WAR LEGISLATION BILL

New Zealand Times, Volume XLIII, Issue 10137, 27 November 1918, Page 2

WAR LEGISLATION BILL

The War Legislation Bill which was brought before the House in the early stages of the session went before the committee.

A great deal of controversy arose over the provisions regarding enemy aliens in the country.

The Prime Minister introduced amendments providing that every person being the son of an alien enemy who has been disloyal shall bo deemed to bo a person of enemy origin. Mr W. A. Veitch (Wanganui) asked that the matter of the confiscation of the superannuation rights of civil servants’ rights should be rectified in this bill.

The Prime Minister stated that the matter was a very complicated one; it had been before Cabinet, and was not yet settled. It was a policy question, and would have to be further considered by Cabinet.

Mr J. V. Brown (Napier) spoke strongly on the matter of German citizenship in this country. In , most emphatic terras ho said; If this House does not rise and sweep the Germans from this country, then God help them. They have been swept from most places, and should not be allowed to sit on a school committee oven.

Many individual cases of possible hardship were ventilated by members. Several members pointed out that many of the Government’s proposals regarding certificates for sons of Germans would be in the nature of insults, considering that sons, or fathers, or, in many cases, both, were quite loyal.

The bill "was partially dealt with by the committee, further consideration being interrupted by the dinner adjournment.