From Our AWN
Paris, Aug. 19.
To make up in some measure for the national reluctance yo produce large families, the French Parlia~ ment has voted a new Naturalization Act, which has just come into force, he principle at the back of this measure is that too many foreigners enjoy the privileges of residence in France without contribution to. the the military strength of the country. hey pay taxes like the rest of the community, but they do not have to eave their occupations at stated Periods to practise soldiering, and, in this way, young men born of foreign parents and brought up in France have a distinct advantage over: their native French contemporaries and are often preferred to the latter by employers. In round figures, about five out of every 100 inhabitants of France are foreigner and it is felt, not without reason, that this proportion is too high. Foreigners obtain free education for their children, and, in case of sickness, hospital attention which, at any rate in Paris, is an appreciable burden on the ratepayers. For these and other reasons, the legislature oan attempt to. assimilate Proportion of outside elements and oblige them to assume the full responsibilities of eitixenship.
One of the principal innovations is that every child born of a French mother in France will be French. In future, a Frenchwoman marrying foreigner can retain her original nationality by making a declaration at the time of the marriage. In the case of those already married, they can regain French nationality, with the permission of the husband, by' making formal application for pistes ltd wie ive vog apart Athin one year from now. If the!
Toast @ year, or if the husband] thas deserted his wife, or if divorce proceedings have been begun, husband's consent is no longer necessary. The promoters of the measure say frankly that they rely chiefly on the women of France to make the new system successful. As to the assimilation of adults, the period of residence in France, before applying for French citizes reduced to three years and, in some eases, to one year. Fathers of families can obtain remission of part or whole of the feo of frs. 1,800, 1 The Italian Colony Twill be interesting to sce] whether the Italians, Belgians, Spaniards, and Russians, who make up the great majority of the foreign! population, will take advantage the new facilities to become French, and how many will decide to throw their lot with the country of their option. In some parts of France and especially Gascony, large con-fingents of Italian agriculturists have established themselves. They! have their own schools and churches, they retain their tics with their mother country, they remit part of their savings to Ttaly, and in various other ways they have, while acting as law-abiding citizens, shown a general tendency to avoid assimilation with the French. They have succeeded, through, their admirable qualities of industry and trug in. making a living where the original population dwindled away, and, therefore, from the French point of view, they are desirable, but whether they will take advantage of the facilities now offered to them, or whether they will remain Italian must be an open question for at least year to come, A great deal will depend _on the manner in which the new Jaw is administered. French citizenship, as the Minister of Justice has just pointed out, is a Governmental favour not to be! bestowed lightly, and many candidates are likely to be discouraged by formalities and insistence on the production of all sorts of documents.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.