Racism
SIR,—Is the SPECTATOR, like other hien pensant pub- lications, not guilty of inverted McCarthyism when dealing with immigration? Anyone who urges restric- tion is labelled 'racist,' just as advocates of reform of one kind or another in the US were labelled 'Communist.'
The proposal to limit Commonwealth immigra- tion at all was denounced as 'racist' by many bien pensants only a few years ago; some stilt maintain their denunciation, others presumably compromise with what they consider in their heart to be racism. The proposal to extend restriction by making it clear from the start how many people HMG under-
takes to allow into the country when it issues voucher can be discussed on its merits; there is nothing racist about it. Those who argue that all restriction is racist will at least be consistent in their muddleheadedness when they call this racist too, but those who accept the principle of numeri- cal restriction can hardly denounce its logical refinement.
An open-ended commitment to take as many people as a voucher-holder wishes (and it is notoriously difficult to check the veracity of statements for reasons anyone who deals with the problem knows) is a commitment to find them school places, maternity beds, health services, housing and a great many other services which local authorities in the areas most affected cannot adequately supply even to existing inhabitants. Exchequer aid and higher rates help far less than the optimist would suppose. It is the people of the locality—immigrants, in- cluded—whose welfare is being gambled by open- ended commitments the Tory proposal seeks to close. The bien pensant 'liberal indignation' is at their expense. ALFRED SHERMAN
201 Raleigh House, Dolphin Square, London, SW!
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