NATIONALITY OF MARRIED WOMEN. (Hansard, 30 July 1924)

§ LORD DANESFORT

had given Notice to ask the Lord President of the Council whether his attention has been called to the fact that, owing to the present state of the British law of nationality and to recent legislation in the United States in 1922, a British-born woman on marrying an American citizen loses her British nationality and does not acquire United States citizenship, and is consequently subjected to serious hardships as regards passport and other matters and to many other disabilities; and further that the recent Joint Select Committee of the House of Lords and House of Commons on the Nationality of Married Women were unanimously of opinion that a British-born woman shall not on marriage lose her British nationality if she does not acquire that of her husband under the law of his country, and to move that in the opinion of this House it is desirable that His Majesty's Government shall, after consultation with the Dominions, introduce legislation at an early date to give effect to this unanimous opinion, without prejudice to the larger questions which have been raised as to the position of British and alien women respectively in regard to the retention and acquisition of British nationality on their marriage.

The noble Lord said: My Lords, I rise to ask the Question and to move the Resolution which stand in my name. My object in doing so is to call attention to the serious hardships to which British-born women who marry United States citizens are subjected at the present time owing to the existing law in this country 82 and the United States. The position is this. By the British law a British woman who marries an alien ceases to be a British subject and becomes an alien. By the United States law, known as the Cable Law, which was passed in 1922, a United States citizen who marries an alien woman does not, by the act of marriage, enable her to take his nationality. On the contrary, she remains an alien according to the United States law. Therefore, it comes to this: that a British woman who marries a United States citizen becomes an alien by the law of this country and she remains an alien from the United States point of view by the law of the United States.

I need hardly say that this is a very serious matter for British women who marry aliens. The British woman who marries an alien immediately loses all rights of British citizenship. She is forced to give up her allegiance to this country, and becomes an alien, and in the case of her marrying an American citizen she gets nothing whatever in return, because she does not get American citizenship. This involves a British woman in many inconveniences and hardships. I need not enumerate them all, but may I give one very practical and very disagreeable- illustration of how it works out in the matter of passports? The United States authorities will not grant United States passports to the foreign wives of their own citizens. On the other hand, the British authorities will not grant British passports to those who, by British law, are aliens. So that a woman in the position which I have indicated cannot get a passport either from the British authorities in the land of her birth, or from the United States authorities, the land of her husband. That is a very serious source of trouble both to the Foreign Offices of the two countries, and to the persons concerned.

It is true that there has been an attempt made to get over the difficulty by means of affidavits made by the persons desiring passports, who, in some cases, receive Consular visas, but that method has been found to be exceedingly cumbrous and most unsatisfactory. Indeed, one case was brought to my attention of a British woman who had married a United States citizen in this country and desired to go abroad on her honeymoon but could not get a British pass- 83 port nor any help from the American authorities. She had actually to go on her honeymoon with a passport made out in her maiden name, accompanied, of course, by her husband. That placed her in a position of some embarrassment, as I need hardly point out.

What is the remedy for this? It is a very simple one. The remedy I venture to suggest to the noble Lord, the Lord President, who will probably reply, is this, that a British woman on marrying an alien should not thereby lose her British nationality unless by the law of her husband's country she acquires his. That alteration in the law would be in accordance with the desires of the Select Committee which sat upon the nationality of married women last Session, to which the noble Viscount, Lord Chelmsford, referred. That Committee was composed of five members of your Lordships' House and five members of the House of Commons. It included myself. I was in the House of Commons at that time. The five members of the House of Commons recommended a very drastic change in the law by which a British woman, on her marriage with an alien, should not lose her British nationality unless she desired to do so. On the other hand, the five members of your Lordships' House were opposed to such a drastic change.

The only change they recommended was the one which I now ask your Lordships to say is the proper change to make pending a settlement of larger questions. What they recommended was that a British woman should not on marrying an alien lose her British nationality if she did not acquire her husband's nationality under the law of his country. Any one of your Lordships who cares to look up the reference will find that recommendation on page 19 of the draft Report. Although that was the recommendation in specific terms of the members of your Lordships' House on that Select Committee, it was also implied in the opinions expressed by the five members representing the House of Commons. The truth is that they wished to go much further, but at any rate they would go so far as that. Therefore, the change in the law which I suggest was advocated unanimously by the whole ten members who sat on that Select Committee.

84 I need only add that if the British law is altered in the way I suggest it would bring it into conformity with the laws of France, Italy, Portugal, Serbia, Sweden, and other countries of Europe, and into closer harmony with the provisions of the Belgian law which is somewhat in the nature of the change recommended by the Committee. I agree that a change of this nature can only be brought about after consultation with the Dominions, but I ask His Majesty's Government to accept the Motion that this change is desirable, and I do suggest that it would be desirable to communicate at once with the Dominions with the view of getting their assent. I beg to move.

Moved to resolve, That in the opinion of this House it is desirable that His Majesty's Government shall, after consultation with the Dominions, introduce legislation at an early date to give effect to the unanimous opinion of the Joint Select Committee on the Nationality of Married Women—that a British-born woman shall not on marriage lose her British nationality if she does not acquire that of her husband under the law of his country—without prejudice to the larger questions which have been raised as to the position of British and alien women respectively in regard to the retention and acquisition of British nationality on their marriage.—{Lord Danesfort.)

§ THE LORD PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL (LORD PARMOOR)

My Lords, I entirely appreciate the view put forward by the noble Lord, and no one can deny that in the very special cases to which he has referred there may be great hardship on British-born women. As he has pointed out the Motion is confined to the case of a British-born woman who loses her nationality on marriage, but does not obtain the nationality of her husband's country. He knows that under the Act of 1914 a British-born woman on marriage with an alien loses her nationality in this country, and there is a special hardship in the case to which he has referred, because she does not gain the nationality of her husband's country. He has also pointed out, quite accurately, that a unanimous Resolution in the direction he is advocating was passed by the noble Lords who were members of the Joint Committee, and that their recommendation in this respect was agreed to by the five members from the 85 other House. We may take it that it was a unanimous recommendation that an injustice of this kind, which presses hardly in some cases on British women, should be set right.

He has also pointed out, and I only repeat it to show that I do not overlook the matter, that there are other countries which were in the same position as regards the general law of nationality as we are here, but that they have introduced special legislation in order to deal with this particular matter. For instance, a Frenchwoman married to a foreigner ordinarily loses her French nationality on marriage, but if the law of another country is such that she does not gain the nationality of her husband, that case is provided for and she does not lose her French nationality. Almost the same provisions prevail in Belgium; they are exactly the same in Italy, Sweden, Serbia and Portugal.

I have had the advantage of discussing this matter with the Home Secretary, who is in charge of this matter, and I can say that we are wholly in sympathy with the Motion. It is a matter for congratulation that the noble Lord has brought a hardship of this character to the notice of your Lordships' House. He will have the sympathy, at any rate, of the present Government. But when he asks that the Government will introduce legislation at an early date I am glad to find he recognises that there must be consultation with the Dominions. Therefore, it is obvious that legislation of this kind cannot be introduced at the present moment, and it would be quite impossible to introduce it just as we are reaching the end of the present Session. I hope the noble Lord will not, after my statement, press his Motion. When this question is considered it will be the opinion of the Government that legislation should be introduced, and legislation in the direction he mentioned. Having made that statement, I hope he will not desire to pass his Motion now because I cannot give any answer as to the specific moment when that can be done. It will be done as soon as it can be conveniently dealt with.