Immigration and Racial Feeling
West Indian immigration compels attention. Eight thousand immigrants have arrived this year and some twenty thousand more may be expected in 1955. Local authorities are beginning to show signs of alarm at this flood of migrants whose standards in the matter of housing, in particular, are necessarily very much lower than those current here. And there are darker possibilities still. This is the first appearance of a classic racial problem in this country, and some of the usual symptoms are already beginning to make themselves felt. The TUC may take a very enlightened attitude about the employment of coloured labour, but the rank and file of trade- unionists are less liberal in their views, and will object even more strongly if there is the faintest suspicion of unemployment. It is no good thinking that people in these islands are any, more immune to the racial virus than those in, let us say, the United States. When the proportion of coloured people in the population rises above a certain level we may expect the ugly incidents that always occur in similar situations. Unfor• tunately, there is no sign that the authorities have begun to think about what they should do then. Obviously, it ii desirable to prevent a flood. But how can that be done without some form of discrimination ? Fewer immigrants, better conditions for those few that is the ideal. It is becoming more difficult to attain. It will not be attained at all if we refuse to look the problem in the face.
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