The Provost Marshal General takes occasion to pay high tribute to the thousands of registrants of German stock who “loyally stood by the American flag,” notwithstanding the “natural distrust” at first attending them in public opinion, “and the notorious intrigues of the German government to secure their support.” The opportunity afforded to such of them as could satisfy the courts and the Naturalization Service of their loyalty, to become American citizens, was availed of by them in large numbers. It is regrettable that, as the Provost Marshal General says:[139] Unfortunately, time has not sufficed to analyze the naturalization papers and thus discover the variances between the different nationalities in this demonstration of loyalty to their adoptive country. DESERTION, AMONG ALIENS AND CITIZENS It has been asserted by ill-informed persons representing on the one hand those who attribute inherent deficiencies and evil tendencies to the immigrant as such, and on the other those who seem to think that the immigrant as such is somehow superior to the native-born American, either that the desertions from the army or evasions of military service were inordinately numerous on the part of foreign born as compared with the native born; or, _per contra_, that “the proportion of desertions among the native born is about twice as great as among the foreign born.”[140] In point of exact fact and essential justice, neither of these views is justified. The Provost Marshal General deals directly, and with broad justice, with this situation:[141] Of the 474,861 deserters reported, the registration cards of 185,081 state that they are aliens. Of this number, 22,706 had declared their intention to become citizens, and were, therefore, subject to draft, while 129,268 had not declared such intention, and were, therefore, on proper proof of alienage, entitled to exemption. There were also 33,107 enemy aliens, who, of course, would not have been accepted in any event. There are two main reasons for the large proportion of alien desertions. The first is that many aliens, knowing that under the selective-service law (and also, for many countries, by treaty) they were entitled to exemption, believed that, by stating on the registration cards that they were aliens, they had performed their full duty with respect to the draft; they ignored the regulations which required them to submit proof of alienage. The second is that many of them did not speak English, were ignorant of the laws and customs of this country, did not know that they were required to keep their local boards informed of their addresses, and failed to realize their obligations to this country under the selective-service law. And the difficulty experienced by the local boards in reading and writing their names frequently caused the mail notices addressed to these registrants to go astray.