There would be no justice in the adoption of such a step, and it is to be apprehended that the advocacy of it argues the temporary lack of a proper sense of perspective.
If there are naturalised Germans who utter ''the fiercest and bitterest denunciations of Britain, her Government, and her people'' the fact may constitute a sufficient reason for their being placed under surveillance but it would certainly not justify the internment either of them or of the other members of their class whose loyalty to the country of their adoption is not only unquestioned but, unquestionable.
To suppose that the naturalised Germans in our midst are potential spies or traitors is an order altogether too large for acceptance by dispassionate people.
The British theory of justice, which is that a person is innocent until he has been proved to be guilty, is one that is too sacred to be overthrown upon the mere suspicion that there are naturalised Germans in the dominion whose loyalty to the British Crown has broken down under the test of war.
If there are spies or traitors among this class of British subjects they should, upon proof of their perfidy, be subjected to all the rigorous penalties of the law, but to condemn all the German naturalised subjects alike to a deprivation of their liberty during the currency of the war would be a harsh and unreasonable proceeding, entirely incompatible with the British conception of what is just and proper.
• After living for years the life of a recluse in a small two-roomed house in Stanley street, Parnell, almost entirely bare of furniture, spending only a few pence daily for the bare necessaries of life, there died in Auckland last week an old German named Theodus Oswald Lattorff, worth between £12,000 and £20,000.
Tradesmen called, and, receiving no answer to the knock, found Lattorff sitting in the chair, dead, holding a newspaper in both hands.
When the Public Trust officials investigated his affairs they found that he had left a fortune.
There was a good deal of loose money in the house. His bank books showed that a day or two before his death Lattorff had lodged in one of the city banks three separate amounts - one for £500, another for £1000, and a third for £1800; total, £3300.
There was also a Savings Bank account, showing regular weekly payments to the total of £400.
His books showed that he had investments aggregating £10,000.
There were also documents indicating the ownership of various house properties in the city, while he is believed also to have owned farm property and money invested in real estate to a considerable amount, and a large quantity of mining scrip.
The home in which the man had lived and died was of the poorest, and the value of the furniture is put down at 1.
It consisted of a bed, a chair, a table, a few books, and an old and valueless harmonium.
The only food in the house consisted of bread and potatoes.
The cause of death, as revealed by a post mortem examination, was degeneration of the brain.
It is believed there are heirs to the old man's wealth, a bank official having some time ago received a letter from a young lady in South Australia, claiming to be the niece of Lattorff, and asking for any information concerning her aged relative. - ODT, 28.10.2014.
• COPIES OF PICTURE AVAILABLE FROM ODT FRONT OFFICE, LOWER STUART ST, OR WWW.OTAGOIMAGES.CO.NZ
