Letters to the Editor
THE COLOUR BAR IN ENGLAND
[To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,—The facts of colour bar which Mr. J. S. Aiman brings to your notice in his letter printed in a recent issue of the Spectator can, unfortunately, be multiplied. During the last year, the Society of Friends in its work for International
Students has given considerable attention to this matter, especially in the Bloomsbury district. After a house to house inquiry they made early last year, they report that :-
" In Bedford Place, out of fifteen lodging houses visited, fourteen refused to take coloured students. The objection in each case was the refusal of the white lodgers to live in the same house with coloured people. In Brunswick Square the same objection was put forward. Here the idea was based on a superiority ' ; an intimation had been passed round the Square requesting the keeping out of coloured people if the reputation of the Square was to be maintained. One landlady said she might consider a light coloured lodger."
The Christian Student Movement, the East and West Friend- ship Committee, and the Indian Students Union and Hostel, which are doing such splendid work for Overseas students, as well as other organizations, can give equally disturbing evidence, and several unpleasant cases of colour bar, affecting Indian friends, have come under my own observation.
Hotel keepers usually deny the existence of a colour bar, though coloured visitors find particular difficulty in finding accommodation. One hotel, however, in the Bloomsbury district, refused last August to allow two (white) American guests to invite a negro friend to dine with them. On pro- testing to the management, and in subsequent correspondence, it is admitted that definite instructions have been given " that no reservations were to be made for ladies and gentlemen of colour."
But my purpose in writing is not only to speak of this evil practice which, as Mr. Aiman rightly says, has an embittering effect on coloured visitors to England, but to speak of a way of overcoming the difficulty. As the result of various meetings and conferences arranged by the Society of Friends, there was formed last month a " Joint Council to Promote Under- standing between White and Coloured People in Great Britain." It is " Joint " by including white and coloured people resident in Great Britain, and is inspired by the success of the " Joint Council " movement in the United States of America and in South Africa.
The purpose of the Joint Council is to make a study of the misunderstandings and difficulties arising from colour preju- dice, and to deal wisely with instances of colour bar as they arise. Further particulars of its aims will be published very shortly, but I am glad of the opportunity of making this preliminary announcement that the " Joint Council " exists, and to invite those who have evidence of colour bar and wish to work with the Council to write to the Secretary, Mr. John P. Fletcher, Friends House, Euston Road, London, N.W. 1.- (Chairman, Executive Committee).
Friends House, Euston Road, London, N.W. 1.
[We extend our cordial good wishes to the Joint Council to promote understanding between white and coloured people in Great Britain. We refer to the subject M a leading article.— En. Spectator.]
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