Colour And Its Problems

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28700, 25 September 1958, Page 3

Colour And Its Problems

Sir, —I have just read your comments on my last letter. Yes, when I said the only difference between black and white is four years, I was indeed referring to the sentence imposed on the white boys, though not in quite the same context as you have inferred. I had in mind that no coloured men have been imprisoned, although a London report of August 24 showed that the recent riots began when a coloured man punched a white woman in the back, that in the ensuing melee a pregnant woman was kicked in the stomach, that Jamaicans drove a car at the crowd, and that eight white men were removed to hospital, including a policeman knocked down by the car. As you say, crime is crime, no matter what the colour of the victims; and I say punishment should be fairly meted out, no matter what the colour of the “blickguards.”—Yours, etc., COLOURBLIND. September 23, 1958.

Sir, —There are one or two points in the Rev. Trevor Huddleston’s article on race riots in England that should not pass unchallenged. Nobody will impugn Father Huddleston’s sincerity of courage in his campaign against “apartheid”; but when he alleges that recent happenings in Notting Hill are comparable to apartheid in South Africa or the situation at Little Rock, he is surely overstating his case. After all, several white youths were sentenced, and rightly, to long terms of imprisonment for their participation in the Notting Hill affrays. Furthermore, it is all very well to advocate unrestricted immigration of coloured folk into the United Kingdom, but it is hopelessly unpractical, politics having in view social, economic and other prejudices that, for all the Huddlestons in the world, are likely to subsist for many a long day.—Yours, etc., M.T. September 23, 1958.