§ Mr. J. Fosterasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether he will indicate the order in which applications of naturalisation which were pending in 1940 and are now being brought up to date will be dealt with; whether he will give instructions that when brought up to date they will receive attention, not in alphabetical order, but in the order in which they would have been dealt with had naturalisation not been discontinued in 1940; and whether he will indicate an approximate time within which these applications may be expected to be decided.
§ Mr. Ede:The pre-1940 applications are being dealt with in the order in which 278W they were submitted, but it will no doubt be found that some of these applicants have claims to priority on other grounds such as service with the Forces, and such applicants may, therefore; be dealt with earlier than would otherwise be the case. It is as yet too early to forecast the rate at which it will prove possible to deal with these cases.
§ Lord John Hopeasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department how many certificates of naturalisation were granted in the years 1944 and 1945; and how many have been granted to date in, 1946.
§ Mr. Ede:The number of certificates granted in 1944, 1945 and 1946 to date was 549, 604 and 142. Of these 456, 371 and 97 respectively were granted to British born women.