Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1916-09-22
ALIENS CAUSE
MUCH TROUBLE
Wide Difference of Opinion in
England Over Whether
They Must Enlist

London Correspondence of the As
sociated Press). = Wide difference of
opinion has arisen and the ground pre-
pared for a controversy among the
political leaders by the governments
decision that the subjects of its allies
- the war residing in England shall
V.her enlist in the British army or be
deported.
Particular objection to the decision
has been engendercd in so far as it
may affect Russian subjects here who
may be political refugees. large ele-
public life priding themselves in the
traditional asylum offered by England
in this respect. Herbert Samuel. sec
retary of the home office, stated in the
house of commons that the plan to de-
port those failing to enlist would not
be enforced in the case of Russian
subject if 4 tribunal decided that they
are political refugees.
The suggestion has been made that
instead of sending back to their own
country Russian Jews who have left
Russia for reasons known to every
body, though they are not exactly po-
litical refugees. they should be sent
TO America or deported to some other
neutral country of their choice.
The desire to avoid offending Rus
sian susceptibilities on the subject is
general, for which reason the question
is regarded as one of unusual delicacy.
one group holds that the sending back
of Russian Jews to their own country
would crafty no important Russian
sentiment and might effect the reverse
result. The true inwardness of the sit
uation, according to the London cor
respondent of the Manchester G uardian,
is that Englishmen taken into the
army under CONSUMPTION resent the
immunity of Russian Jews and regard
them as Job stealers.'
The correspondent gives the follow
ing letter on the subject received by
him from a Russian correspondent:
This step will have a most unfor-
tunate effect upon Russian opinion,
which is the chief support in Russia of
Anglo Russian friendship, and which
builds all its hopes for Russia's future
upon the propagation of the British
spirit of freedom and individual lib
erty. Russian liberals will regard the
deportation threat with particular dis
may as being unexpected and stagger-
Ing concession to the long-cherished
the Russian bureaucracy to secure the
extradition of Russian political
refugees.
England is the great country of
Europe that has always hitherto pro-
tectcd political refugees, and as such
eyes of Russian reformers of all
shades. 1t would be quite impossible
for an Englishman to realize the feel
ing of veneration with which England
Is regarded because of this right of
asylum. 1t was here in London that
Alexander Herzen. father of Russian
liberalism, was a refugee, and issued
his paper Kolokel (The Beu) that
eventually brought about the emanci-
patton of the serfs. Here in later
times have found refuge Tchaikovsky,
Prince Kuropatkin and so many others
of our great reformers.
Living in London at this moment
are refugee members of the first duma,
and quite a host of revolutionaries who
escaped after 1905. Russia does not
want these men as soldiers. If they
were sent back to Russia most of them
would be put into the army-many of
them would have to face the worst
~Asnalty. But the PRINCIPAL evil would
Y that the Russian idealization of this
country would be shattered, and such
q disillCSionment of Britain's chief po-
litical friends in Russia might we'll
prove disastrous to the closer CO.
operation of the two countries in the
future.
1T is unpalatable. but it is true. that
among the conservatives and reaction
ary elements in Russia. who alone
would be gratified by this new British
departure, there is a frankly anti
British section, and their spokesmen
in the duma and elsewhere have not
hesitated TO declare that Russia's
future after the war lies not with
Great Britain. but with Germany. One
curious fact 4 Russian may be per-
mitted to point out. AS far as is
known. Germany has not yet repatri-
ated to Austria a single Czech agitator
who took refuge in GERMANY.