5 SEPTEMBER 1958, Page 22

PAUL ROBESON AND RACIALISM

S know so well how Mr. 'Bola lge feels. It is indeed bitter to feel oneself different. When I was a girl I was ugly with a lot of straight foxy red hair a id graveyard teeth sticking well out. We were poor zoo and my school uniforms were always home-made and either too big or too small. Once a mistress referred to me as 'one of the charity girls' in my presence and that of the rest of the form. This was because a beneficent State was paying for my school- ing in return for having demanded my father's life in our general defence during what was then known as The War.