Bitter reaction to British immigration rules

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33063, 2 November 1972, Page 3

Bitter reaction to British immigration rules

(N.Z.P.A. Staff Correspondent) LONDON, November 1. The new rules for controlling immigration, which to all intents and purposes will place Commonwealth citizens wishing to settle permanently in Britain on the same basis as aliens, are provoking a bitter reaction from many people in Britain.

New Zealand House has received a number of letters since the rules were published on Tuesday last week, expressing “disgust” and “bitterness” over the way New Zealanders are being treated.

Also, the national newspaper, the “Daily Express,” yesterday morning ran a selection of letters from readers over an article entitled “Testament of Love for Britain,” written by Kevin

Sinclair, its New Zealandborn correspondent in Hong Kong. “MOVED TO TEARS” Rarely had the “Daily Express” had such an emotional reader reaction as provoked by Sinclair’s article, said the newspaper. The letters had been coming in the hundreds, many saying that the writers had been moved to tears by the original article, while others had written in anger against the treatment of New Zealanders. “All wrote of the lasting bonds between Britain and the old Commonwealth,” said the “Daily Express.” In his original article, Sinclair said that for millions of British like himself in New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Rhodesia and South Africa, the latest immigration restrictions meant that they were “exiles” from a land they regarded as their own. “We are barred under the monstrous and unjust regulations which lump citizens of the old Commonwealth with aliens,” he said. “POOR SWAP” Under the new regulations, Britain was swapping old Commonwealth citizens for the people of Europe. “On January 1, an Algerian on a French passport will have an unchallenged right to enter England and we will be excluded," he said. “You will also throw the doors of London open to the peasants of Sicily, with their disquieting Mafia customs, to the Germans, who we have helped you defy and defeat twice this century, to the French, and the Dutch and the Belgians and the other members of the new order that is Europe.” Judging by the sample of letters which the “Daily Express” printed yesterday, it is obvious that Sinclair hit an exposed nerve. Mr H. A. Johnson, writing from Stanmore, Middlesex, said he was sure that the vast majority of British people wanted no part in the Common Market or a betrayal of our “true friends” in New Zealand, Australia, Rhodesia and South Africa. WORLD WARS

“Please let Mr Sinclair know how this Government has contemptuously ignored the wishes of the people and betrayed us into the hands of our enemies, who failed in two world wars to do what they have now succeeded in doing,” he said. Mr V. A. Loxes, of Holywell, Flintshire, called the decision to give preference

to Continentals “abhorrent,” and Mr h. H. Brace, of London, said he was “bitterly ashamed, in common with millions of other English people, who are being forced to kick in the teeth our kith and kin who fought for the mother country in two world wars. Democracy has been set at nought.” Mrs A. D. Morgan, of Trowbridge, Wiltshire, said that Sinclair’s article should be framed and hung in every British home to ensure that old ties were not forgotten. Mr H. S. Perry, of Canvey Island, Essex, said he would like Mr Sinclair to know that 99 per cent of the British people agreed with the sentiment expressed in the article. “The other 1 per cent are our rulers, who decide what they think is best for us,” said Mr Perry. DISTINCTION MADE Many of the letters to New Zealand House make a clear distinction between the “old white Commonwealth” and the new Commonwealth countries.

One writer suggested that Britain was finished and that the Royal Family should take up residence in either New

Zealand, Australia, or Canada. Another saw the discrimination against Commonwealth citizens as opposed to E.E.C. citizens as “a gross insult to the Crown.” New Zealand House itself has had “one or two” extra inquiries from New Zealanders since the publication of the new rilles but there has been no rush for information. A New Zealand House spokesman said it was policy to refer most inquirers to the Home Office. TOUGHER CHECKS There have been some reports that immigration officers at ports of entry and airports are examining the entry stamps given Australian and New Zealand holidaymakers more carefully and sometimes only giving permission to stay for six months instead of the usual 12 months. Home Office officials have emphasised, however, that the present situation where New Zealand holidaymakers are usually allowed to stop for two years will not be affected by the new rules. However, this permission to stay might have to be renewed more often.