AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25562, 15 June 1944, Page 4

AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP

NATURALISATION OF SOLDIERSCEREMONY AT AUCKLAND TO-DAY (P.A.) AUCKLAND. June 14. More than 100 members of the United States armed forces will receive certificates of naturalisation as American citizens at a ceremony to-morrow in the American Red Cross recreation hall of an American Army hospital in Auckland. This will be the second formal naturalisation ceremony to be held in New Zealand. The men to receive the certificates include 51 former British subjects, 18 Mexicans. 10 Germans, 5 Italians, 3 Swedes, 2 Irishman, and 1 each from Argentina, Belgium, China, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Honduras. Hungary, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and Jugoslavia.

All these soldiers have been naturalised as American citizens by the American Consul and American Vice-consul in Auckland following hearings recently held by them under their special appointment as naturalisation examiners. Every petitioner for naturalisation was specially recommended by his commanding officer and vouched for by two other officers.

This procedure is traceable to the Second War Powers Act (1942). By that Act the American Congress provided for the expeditious naturalisation of aliens in the armed forces of the United States and specifically waived all normal restrictions and requirements as to age, race, alien enemies, period of residence in the United States, ability to speak English, educational qualifications, fees, and photographs which were formerly necessary.