26 FEBRUARY 1965, Page 15

Immigration

SIR.—There are respectable and humane grounds to be urged in defence of immigration.

The one ground that seems to me deplorable is that used by Quoodle, seeking to remind us how much we gain from the work they do for us which we are not prepared to do ourselves—all those bus- conductors and nurses. This is the same argument the American slave-owners used to use. (How other- wise are we to keep the cotton plantations going?)

Economists who are not agreed on much are agreed on this— that cheap labour is the enemy of progress. Sociologists--who are also not agreed on much—are agreed that an immigrant people doing the jobs Europeans' won't do create a running social sore.

House of CoMmons, SW I

EVELYN KING