HC Deb 15 November 1916 vol 87 cc751-3
1. Colonel HOPE

asked the Secretary of State for India whether Herr F. O. Oertel, Public Works Secretary in the Government of Assam, is a Bavarian by birth, who was educated in Germany up to the age of fourteen and has never been naturalised as a British subject; and why it is considered desirable that an enemy subject should retain a highly responsible position, fourth in authority, in the Government of a province where German missionaries have been particularly active in their attempts to spread disaffection?

The SECRETARY of STATE for INDIA (Mr. Chamberlain)

Mr. F. O. Oertel, who was born in Hanover, has lived in India for thirty-eight years, and had renounced his German nationality before he went there. He was appointed to the Public Works Department in 1883. He has been naturalised. I am satisfied that there are no grounds for dispensing with his services.

Captain BURGOYNE

May I ask whether the right hon. Gentleman has read any police reports of the character of this man?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN

No, Sir; I have not.

Captain BURGOYNE

Will you do so?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN

I do not propose to do so. I do not know what the hon. and gallant Member means and what he intends to suggest. I think it is entirely gratuitous and most unjust.

Mr. G. FABER

Will the right hon. Gentleman say how this man lost his German citizenship?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN

Because he formally renounced his German citizenship before he went to India, and the renunciation was accepted by, I am not quite certain which of the German Governments, but the responsible Government at that time. At any rate, the formal act of renunciation was made and accepted.

Mr. FABER

Is the renunciation made and accepted in the same way as a naturalised German here renounces his citizenship?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN

I thought the complaint about the naturalised citizen here was that in the greater number of cases they had not renounced their German citizenship, and therefore were still citizens of the German Empire. This gentleman formally renounced his German citizenship, and complied with all the conditions of German law for divesting himself of his German citizenship, and therefore ceased to be a German citizen before he went out to India.

Mr. FABER

Is the rule in India more stringent than here?

Mr. CHAMBERLAIN

I am only dealing with the individual case of this gentleman about whom I am questioned. I do not know how rules of India compare with those here.

Back to