§ Miss Rathboneasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will include among the categories of persons whose claims to naturalisation deserve some priority, persons who have served creditably in the Allied Forces or Mercantile Marine other than British, and who have good reasons for not desiring repatriation.
§ Mr. EdeService in an Allied Force or in a foreign ship is not in itself a qualification for naturalisation. Some of these aliens may be able to satisfy the statutory residence requirements, but I cannot regard them as having as strong a claim for the early consideration of their applications as aliens who have served in the British forces or in British merchant ships.
§ Mr. Callaghanasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will cut out any administrative processes normally associated with naturalisation, in the cases of those applicants whose histories have been investigated a number of times in recent years, and so relieve them of much uncertainty.
§ Mr. EdeI am anxious that the procedure for considering naturalisation applications should be as expeditious as possible, but it is impossible to say what enquiries may be necessary in any individual case. Naturalisation is not a privilege to be granted lightly, and the information available to the Home Office is not usually sufficient to enable the normal inquiries to be dispensed with.