Notable changes in the law relating to the naturalisation of aliens were made by the new British Nationality and Status of Aliens Act, which came into force on January 1st, 1915. Among the most important of these is the power given to the Home Secretary to revoke certificates of naturalisation obtained by means of false declarations.
The Naturalisation Act of 1870 is now repealed. That Act contained no definition of the classes of people who are to be regarded as natural-born British subjects. This omission is rectified in the new Act, by which such persons are defined as follows:—
(a) Any person born within His Majesty's dominions and allegiance; and
(b) Any person born out of His Majesty's dominions whose father was a British subject at the time of that person's birth, and either was born within His Majesty's allegiance, or was a person to whom a certificate of naturalisation had been granted; and
(c) Any person born on board a British ship, whether in foreign territorial waters or not.
I regard section (c) as far too sweeping; it seems to imply that even the children of German emigrants born while their parents are travelling, say to America, on board a British vessel become British subjects, even though they may never set foot on British territory during the whole of their lives! In such a case, naturalisation will mean absolutely nothing to the person concerned, while it is conceivable that his claim to be a British subject might involve us in awkward entanglements. A person born on a foreign ship will not be regarded as a British subject merely because the ship was in British territorial waters at the time of the birth.
Children of British subjects, whether born before or after the passing of the Act, will be deemed to have been born within the King's allegiance if born in a place where "by capitulation, grant, usage, sufferance or other lawful means His Majesty exercises jurisdiction over British subjects."
The qualifications for naturalisation are extended under the new Act. Section 2 provides that the Secretary of State may grant a certificate of naturalisation to any alien who shows
(a) That he has resided in His Majesty's dominions for a period of not less than five years in the manner required by this section, or been in the service of the Crown for not less than five years within the last eight years before the application; and
(b) That he is of good character, and has an adequate knowledge of the English language; and
(c) That he intends, if his application is granted, either to reside in His Majesty's dominions, or to enter or continue in the service of the Crown.
Paragraph (b), which is new, is certainly very valuable and it will be cordially approved. Hitherto, in the granting of naturalisation certificates, character and a knowledge of English were entirely disregarded. By means of the new provision we shall be able to shut out from British citizenship a large and exceedingly undesirable class of alien immigrants and render their deportation practicable in case of misbehaviour.
In the case of a woman who was a British subject before her marriage to an alien, and whose husband has died, or whose marriage has been dissolved, the requirements of this section as to residence are not to apply, and the Secretary of State may, in any other special case, grant a certificate of naturalisation, even though the four years' residence or five years' service has not been within the eight years immediately before the application for naturalisation. The provision as to the women is both humane and just. It will alleviate the hard lot of many Englishwomen who married Germans before the war, and whose cases under the old Act involved much unmerited hardship.
Section 3 of the Act is very noteworthy. It provides that