CLAUSE 13.—(Definitions.) (Hansard, 13 November 1919)

§ Sir H. NIELD
I beg to move, in Subsection (1), to leave out the words, "a subject or citizen of a State with which His Majesty was at war at any time during the year nineteen hundred and eighteen," and to insert instead thereof the words or has at any time been a subject or citizen of the German Empire or any component state thereof, or of Austria, Hungary, Bulgaria, or Turkey, and has not changed his allegiance as a result of the recognition of new states or territorial rearrangements, or been naturalised in any other foreign state or in any British Possession in accordance with the laws thereof, and when actually resident therein, and in such a manner as not to retain according to the law of his state of origin the nationality of that State. This is in order to get over the difficulty of the definition of "former enemy aliens." After controversy with the Foreign Office these words were very carefully framed so as to exclude the subject of any State who, upon the operation of the Peace Treaty, may be entitled to be regarded as of separate nationality and friendly towards ourselves, though nominally an enemy alien, by reason of the events which have happened and which have changed so largely Eastern and South-Eastern Europe.

§ Sir J. BUTCHER
I beg to second the Amendment.
The object is to bring into the definition of former enemy aliens people who have been at one time or another Ger- 572 mans or other enemy aliens, but it makes two exceptions. The one class of exception is people who have been in the past Germans or other enemy aliens but who by the operation of any of the recently concluded Treaties become subjects of another State, such as, for instance, the Czecho-Slovakian or the Serbian, the Polish, or any of the new States set up under the Treaty. The other class who will be excepted from being treated as former enemy aliens are people who have been naturalised in either a British Possession or some foreign country, but subject to this condition—a very proper one to impose upon such people—that they must not only be naturalised in the British Possession or in some foreign State, but they must have denuded themselves or got rid somehow of their former German nationality. In other words, if, although naturalised, he still retains his German or other enemy alien nationality, he would still be an enemy alien. But if, besides being naturalised, he got rid of his former nationality, he would be exempt from this Clause.

§ Lieut. - Commander KENWORTHY
I think this very interesting Amendment shows the difficulties which will face the Executive. It is also Rip Van Winkleism. Are hon. Members aware that at present British troops are being sent to certain areas to preserve order while a plebiscite is taken as to whether they shall belong to Germany or Poland, to take one instance? In Upper Silesia or Memel or Lithuania, for example, the inhabitants are sufficiently mixed that a certain number of Germans will be included in Poland or Lithuania or Czecho-Slovakia, and a number of Poles and Lithuanians and Czechs and Slovaks will be left outside their frontiers and included on German territory. They are former enemy aliens, and under this Bill they may be proceeded against while their blood relations in the next village, who happen to be inside the lines as the result of the plebiscite, will be allowed to come to this country. The line will almost cut through families in these regions where the plebiscite is taken. This should bring home the utter parochialism of this legislation and the ignorance that lies behind it. Rip Van Winkleism is a mild term, because when a man who has been asleep for twelve months wakes up he forgets a good deal, but when people have been alive and awake and take an interest in what goes 573 on around them one cannot forgive them at all for this kind of thing. It is parochialism and ignorance. This top-heavy Amendment—and I hope the representative of the Home Office will bear me out in this—shows the difficulties and the anomalies and the utter futility of this kind of legislation.

§ Lieut. - Commander KENWORTHY
I beg to move, at the end of Sub-section (1), to add the words but shall not be held to include citizens of the state of Poland, Czecko-Slovakia, Roumania, Jugo-Slavia, Hungary, Palestine, Latvia, Lithuania, Esthonia, Greece, France, Italy, Denmark, or Belgium, or persons living in those parts of the ancient empire of Turkey which are no longer under direct Turkish rule. This Amendment stands in the name of my hon. and gallant Friend (Colonel Wedgwood), and he put it down because he realises that there will be many anomalies and difficulties brought about by this Bill. Therefore, he desires to put in these words to safeguard those people who, by the anomalies of the Peace settlement, happen to be where there are mixed nationalities. I hope this Amendment will be accepted, and I should think the hon. Member (Sir H. Nield) would not object to it.

§ Sir H. NIELD
It is already covered.

§ Lieut. - Commander KENWORTHY
I think this Amendment would make it a little more water-tight, and is to ensure that citizens who are friendly to us but who by chance are included in the new territories should not be cut out. One Amendment cuts at persons who are former enemy aliens. This Amendment includes people who are technically former enemy aliens but who are, in theory at any rate, our friends.

§ Mr. KILEY
I beg to second the Amendment, in order that the Home Secretary may have an opportunity of explaining.

§ Mr. SHORTT
This Amendment is wholly unnecessary. It is entirely covered. The words have been very carefully thought out in the Amendment which the House has just accepted.

§ Lieut. - Commander KENWORTHY
May we have the reasons why this is to be done?

§ Mr. SHORTT
I thought that was in the memory of the House. The question arose as to dealing with former enemy aliens who hold land and other kinds of property. I could not put the Amendment down in time to be reached before we finished the new Clauses, and it was necessary to re-commit the Bill in order to deal with it in Committee.