NEW CLAUSE.—(Capacity of Alien as to Real Property.) (Hansard, 17 July 1918)

Major NEWMAN
I beg to move, "That the Clause be read a second time."
I quite admit that this Clause seeks to amend the principal Act in one particular only, but in a very important one. I understand the Home Secretary to say on the Second Beading that in this particular Amendment of Clause 7 of the principal Act he had to get the assent of the Overseas Dominions. He suggested that it would not be advisable to further extend the Bill, for if this were undertaken they would again have to seek the assent of the Overseas Dominions. I quite frankly allow that my proposed Clause does suggest a further Amendment of the 1914 Act, but I submit that this is a very important Amendment, and one that ought to be accepted. It affects ourselves alone. The case of ourselves and the Overseas Dominions—the continents and sub-continents—is different. The case of Great Britain and of Australia and South Africa are totally different. In the one case there are vast lands to the population, and that is different to this small Island. Therefore I hope, whether the Home Secretary accepts or rejects this Amendment, he will not urge its non-acceptance on the ground of not being able to consult the Overseas Dominions. This is a domestic matter for ourselves alone. I am perfectly convinced that the representatives of the Overseas Dominions now in England would not for a moment seek to interfere in a domestic concern of this sort. All the provisions that were in the Naturalisation Act of 1870, as the Committee know, were continued in and reaffirmed in the Act of 1914. There was no more remarkable provision than the provision in the Act of 1870, transferred almost bodily to the Act of 1914, dealing with the status of aliens and the power of aliens to acquire and hold land in this country. Clause 17 of the Act of 1914 provides that— real and personal property of every description may be taken, held, and disposed of by an alien in the same manner in all respects as by a natural-born British subject and a title to real and personal property may be derived through an alien in the same manner in all respects as though a natural-born British subject. This is something almost unheard of. The Committee will notice that I am not arguing about personal property but about real property, and I suggest that for the time of the War and for five years afterwards no alien, whether friendly, alien, or neutral or enemy alien, should be allowed 1193 to acquire land without special licence granted by the Home Secretary or some other competent authority. I can adduce a few very good reasons why we should adopt this proposal. [HON. MEMBERS: "Divide, divide!"] After all, the Home Secretary has told the House that he has power under the Defence of the Realm Act to prevent an alien acquiring property. I have looked through the Regulations very carefully, and I confess that I cannot find that Regulation.

§ Sir G. CAVE
I do not think that I ever said that.

Major NEWMAN
Then that makes my case all the stronger. That means that an alien, whether friendly, neutral, or enemy, can as a matter of fact acquire property in this country at the present moment and the Government have no power to stop him. I think the Government ought to have power to stop him and prevent an alien, unless you are satisfied as to his loyalty, from acquiring land, and if you have not that power then you ought to take it under this Bill. It is perfectly notorious to everybody in this country that land is being acquired here by aliens. Only to-day the hon. Member for Essex brought forward a case where a large acreage of land had been acquired by a syndicate, some members of which were of enemy nationality. This was a case where land had been acquired by men who were in part aliens and not natural-born British subjects. I could give other cases. In Essex the other day an alien firm made an attempt to buy up a business with pasture lands attached, which was being sold by the Board of Trade and which had been in the possession of an enemy alien. That sale was stopped on representations made through questions in this House, but there is a danger of aliens acquiring land in this country. We do not want them to do this, and I suggest, in order to make this Bill a little bit more useful, we might add this Clause, providing that during the War, and for a term of five years after, we should not allow any alien to acquire land unless he gets a licence from the Home Secretary. The drafting of my Clause may be bad, and it may need amendment. At any rate, something of this nature should be put into the Bill. I attach great importance to it, and, if I do not get some assurance from the Home Secretary either that he has power now to stop an alien getting land or that he means, as soon as 1194 the present Regulations expire or before, by some Bill, to prevent aliens getting land at any rate for some years after the War, I shall divide the Committee against the Government.

§ Sir G. CAVE
I think my hon. and gallant Friend has not very clearly distinguished between aliens and enemy aliens. An enemy alien cannot acquire land during the War. If he does acquire land, or if he owns land, it can be vested in the Public Trustee. Therefore, the only person that the Clause deals with is the friendly alien.

Major NEWMAN
Or a neutral; and I would point out that it is to have effect for five years after the War.

§ Sir G. CAVE
Yes; or a neutral. The law regarding the ownership of land in England by aliens was changed in 1870, when a provision was passed that aliens might acquire and own land. That has been the law for forty-eight years, and the hon. and gallant Gentleman proposes to repeal the Section under which the law holds good. In other words, he would destroy the title of ownership.

Major NEWMAN
My Amendment is that they shall not acquire land now. I am not dealing with those who own land already.

§ Sir G. CAVE
The Clause proposes to repeal Section 17, under which they can hold land and title can be traced through them. I am not dealing with the drafting of the Clause, but, as a matter of fact, that is the effect of it. I do not belittle the importance of the question in the least. It is a big matter, and I do not think that we ought to deal with it in this Bill. I do not say that aliens ought to hold land in this country, but I do not think that we ought to change the law by this Bill, and I really cannot accept the Clause.

§ Mr. STEWART
I would like to say, in support of my hon. and gallant Friend, that I know of a case in which a man who was by birth a British subject but who became the subject of another country. He occupies and owns a considerable extent of land in this country. He is a great pacifist, and at the beginning of the War it came to my knowledge that he had a certain number of men attached to his staff, gamekeepers and so on, and it was one of the fundamental conditions of his service that he 1195 would not have a single man who was in the Territorials or who was assisting in any military service of any sort or kind. I remember at the time making inquiries. In the rush of business the matter was not brought before the House, but I do think that it is a matter of public policy for which I hope the right hon. Gentleman will have some regard.

§ Mr. NEVILLE
I should like to support what has been said by my hon. Friends. I was glad to hear the right hon. Gentleman say that this is a big question. In 1870, or just afterwards, it was thought there would be no European war. We had had our International Exhibition. We had got everybody together, and we were going to have friendship in the world and were not going to allow all the old stupid things to keep us apart. Aliens can or could acquire our coalfields, or land in the neighbourhood of ports, or overlooking arsenals, or in situations where, if they chose to do so, they could make gun emplacements which would enable guns to be trained upon London, and they could generally, without any interference by anybody in this country, use land in anticipation of war or for the purpose of making it more difficult to defend the country. I hope that when the Home Secretary deals with the larger question both he and the House will consider most carefully the question whether any alien, whether friendly or unfriendly, should be entitled to hold any land in this country without the consent of the Government.

Major NEWMAN
May I ask the Home Secretary whether it is possible at the present moment to prevent a neutral alien from buying land in this country under the Defence of the Realm Acts or anything else during the War?

§ Sir G. CAVE
That is not the question.