Home Undersecretary Osbert Peake today rejected a suggestion for conferring special “Jewish nationality” status on German, Austrian and Italian Jews.
He made the statement in Commons, replying to David Adams, Laborite, who asked whether the Home Secretary, in view of the fact that among the internees and other “enemy aliens” the overwhelming proportion were Jews officially classified as German, Austrian and Italian, would consider the possibility of renunciation of such nationalities in cases where so desired by Jews, permitting classification as of “Jewish nationality” pending clarification of their status at the end of the war.
In a written reply, Captain Peake said: “Renunciation by a foreigner of nationality is a matter governed by the law of his own country and it is not within the Home Secretary’s competence to sanction such renunciation. Regarding the second part of the question, nationality has meaning only by reference to a sovereign state.”
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