NATIONALITY IN EMPIRE

Taranaki Daily News, 12 August 1930, Page 11

NATIONALITY IN EMPIRE

UNIFORM POLICY DESIRED DIFFICULTIES OF ATTAINMENT. QUESTION OF MARRIED WOMEN By Tslegraph.—Press Association. Wellington, Last Night. “One of the special subjects referred to in the report to the 1926 Imperial Conference as calling for an agreed policy throughout the Commonwealth is that of nationality, including the very vexed question of the nationality of married women,” said Mr. G. W. Forbes, Prime Minister,- in the House of Representatives to-day. “It is our view that a uniform law of nationality throughout the British Commonwealth is desirable, but we do not feel that uniformity will be easy to attain or indeed that it can be attained without considerable compromise, especially with reference to the case of married women. “The House will recognise that this subject is by no means free from difficulties and that perhaps the outstanding necessity of the situation in the interests of the woman herself and of the children of such a marriage is that the nationality of the whole family should be the same.” Air. H. E. ,Holland, Leader of the Labour Party, urged that some steps should be taken to enable married women to retain their own nationality. The practice of forcing women to accept the nationality of the husband belonged to a day that was long past.