§ 37. Captain Kerbyasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether Professor Bruno Pontecorvo has yet been deprived of his British citizen ship; if he will now publish the names of those persons in Britain who sponsored the professor's naturalisation; and if he will make a statement.
§ Major Lloyd-GeorgeThe Secretary of State has power to deprive a naturalised person of his citizenship if he is satisfied that the citizen has shown himself by act or speech to be disloyal or disaffected towards Her Majesty. There has hitherto been no information as to Dr. Pontecorvo's activities which would provide a reliable basis for the exercise of this power but I have of course noted with interest the statements recently attributed to Dr. Pontecorvo in the Soviet Press and am giving urgent consideration to the matter. Dr. Pontecorvo was naturalised on account of Crown service rendered abroad, and it is not the practice to require such applications to be supported by private sponsors.