Aliens’ Registration Act 5 August 1914

1. Alien Registration and Internment During the First World WarInformation taken from ‘’Civilian Internment in Scotland During the First World War’, by Stefan Manz

2. Aliens’ Registration Act 5 August 1914 • Gave British wartime governments the power to deal with ‘enemy aliens’ as they saw fit. • Movement of Germans or Austrians living in Britain was tightly controlled. • There was widespread ‘Germanophobia’ – anti-German hysteria and ‘spy-fever’ - in Britain and Scotland during the First World War.

3. There were between four and five thousand Germans living in Scotland at the start of the First World War. • Many of these people were professionals – musicians, brewers, bakers, confectioners, teachers, merchants and clerks.

5. After being arrested and registered by the police foreign ‘aliens’ were then handed over to the military authorities and interned (imprisoned for the duration of the war) in internment camps. • There were two internment camps in Scotland: • Redford Barracks in Edinburgh (transit camp) • Stobs Camp in Hawick (main camp)

7. The peak number of ‘aliens’ and POWs that was interned at Stobs was 4,592. POWs and ‘aliens’ were interned in the same camps but in separate blocks. The prisoners could mix, though. The camps were surrounded by barbed wire. Visits by friends or relatives were restricted to Saturdays and had to be attended by an interpreter. All incoming and outgoing mail was censored. Many prisoners suffered from a form of depression known as ‘barbed wire disease’. This was because of the long periods of internment and the boredom of having nothing to do.

8. There was a wave of ‘Germanophobia’ after the sinking of the Lusitania, in May 1915. • Many ‘aliens’ who had been released were then re-arrested at this point. • German-owned shops had their windows smashed. • There were anti-German riots in towns such as Edinburgh and Dumfries.

9. Restaurants, such as the Royal Restaurant in West Nile Street in Glasgow, refused to serve Germans. • People refused to work alongside Germans, such as at the glass-bottle works in Firhill (Edinburgh).

10. The coastal area from Aberdeen to Berwick was a ‘restricted area’ and was almost totally cleared of enemy ‘aliens’. • At first ‘aliens’ were repatriated (sent home) voluntarily. • Later ‘aliens’ were forcibly repatriated.

11. The Effects of Internment • Many families became destitute, because the main breadwinner was interned. • Many businesses went bankrupt. • The German cultural network which had been thriving in Scotland before the war completely dissolved. • Thousands of Germans were repatriated.