LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
[Correspondents are requested to keep their letters as brief as is reasonably possible. Signed letters are given a preference over those bearing a pseudonym, and the latter must be accompanied by the name and address of the author, which will be treated as confidential.—Ed. THE SPECTATOR]
THE ADMISSION OF IMMIGRANTS
[To the Editor of THE SPECTATOR] SIR,—When I wrote to you to advocate that alien immigrants to this country should, as a condition of admittance, be made to bear the full brunt of conscription and all other burdens borne by the native-born population—that they should not, through neglect of this, be in practice allowed to become a privileged, exempted community—I expected two objections: (i) that there are very few of them ; (2) that existing regula- tion:; prevent them from competing unfairly.
The first objection has not turned up, but it probably will, and I ask you to allow me to answer it in advance. It is that "the official figure for those classed as refugees is only 19,000" —not " scores of thousands," as I gated.
I spoke of "immigrants," not "refugees." The number of those classed as refugees is a %nail fraction of the immigrants, who number "scores of thousands," and many score, at that. I know the phrase "classed as refugees" which was used in that official statement. I also know of a statement that appeared not long ago in a Prague journal devoted exclusively to emigration affairs: "The British authorities have loyally refused to issue statistics of the immigration."
Loyalty to whom?
Then about those regulations. This is the other automatic tetort. One of your correspondents says: "Home Office regu- lations are almost unassailable, there are no jobs for refugees, if such jobs are likely to prevent British employment."
I do not know how anybody could believe this who walks about London with his eyes open or reads the newspapers. Who decides whether this or that job "prevents British employment "? On what and from what does the prosperous multitude live that can daily be seen in Rotten Row, Hyde Park, Marble Arch, Regent Street, Piccadilly, the Strand and the hotels in these districts and elsewhere?
But, as the phrase "unassailable regulations" has been used, will somebody tell me what regulation fits the case, reported in the News Chronicle ten days ago, of the man who was smuggled into England many years ago and for years, until he was detected, ran a greengrocery business in New- castle which yielded profits of £16 a week, or the other case, reported in the Evening Standard this week, of the pro- fessional pickpocket, with convictions against him in all the big European capitals, who was recently smuggled into Eng- land in a speedboat and, as the Aliens Department official stated, "cannot now be deported again "?
Are such people to stay and prosper in England if and when a new British generation is sent abroad to fight? Such cases have been reported almost daily in our Press for months past.
May I tell Miss Rathbone that I fully share her feelings for and agree with her proposals about the men who have fought against aggression in Spain and elsewhere and now lie in refugee camps. I was not talking about that kind of man at all. So far as he is concerned, there would have been no need for my first letter—he would be among the first in the
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