Ugandan Asians
Sir: Much of the dismay and unhappiness of ordinary Britishers about the Ugandan Asian crisis, as of immigration since the War, arises from the fact that they have nobody to whom they can turn. A referendum on this question has always been denied them. The views and feelings commonly expressed in private talks rarely find expression in the liberal journals, the mass media, or from the mouths of Establishment spokesmen who obviously have no firsthand experience of the problems. Apart from Powell, condemned as a racialist, there are no national spokesmen in public life The literary Establishment, which contains ho national figures like Shaw and Wells, is cautiously dumb and passes over this great and unsought change in English social life in silence as if it had never happened. All three political parties in Britain follow the same line in immigration matters, and the voter who wants to register a protest at the polls has no other candidate for 1Wliom he can vote. In this matter, Britain is for all practical purposes a one-party state. A new political party expressing more fully the feelings of millions of voters on this and other matters itcross the whole liberal front Wald take up to fifty years to home strong enough to overturn Labour, even if massive funds, 'good organisers, and leaders res. pt.dted by the nation were found. In he meantime, we have political leadbrs who are despised rather than respected: and voters critical Of' Heath and the present Govern-1'116A can vote next time for Wilton and Labour. What good Would it do them?
There is only one power in the dblintry strong enough to make the Government change its mind about immigration, and that is organised labour. But whoever heard of organised labour using its militancy and strength in the service of the national interest?
Any critic of mass immigration into Britain since the War has always run the risk of being dubbed a racialist. This is why many writers and publicists, unwilling to have their liberal images tarnished, have stayed silent and let things go by default. It has been pitiful sometimes to watch ordinary people on television, haltingly trying to tell the story of their problems and difficulties, being called racialists and not being believed when they protest that they were not. Surely it is time for a re-definition of 'racialism.' It is natural for people to want to live with their own kind, who speak their language and accent it in the same way, who have similar habits, beliefs and customs, whose sons and daughters can form friendships. Society is founded on segregation, and it is as natural for people to want to stay apart from those whose aspect and ways of life are dissimilar as it is for them to want their own kind around them. Race is only part of the problem. The working classes in Ulster have similar incomes, live in the same districts, and are of the same race. But religion and history have so deeply divided them that separation is the only answer.
We should not condemn as racialist those who believe that people who are dissimilar and deeply divided are best kept apart by segregation or separation. Perhaps in the long run Amin is right to want Uganda populated only by native Africans. Perhaps South Africa is right in trying to construct a society in which black and white mix as little as possible. Perhaps Black Power in America is right when it want blacks to move to Negro States set apart from the rest of the Union. And perhaps Asians in Britain are right in wanting to live in their own self-contained communities and to integrate with the indigenous population as little as possible, as they have been accused of doing in East Africa and elsewhere.
Racialism proper is condemning a man to inferiority and persecution for accidents of birth over which he has no control, as Hitler did with the Jews. It is not racialism to want to see one's country as little divided as possible by race, religious, or class antagonisms. Mass immigration has left Britain a more deeply divided country than it was before, not least because it has made millions of ordinary Britishers frustrated and unhappy, and anxious about what else may be in store for them. Do not let us make the mistake of thinking that these feelings will evaporate if given no potitical or industrial outlet. Bottled up, the outcome for democracy and social peace may in the end be disastrous.
N. A. Smith 12 Braemar Avenue, Bournemouth
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