Sir: Your leading article (October 7) praisin g the Government for
accepting the Ugandan Asians was full of the noblest intentions; one could picture the writer sitting back afterwards in a fine glow of moral self-satisfaction. The trouble is, it just won't do. A legal obligation means an obligation under the law. Since 1968, the law has provided that East African Asians and others in like case do not have an inherent right to settle here. When Mr Callaghan and Mr Maudling, in your words, "made it perfectly clear that, in the event of an emergency . . . a Government of either party would fulfil the initial obligation," they were expressing an intention, and an intention expressed by anyone, however august, is not in this country a law. This, I fancy, is what we mean when we say that we are subject to the rule of law. Certainly many pronouncements have been made by those in authority expressing the intention to take these people as a last resort, and of course — your strongest point — people have made contingency plans on this basis. The point we in the Monday Club are making is that as soon as the Conservative Government attained power in 1970 it should have made it absolutely clear that no ultimate right was admitted, that these people belonged to India. At the same time it should have talked as firmly to India as has Ceylon When successfully expelling 500,000 of Its 600,000 Tamils; these people India has absorbed without fuss. Given the probability of xenophobia, or communism, arising in one or more of the independent and uncontrollably sovereign countries where these people reside, there was a standing possibility of an influx in the absence of such moves as I have described; and it was disingenuous of the Conservative Party leadership to campaign on a pledge to reduce immigration if it did not intend to make them. As soon as the present flurry has died down, the door ought to be unequivocally closed so as to prevent future Arnins forcing more immigrants on us. Otherwise, the legal position being what it is, a future government could clamp down in the middle of a crisis, actually endlangering lives. As a first step, it should be clearly admitted that the present influx of Ugandan Asians is not occurring because of a legal obligation but through an administrative declision based on the bluster of authority fortified by the sentimental morality of the well-beeled and articulate. In your wellchosen words, the unexpected entry of the Asians "does and will create problems, in welfare and hpusing provision, in employment and economics," from which of course it is the poorer people in this country who will suffer, not those who are making these charitable decisions on their behalf. Th's whole business stems as much as anything from the fashion to give others, particularly of different race, preference over our own people. It is a classic case of today's treason of the oducated.
Jonathan Guinness Osbaston Hall, Market Bosworth, Warwicks.
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