§ MR. JAMES STUART (Shoreditch, Hoxton)asked the Secretary of State 650 for the Home Department, Whether, in raising the fee for the naturalization of aliens from £1 to £5, he is aware that it had been £1 for many years prior to 1880, and that it was reduced again to £1 in May last by the late Home Secretary, after the presentation of a Memorial, signed by 93 Members of the House of Commons of all shades of political opinion, pointing out that the charge (with stamps and Law expenses amounting to between £8 and £10) prevented many respectable foreigners from becoming British subjects, although by the Juries Act of 1870 they are compelled, after 10 years' residence, to serve on juries, and praying for the reduction of the fee to £1; and whether he will state the grounds on which the fee was again raised?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. MATTHEWS) (Birmingham, E.)The facts are as stated in the hon. Member's Question, and I was fully aware of them when I decided to raise the fee again to £5. In 1880, the decision to raise the fee from £1 to £5 was approved by Sir Richard Cross, and afterwards adopted by the right hon. Gentleman opposite (Sir William Harcourt). I do not consider that sufficient reasons exist to justify a departure from the decision of these right hon. Gentlemen, for I am not satisfied with the reasons which were urged upon my immediate Predecessor (Mr. Childers) last year, and which finally induced him to lower the fee. I agree with the Royal Commissioners of 1869 in thinking that, "to be a British subject is a valuable privilege, and to be considerately imparted," and £5 does not appear to me to be too large a sum to pay for the privilege, and for the inquiries which are necessary before a certificate of naturalization can be granted.
§ MR. JAMES STUART (Shoreditch, Hoxton)asked the Secretary of State for the Home Department, Whether information has reached him that on the understanding that the fee was to be £1, 200 aliens in the East of London, whose average residence in England has been 15 years, have been associated together since last October to pay their naturalization fee and costs by weekly instalments; and, whether, in the event of his maintaining the fee at £5, he will permit those persons, provided their 651 references prove to be satisfactory, to be naturalized at the lower fee?
§ THE SECRETARY OF STATE (Mr. MATTHEWS) (Birmingham, E.)Information has reached me that Associations exist such as the hon. Member referred to in his second Question, in which the rights of British nationality are secured to the members by drawing a winning number in a lottery. I can make no exception in favour of members of these Associations or of any other person.