MIGRATION TO BRITAIN

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27501, 8 November 1954, Page 11

MIGRATION TO BRITAIN

Concern Over Influx From West Indies

(Rec. 8 p.m.) LONDON, Oct. 6. Britain might be forced to control the immigration of British subjects, Mr Henry Hopkinson, Minister of State for Colonial Affairs, told the House of Commons yesterday. Control, if introduced, would affect “not only the colonies, but also the Commonwealth,” he said.

Mr Hopkinson was replying to a debate in which a Labour member of Parliament, Mr John Hynd, urged control of immigration from the West Indies and other British colonies. Mr Hynd said that West Indians were arriving in Britain at the rate of 12,000 a year. Mr Hopkinson said that the influx from the West Indies had caused concern in many quarters. As the law stood any British subject or protected person could enter Britain at any time. Britain was proud that a man who was British could freely enter what he regarded as his mother country. That was something the Government could not alter lightly. The Government was giving the nroblems arising from the immigration of coloured people careful attention, he said. Mr Hopkinson said that 8000 Jamaicans had come to Britain in the last nine or 10 months compared with 3000 for 1953. He said the most important social problem was the shortage of suitable housing arising from the large number of newcomers aggregating in substandard houses in congested conditions. . Mr Hynd had asserted that many immigrants were being exploited, not only by British people, but by their own nationals, who bought up slum property and then sent the tenants to get assistance from the public authorities to help pay the rent