Foreign Affairs, placed the matter of the expulsion of foreigners from the Bolzano Province, in Northern Italy quite correctly before the House of Commons on Thursday, when he stated that from a juridical point of view the Italian Government was wholly within its rights in forbidding residence to foreigners in any part of its territory so long as it compensates the persons affected, and it is pleasing to note that at present there do not appear to be any difficulties of that sort pending. It is obvious that it must be completely within the sovereign rights of a nation to decide who shall and who shall not reside within its borders, but, when people have been allowed to take up residence, to acquire property, or tu carry on business, common justice requires that they should be compensated for any loss which the Government decision may mean for them. If there are any who may suffer loss as a result of this expulsion then they should be made whole and it is not to be believed that the Italian Government will be reluctant to take this very equitable view of the situation. Obviously to expel aliens and expropriate their properties without compensation would have about it nothing in the nature of justice so long as the expulsion came about through no misconduct on their part, and those who seek to make anything in the nature of an issue out of this latest development are wholly uninformed of the realities of the situation. Nor is it really necessary that the Italian Government should give any reason for its decision, for it is a matter entirely within its own discretion, and involves the exercise of sovereign rights the correctness of which cannot in fairness be denied. That all foreigners come under this ban removes any suspicion of discrimination, and, though the ruling may not be particularly liked, there is no reason for raising an issue over it. Speculations as to why the step was necessary must necessarily be varied and interesting, and though the matter for the moment may be "wrapped in mystery" it may reáson-ably be believed that time will make everything plain.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.