Not an Isolated Incident
While he cooled his heels for an hour in the draughts of Victoria Station, M. Rend Cassin may perhaps have cheered himself by remembering the ambition of the late Ernest Bevin, To go down to Victoria Station, get a railway ticket and go where the hell I liked without a passport or anything else . ." Well. here was M. Cassin, vice-president of the Conseil d'Etat, the first gentleman of the Hauls Dignitaires of France, with a djPiomatic passport and sixty-six distinguished years behind film, immobilised by some petty dignitary in the immigration °Mee. The House of Lords took the matter to heart and demanded a statement from the Under-Secretary of the Home Office; they had reason to believe that this was " not an isolated incident." But Lord Lloyd met a charge of gross discourtesy with a defence of hideous ineptitude. M. Cassin, he explained, Was not questioned for an hour by police officers; he was questioned for a few minutes by immigration officers and because of a misunderstanding he was delayed.aboin forty-five 11). Inutes. Nothing daunted, the Marquess of Salisbury improved He shining hour with the remark that he would not allow the ouse to think that it was the opinion of the Government that there should be no rules or regulations about immigration —the most negative double-negative that can ever have been perpetrated, even by HMG. But back in Paris, M. Cassin has thawed out, and to the delight of us all, has had the last, c_xquisite, word; " My passport," he said, " describes me as France's s delegate to the Human Rights Commission. Officials Whemat ed puzzled about human rights.' They kept asking me these words meant "
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