Please wait. Contacting image service... loading

Article text

MR. VERRAN AND THE
GERMANS.
BILL TO WITHDRAW THE FRAN-
CHINA.
THE MEASURE DEFEATED.
The Hon. J. Verran continued his speech in
the House of Assembly on V\ edueeUay
on the second reading of his Bill to with
draw Uu' franchise from naturalised ager-
mans, Austrians, Turks, and Bulgarians
during the war, and for five years afterwards.
He cited the instance of a naturalised
German who had worked for Mr.
L. Comed. The German's mother, a j
wealthy woman, had sent for him to,
slander a rule for the Fatherland when the
war broke out, and the man was now
in France fighting against the British.
wartime living in south Australia this person
had married an Australian girl, whom on
the outbreak of the war he had despised
and rejected, leaving her and her two
children to struggle for existence. A son
of Mr. Muecke was the chief examiner to
the military. Was the British race to depend
upon the Germans for the chief
examiner of their forces going to the front?
Mr. Schomburgk was today the head, and
chief of the Labor Prison.
Mr. Ponder- Was, he" not born in South
Australia?
the Hon. J. Verran said he was not considering
that.
Mr. Moseley His father was a Dane,
his mother English, and he was born in
Australia.
The Hon. J. Verran said every German
had the excuse to-day that his father was
a Frenchman, and his mother some other
nationality. The Germans in the State
should stand out. If there was effective
voting, Barossa, Wooroora, and Murray
each had the quota of Germans to return
a German. That would mean that the
eagle would come in, and the lion go out
Australia, since the Kaiser's memory able
speech in 1908, had been a recruiting
ground for Germany. The Kaiser had received
all manner of military information
about Australia. He would be pleaded
that no German or Turk or Bulgarian or
Austrian should be naturalised in future.
Mr. Butterfield You are not going to
bar men who were born here, are you?.
Mr. Verran said his Bill dealt with
naturalised Germans. There had been an
advertisement signed "N.Y.Z., Post-Office, |
Terowie," wanting a man who must be a
German. 2
The Minister of » Industry-Imagine an
advertisement appearing in a paper in
Germany now, "Man wanted, must be an
Englishman."
The Hon. J. Verran said another advertisement
had appeared for a man who could
speak German
The Minister of Industry-It shows there
must he towns in South Australia where
it is necessary for an assistant in a store
to speak German.
The Hon. J. Verran said if this Bill was!
carried he would be ready to go home and
lie down for a week, satisfied that he had
done something for the good of the country.
He moved the second reading.
Mr. James hoped the House would pass
the Bill. Something like 40 per cent, of
the people in his district were German?,
and he knew they were not as loyal as they
should he. It made a Britisher's blood
boil to see all the fine British lads going
to fight for the Empire and the young German
descendants staying at home. He believed
the German pastors were behind
that; they went out and told the boys not
to go. The people who lived amongst the
Germans knew they were saying, "If the
English win we shall be all right, and if
Germany wins we shall be all right." They
were sitting on the fence. No matter
which way the war went they were in a
good position. Those people should not
have power to vote and control the State.
Their threat was that they would turn
down the Britisher who dared to express
his opinion. He was not going to be
beaten by the Germans, and he hoped the
Bill would be carried before the next elections
and disfranchise everyone of them. '
Threats had been levelled at him. If he j
could not carry a rifle and fight the Kaiser,
he would stop here and fight the Germans.
If he could not express his opinion as a
Britisher because of the danger of losing
the German vote, he. like Mr. Verran, '
would stand down and not represent them I
at all. He was independent of the German
vote. He could get his living without
it.
Mr. Ryan said he was bitterly opposed!
to the Bill. The reason of their tolerance
of Germans was that they were British.
The Germans, when naturalised, had been
given a scrap, of paper promising them freedom
and participation in the political rights in
the country if they were loyal and once
formed to the laws of the country. If
this Bill were carried he questioned if the
Imperial Parliament would agree to it.
He was prepared to repeat his arguments
on any platform in his electorate.
Mr. James will go with you.
Mr. Ryan said this was a scaremongering
Bill-the sort of Bill that one day drove a
country into war and another day's drove it
into making an inglorious peace
Mr. -fames-You are a pro-German, and I
we will have you fixed. At
a later stage Mr. James, addressing the
Speaker, said he desired to withdraw,
the assertion that Mr. Ryan was a pro
German.
Mr. Ryan said he was astonished that
Mr. Verran should have br eyes t in a Bill
bristling with anti-British sentiment and
practice. He thanked Mr. James for
having withdrawn the objectionable interjection.
The second reading was declared negatived.
Mr. Verran called for a division,
which resulted in the Bill being rejected
by 20 votes to 5. Messrs. Verran, Ches-
son, James, Herbert, and MacGillivray
were the only Ayes.
$