2-617-517 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Aliens Order 1920 was a statutory instrument made under the 1919 Aliens Restriction Act. Brought out during widespread unemployment after the First World War it required all aliens seeking employment or residence to register with the police. The Order drew its powers from the 1919 Act and granted a wide ranging discretion to the Home Secretary. It stated that no alien might land without the permission of an immigration officer. The order also granted powers to attach conditions to the grant of leave, to refuse those who could not support themselves, and their dependants, those medically unfit and those convicted of crimes abroad. It restricted the employment rights of aliens resident in Britain, barring them from certain jobs such as the civil service.