Perth Amboy evening news., 1917-03-10
I'M MIGRATION
AFTER THE WAR

Although this question was not
specifically asked 161 agents volun-
teered information. The consensus of
opinion seemed to be that restrictive
measure will depend upon which side
is victorious. There was a general
agreement that the conquered would
need restrictive laws to keep their
people at home to make them help
pay the debt, and every country con-
cerned, whether victorious or con-
quered, would need labor for the in
eyitable work of reconstruction.
! If restrictive laws are passed by the
various foreign governments, compli-
cations will at once arise concerning
the legal status of our naturalized
citizens in Europe, those who go over
on a visit. etc. Our government will
find 1t necessary to make careful con-
sideration of the status of our nat
urahzed citizens and the existing laws
and treaties affecting this situation. A
survey of our treaties with the ma
tions, and Of the specific laws of the
various countries affecting citizenship,
naturalization in another country,
military service and emigration leads
to the conclusion that American citi-
lzenship carries very little protection
labroad, and that the rights of nat
uralized American citizens Gas such }
in the country of their birth are prac-
itically non-existent. Under the Rus
islam law a man who becomes a citi-
zen of another country without the
Iconsent of the Russian government is
Ideemed to have committed an offense
flor which he is liable to arrest and
imprisonment If he returns. Italian
Isubjects who have acquired citizenship
in other countries are not exempted
from the obligation of military SER
lvice. These citations merely illus
,trate a situation too various and too
detailed to expound here. In those
cases in which there are treaties be-
tween the United States and the for
leigh country, the conditions under
(which naturalization does not free a
former subject from obligation to the
lcountry of his birth are stated. In
,other cases, where no treaties exist,
these conditions are not stated, but
are nevertheless a part of the law
land practice of the foreign country.
1t is grave international situation
land will be an immediate problem for
1.-THE United States. This country will
never be in a better position than IT
lis now. and will be at the end of the
lwar, to enforce its conception of the
uniform value of American citizen
lship upon other nations, and to insist
THAT the ratification of this conception
} s,be made a preliminary condition t.
I ttcommercial OF corsu,arl Ill1I1i . r. n,
: u 1lI@df<l4 tfe1Ete9a0410
(0Vlio. With the enormous number O
lnatura1ized citizens now in this conn
TRY and of natfve-born children of for
[eign-born parents, which together
iconstitute forty per cent Of our white
population, it is necessary for this
lcountry to take upon itself the task
of establishing once for all what their
relations to their former land shall be.
1t Is suggested that at the end of the
WAR an International Conference on
Naturalization be called to meet at
Washington, to formulate q general
naturalization law, which should be
proposed to all the different countries
as the basis of new naturalization
treaties