Sir: Although one may deplore the emotive language of Mr
Powell's speech one can accept that in intention it was realist rather than racialist. Let us hope that at least it has exposed the myth of integration. The more starry-eyed of our idealists speak and act as though this was a possibility for tomorrow, needing only a con- certed effort of good will. The whole tale of human experience is against them. After hundreds of years can anyone speak of inte- gration between Greek and Turk in Cyprus, or Fleming and Walloon in Belgium? Nearer home can we consider the Irish in Liverpool and Glasgow or the Jews in East London as fully integrated? These are just a. few of the instances which could be cited and in each case they concern populations whose racial and cultural backgrounds are vastly more closely related than those of coloured and white. Inte- gration may eventually come but it will take generations, perhaps centuries, not years or decades.
In the meantime we have got to find a solution which is humane and yet does not burke the issues. It is perhaps pertinent to note that the Black Power conference in Newark last year demanded for their people not integration but a policy which can only be described as apartheid. This to many people is a dirty word.11t is, how- ever, arguable that its ill repute is due to details of its application, or mis-application, • rather than to its intention. There is a real danger that in chasing the will-o'-the-wisp of unison we may destroy all chance of harmony and end up with cacophony.
T. A. A. Hunter Marlborough College, Wiltshire
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