Austrian Refugees Now Exempt from Alien Registration

Enemy aliens who started registering yesterday at the post offices received small pink booklets which they will be required to carry wherever they go as “certificates of identification.”

The point stressed by the registration authorities yesterday was that Austrians no longer come under any of the regulations prescribed so far. They do not have to register again, and they no longer have to adhere to the alien travel rules or to the regulations ordering enemy aliens to surrender cameras, short wave radio sets and firearms. The rules set up so far apply only to citizens of Germany, Italy and Japan.

The clarification of the status of Austrians was made by Robert L. Werner, Assistant United States Attorney, who said his office had been besieged by Austrians seeking to travel and under the impression that they still needed permits.

Officials here are expecting more stringent alien regulations to be issued in Washington and are already considering the steps they may be called upon to take. It is held likely that the Department of Justice will order enemy aliens moved away and inland from vital military and defense areas in the Eastern cities, as was ordered in the States of the Western command. That the government expects to prescribe areas unavailable to enemy aliens here as well as on the Pacific Coast is indicated by a sentence in back of the pink booklets, which reads.

“Certain areas of a military character will be designated as places where you may not reside and certain other areas will be designated where you may not go without permission from an authorized government officer.”

All enemy aliens more than fourteen years old come under the orders. Penalty for disobeying them is internment in a mid-Western camp for the rest of the war.