Letters to the Editor
THE COLOUR BAR [To the Editor of the SPECTATOR.] SIR,— After the letters of Mr. Aiman and Mr. Polak describing the iniquities of colour prejudice in Great Britain, it may interest you and your readers (I venture to think) to hear of an Indian who, during the course of two years and four months as a student in this country, has received nothing but courtesy and friendliness, not to say hospitality, at the hands of the natives—a delightful contrast indeed to the usual 'lido-British relations in India and on board British steamships. It has been my lot, Sir, to come into close contact chiefly with Church people (Anglican as well as Free Church) who have always welcomed and received me as one of themselves. Their kindness and hospitality, apart from its intrinsic nobility, has further enabled me to gain first-hand knowledge of true British culture and to learn to appreciate, in particular, the beauty of the English Christian home. This would seem to me to give the lie to the assertion, frequently made, that Christians generally arc no better than those who do not profess any particular creed.
But while my own intercourse with the people of the country has thus been " a joy at the time and a gracious memory afterwards," yet not a few of my friends and acquaintances visiting this country have been subjected to the humiliations referred to by your correspondents. It was usually found, at the hotels and boarding-houses where they were refused accommodation, that the " objectors " were white lodgers who had been in the East and " had seen the native in his den."—I am, Sir, &c.,
Si. Augustine's College, Canterbury. D. CIIELLAPPA.
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