Gipsies In U.K. Virtual Outlaws

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31540, 30 November 1967, Page 20

Gipsies In U.K. Virtual Outlaws

(N.Z.P. A.-Reuter) LONDON. Far from leading a free romantic life, Gipsies in modern Britain become virtual outlaws. A Government report issued recently says that they are hounded from one district to another and are a despised and isolated minority. Mr Anthony Greenwood, the

Minister of Housing and Local, Government, and Mr Cledwyn Hughes, Minister responsible for Wales, have sent the report to local authorities urging them to set up more official camping sites for the Gipsies. In a foreword to the report the Ministers say that for most Gipsies “there is nowhere they can legally put their home; they are within the law only when moving along the road.” The report says that the traditional feelings towards Gipsies are that they are violent and kidnap children;

that they spoil the countryside by leaving litter; and that they are social parasites, since they do not pay taxes. It describes many of the fears about Gipsies as unfounded and says that they would largely disappear if more camping sites were provided with lavatories and washing facilities. At present most Gipsies are forced to use unauthorised sites and are at the mercy of local authorities who invoke various health and country-planning acts to move them on. « The Gipsy Council, a recently-formed national body affiliated to the Internation Gipsy Committee, has put the Gipsies’ dilemma in their own words: “Sometimes we just stop somewhere in the morning to have breakfast. The police come along and make us move on; they take us to the end of their beat and there is another lot waiting for us, who take us to the end of their beat, and so it goes on until we are run into the next county. “At times like this we cannot make a living; we cannot wash; we cannot get a chance even to cook and eat “This is a hell on earth; the worst kind of police state and not ’at all the sort of fair play Englishmen like to brag about,” The report says that there are never more than 14 sites run by local authorities open at one particular time in England and Wales, for a Gipsy population of at least 15,000.

In the next 20 years, the number of Gipsies will increase to nearly 28,000, and the problem will double in size unless immediate action is taken. The report says that most Gipsies now wish to settle on permanent sites, to provide better education for their children, and to earn a more regular income. Ironically, this would destroy their traditional nomadic life, but the image of the dark-skinned vagrant with his gaily painted horse-drawn caravan is now obsolete. The report found that 93 per cent of the Gipsies have trailer caravans towed behind cars or lorries. Some have even installed television sets. Instead of wood carving and horse dealing, the men now make a living by dealing in scrap metal and working on the land. But in spite of these changes, the Gipsies still remain a distinctive community, despising the more regular lives of the settled population and proud of their strange ancestry. The descendants of an ancient Indian tribe which travelled to Europe and North Africa about 1000 years ago, they still speak a Romany language related to Sanskrit. The Gipsy family is a tightjy-knit unit, the report says. Divorce, separation or desertion are rare. Children are cherished and old people respected. Very few of them find their way into old people’s homes.