subject?’ replied, ‘I was bora a British subject.’ 'Was your father a naturalised British subject?’—‘Before I was bora. He was horn in Germany.’ ‘And your mother?’—‘She was born j in London, but of German extraction.’ ” Air Reed stated that ho was far from satisfied with the reply. The most curious and most unsatisfactory aspect of the matter was that the In-spector-General of Hospitals actually supported Dr Hagen retaining tho appointment for the period of the war 1