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13 June, 1911.] Naturalisation. [Bth Day. Mr. BATCHELOR— cont. by which our aim can be carried out, and at the same time do away with any of the disadvantages which have been shown would occur if there was any attempt to have one uniform naturalisation law passed either by all the Dominions separately or imposed by the Imperial Parliament. Anything of that kind would lead to some difficulties, and, so far as we can see, there would be no difficulty, and yet all the practical advantages will be brought about by the issue within the Dominions and the United Kingdom of Imperial certificates of naturalisation which will be certificates showing that the conditions of the standard, which we could set up very readily, have been complied with. There would be no need, I think, to have a subsidiary conference, as suggested in our resolution, because it would be very easy to compile from the laws at present in force a standard which could be used as an Imperial standard. Mr. MALAN : Just for the purposes of information, supposing in Canada a man applies under the local naturalisation law, and his application is refused, would he then have a right to apply for the Imperial naturalisation certificate, and in that way defeat the local administration ? Mr. BATCHELOR : Certainly not; Ido not see how that point could arise. Mr. MALAN : But if you have two standards and two authorities issuing letters of naturalisation, how would you avoid that difficulty ? Mr. BATCHELOR : The greater will always include the less. The certificate of naturalisation could not be, and ought not to be, granted unless it complies with the conditions in every one of the Dominions. It must cover the most severe conditions which are laid down by any of the Dominions. Mr. MALAN : Yes ; but supposing, now, an application is refused on the point of character—the local authorities go into the record of the applicant, and they refuse —and this same man applies in another part of the Empire for Imperial naturalisation, and they go into his character and they grant a certificate, then this same man comes to South Africa and laughs in our faces. Mr. BATCHELOR : But would not that be a difficulty which in practice could scarcely occur, because it would be required that a man should qualify for five years. Supposing the qualification is five years, he would have to go and reside in that other territory for at least five years in order to get his certificate. It seems to me that ? as a matter of practice, would knock out the difficulty. Mr. MALAN : Your term of five years would be five years in any part of the Empire. Mr. BATCHELOR : No, not necessarily. Mr. MALAN : Then I do not follow what you propose. Sir WILFRID LAURIER : This is, in my estimation, one of the important questions that the Conference has to deal with. I sympathise in the views expressed by Mr. Batchelor, and I would be prepared to support the resolution which he has moved, although, if he will permit me to say so, before reaching a final conclusion it may perhaps be possible to frame the resolution in more apt language with a view to reaching the object which we desire.