NATURALIZED ALIENS AND OTHERS.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR.")
you allow me a little space to reply to the arguments of " Fair Play "? Those of us who are pressing, as is the British Empire Union, for drastic reform in the existing lax Naturalize- Con Law, so far from breaking with the historic policy of this eountry, are desirous of returning to it. Our policy can best be set forth as follows :— " No person born out of the Kingdom of England, Scotland or Ireland, or the Dominions thereunto belonging (although he be naturalized or made a denizen), except such as are born of English parents, shall be capable to be of the Privy Council or a Member of either House of Parliament, or to enjoy any office or place of trust, either civil or military, or to have any grant of land, tenements, or hereditaments from the Crown to himself or te, any other, or others, in trust for him."
That is the clause of the famous Act of Settlement on which the Crown and Constitution of this country are based, and we wish to see it restored. Had it not been tampered with in 1870, and again in 1914, the country would have been spared the presence of Sir E. Speyer on the Privy Council and the scandal of Tribitsch Lincoln in the House of Commons! And surely "Fair Play" will hardly suggest that between 1700 and 1870 this Empire was seriously im- peverished in any respect by this decisive limitation of the rights of the naturalized in favour of the native born.
As to the naturalized Germans at present established in this eountry, there can be no doubt that, say, from about 1900 onwards much German immigration and naturalization took place as part of that deliberate " permeation scheme " from which all the Allies have suffered. That the number of naturalized Germans who have proved overt traitors is not large is true; but " Fair Flay " should remember that this country has never been invaded. Let him read what Belgians have to say of the treason of natural- ized Germans settled in their country—often settled so long that the Belgians had ceased to think of them as anything but Belgian; aad let him also remember that when Germany paseed the in- famous Delbrfick Law every other nation was at once entitled to
recall all or any naturalization certificates granted to the citizene of a country. which had in this way made treachery a virtue.
It may he true that extravagant proposals are sometimes put forward. For explanation I would refer " Fair Play " to Mr. Marston's letter on a later page. Sir Alfred Mond is a natural- born British subject, but he seems to have inherited, undiminished, that peculiar thick-skinnedness which distinguishes the German people. Can "Fair Play" be surprised that if persons of German blood and descent have not the good feeling at the present moment to keep in the background the patience of even the long-suffering English people may be suddenly exhausted?—I am, Sir, &c.,
E. BOWDEN-SMITH, BOIL Sec,
British Empire Union, 346 Strand, W.C. 2.
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