BRITISH NATIONALITY (MARRIED WOMEN). (Hansard, 28 March 1922)

§ Sir JOHN BUTCHER

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to amend the British Nationality and Status of Alien Acts, 1914 and 1918, so far as affects Married Women. The object of this Bill is to amend the Statute law by which a woman, whether she desires it or not, has to take the nationality of her husband on marriage. This Statute law is of comparatively modern date. By the Common law of England, marriage does not affect the nationality of a woman. A British woman, on marrying an alien, remains a British subject; and, on the other hand, an alien woman, on marrying a British subject, remains an alien. The first infringement of this rule was made in the year 1844, when it was provided that an alien woman, on marrying a British subject, should take British nationality, and so matters remained until the year 1870, when, by the Act of that year, it was further provided, for the first time, indeed, in history, that a British woman, on marrying an alien lost her British nationality, and became an alien. Those provisions were continued by the Act of 1914—an Act, I may say, that was passed very hastily, and without much consideration, upon the eve of the Great War.

Much has happened since 1914. The whole position of women, politically and socially, has been fundamentally changed. I need not go through the details. It is enough for my purpose to say that, by an Act passed in 1919, most of the disqualifications owing to sex or marriage were removed. As regards married women especially—because it is with married women that this Bill deals—in former days their position was anomalous in the extreme. Many of the anomalies, especially as regards property, have been removed by the State. A good many anomalies remain which, in the opinion of many, ought to be removed, and this Bill deals with some of the most oppressive. In the first place, as regards British women, the Bill restores to them the right which they lost in 1870 of retain- 1151 ing their British nationality on marriage with an alien, and it further provides that women who have lost their British nationality by marriage shall regain it, unless they desire to remain aliens.

The Bill provides, as regards alien women, that they shall not by marriage with a British subject ipso facto become a British subject, but it leaves it open for them to apply in the usual way and under the usual conditions for a certificate of British naturalisation. At the same time there is the safeguard to alien women who have already become British subjects by marriage. I may say that this Bill is supported by 59 women's organisations in the United Kingdom, in the Dominions, in Southern Rhodesia, and in East Africa. Of those 59 organisations some 29 are in the United Kingdom. There is one other reason peculiar to this subject to which I need not at length refer; one other reason why I venture to think the House should allow this Bill to be introduced. [HON. MEMBERS: "Agreed!"] Since the War we have come to recognise in a way we never did before the great value and distinctive privilege of British nationality. It is a privilege not lightly to be granted and not lightly to be lost. It is not easy to-day to justify the continuance of legislation whereby on the one hand a British woman by the simple act of marriage loses the privilege of British nationality, and whereby, on the other hand, an alien woman by the mere act of marriage acquires this privilege, without taking the oath of allegiance or complying with those other conditions on which the rights of British nationality are normally granted.