SKINFLINT'S CITY DIARY Mix with care
Make no mistake. Mr Maudling's Immigra- tion Bill reflects the Conservative party's immitigable attitude to the coloured.
Standing aside from the fuss it is clear that it is the soft cushion of social security as much as jobs and a new life that draws the harmless but uneducated of Negro and Indian extraction. Sooner or later it must be necessary to pay attention to the introduc- tion of residency qualifications before new arrivals earn their benefits. To me, it does not seem selfish to pay regard to encour- aging those likely to make good citizens rather than those in the greatest need to settle in Britain. Arrangements should be made, of course, with the poorer and devel- oping countries to send their people to us for a fixed term for training and to learn what they need so that they are able to help build a self-energising prosperity at home when they return.
Mr Maudling's Bill should have been accompanied by the news that all East Afri- can Asians who want to come are welcome within, say, two years with a statement that all other coloured immigration will be stop- ped for ten years.
I know that I shall be considered patronis- ing for the haughty thoughts I get on genetics but the East African Indians make the best of citizens and they would bring with them like the Huguenots, the Jews and the Poles before them that greatest of qualities in a hard world—interest and aptitude for enter- prise.
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