"SOME REFLECTIONS OF AN ALIEN."
ETo vas Mirror or ran
SIR,—I, too, am an alien. May I as such say a few words in reply to the article by Mr. Sedlik in your issue of April 17th P For, with all due deference, I cannot but altogether disagree with him. I happen to be staying momentarily in Switzer- land, and I happen to be a Dutchman. But if I were still living in England, and if I were, say, an Austrian subject, and if I were, under these circumstances, as thoroughly in sympathy with England as I am now, and as Mr. Sedbil also professes to be, I would of any own free accord have gone to the authorities and said: "You mud place me in a camp, or at least under the strictest police supervision!" And I would not have rested till this had been done.
For if I truly believe in the righteousness of England's cause, if I truly consider the crushing of Germany to be an ideal, I cannot allow my private convenience, or even reputa- tion, to stand in the way of the realization of this ideal. It is necessary that at times an honest man suffer in order that dishonesty may be checked. This rule does not only apply in war time, though all the more strongly then, but in ordinary times of peace just as well.
What man in his senses, having been seen shooting rabbits near the place where an boar later a farmer is found shot dead, would object to being arrested and tried P Would he not much rather rejoice to live in a country where the police are so active and safety in consequence is so great P Only an absolute idiot would prefer a slack, happy-go-lucky State where the authorities would rather let murder go nnavenged and unpunished than risk shocking the gimcrack sensibilities of possibly blameless but, owing to untoward circumstances, suspect individuals.
The subjects of a hostile Power are alien enemies. That is the only teat the authorities are able to apply. They cannot be supposed to call in the assistance of a palmist or a necromancer for analysing the secret reflections of the alien's heart, If an alien is so fundamentally estranged from the country whereof he legally is a subject as to be virtually an enemy of that country, the law allows him to change his nationality. If he has neglected to make use of this oppor- tunity, he should bear the consequences of his neglect bravely,
as becomes a man.—I am, Sir, &c., L L BESETS, Lausanne.
[Our correspondent is not quite fair to Mr. Sala. We did not understand Mr. Sala to make any complaint whatever against the British authorities. He understood their position. He merely described the rude shock experienced by a man who bad forgotten his legal status in his love for and con- fidence in the land of his adoption. We must remember that Mr. Sedlik, as a Czech, had no allegiance of the heart to the House of Hapsburg. They were to him, as to all Czechs, oppressors, not friends and protectors. He owed them no loyalty, and not unnaturally regarded himself as at heart a 'British citizen by adoption.—ED. Spectator.]
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